Animals at a Japanese aquarium have gone on a de facto hunger strike after being served cheaper fish.

Both penguins and otters at Japan’s Hakone-en Aquarium have made their stance on the quality of their meals clear n a viral video.

In the clip from ANN News, the king penguins can be seen turning their beaks away from their new menu options with the otters sniffing the fish before running away.

In the last year the price of their favourite fish variety aji (horse mackerel) has increased by 20 to 30 percent, seeing the aquarium which hosts 30,000 animals switch to regular plain old common mackerel (saba).

Aquarium head keeper Hiroki Shimamoto told news outlets: “They take it into their mouths at first, but then they decide they don’t like it and drop it. They sense something is off.”

In an effort to appease the picky penguins the aquarium has started mixing the saba with a small amount of their preferred aji.