An aquarium in Japan switched to cheaper fish in an effort to save money but the penguins were not having it.
The decision to save costs has not gone down well with penguins who can be seen in a viral video shaking and moving their heads and beaks away from the employee after they do their best to feed them.
Before the rising prices, the Hakone-en aquarium in South Japan, which is home to 32,000 animals including sharks and seals, used to offer penguins and otters "aji" which is a Japanese horse mackerel.
However, now, the aquarium is at risk of financial problems and has revealed that the price of aji increased by 20% to 30% since last year.
Watch the video below:So to reduce costs management changed from the usual "aji" to a cheaper alternative - a regular mackerel known in Japanese as "saba" back in May.
However, it has not been well received by the animals, with the employees having to get innovative to encourage them to eat the cheap fish - according to CNN, the otters and penguins appear keener to eat the mackerel when mixed with their favorite aji.
While it is harder to get the penguins to eat, the manager, Daiki Shimamoto, announced that the aquarium won't force the birds to eat something they don't want to.
"All of the animals at the aquarium are family and we do our best to keep them healthy," the manager declared. "We would like to have as many people (as possible) come and visit Hakone and enjoy our animals."
Additionally, the facility said that the penguins and otters choose what type of fish they like and the aquarium will try its best to accommodate their preferences.
Unfortunately, the increasing cost of food is not the only problem the aquarium is facing at the moment. The facility is also taking action to save electricity by reducing the number of circulation pumps and lowering the number of times the filter tank is cleaned.
Shimamoto explained: "We could raise the admission fee to the aquarium and fix this issue, but we would like to do our best to keep our facility a comfortable place for our guests to visit. We do not plan on raising admission prices."
