We tend to humanize actions in the animal kingdom by processing them emotionally, and while our attempts to understand them may sometimes be mistaken, there are times where all we can do is squeal with adorable awe at what appears to be happening. Hitoshi Takeda in Biratori, Hokkaido has given us a somewhat heartbreaking glimpse at one of those moments with this video of a goldfish helping its struggling friend get food by lifting it up to the surface.

Takeda bought the two goldfish last Summer, but since the beginning of November, the black one either became ill or encountered some type of problem that led to it not being able to swim very well. According to the Hokkaido Shinbun Press, the black fish spent most of its time scraping along the bottom of the tank and didn't seem like it had much gas left in the tank. Takeda recently discovered with this touching video what may have been literally propping the disabled fish up for apparently quite some time.

As the video shows, it appears that the other goldfish helps push the incapacitated black goldfish up to the top so that it can properly receive its food, at times even trailing it like a watchful goldfish guardian. Like many such instances we observe with our pets, skepticism is warranted when it comes to reading into patterns of animal behavior, it's probably safe to say that whether this is a random pattern or something more deliberate, the black goldfish may owe its survival to it. After all, if this were just a one-time occurrence, the struggling goldfish might not still be in Takeda's tank.

http://dd.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/life-topic/life-topic/1-0353168.html notes that after contacting an Aquarium in Hokkaido, that this is not normal goldfish behavior, with a source commenting that "it's like a nurse goldfish."