For a one-eyed yellowtail rockfish at the Vancouver Aquarium, life in school has been tough. After watching the fish endure constant bullying by its tank-mates, aquarium staff decided to help the outcast fit in … with glass eye implant surgery!

In the wild, sick fish are easy targets for predators ... and though the rockfish could swim well, its missing eye gave it the appearance of being weak. "The reason we do this is because we find that when fish are blind from one eye, and there’s no visible eye, other fish will recognise that and attack them from that side," explains head veterinarian Dr Martin Haulena. "[It's] cosmetic, for sure, but there’s definitely an animal welfare component to putting in the prosthetics."