This is the moment a hangry fish splashes a baby next to their tank after the tot's dad forgot to feed them.

Footage shows the dad laying his baby down next to the large fish enclosure to rest in their home in Shangqiu, Henan Province, central China, on January 5.

He then gets up, turns the tank's light on, and wanders off while singing.

Suddenly, the creature spurts water out of the aquarium and right onto the baby, who immediately starts crying as his parents rush to console him and carry him out of the shot as the footage ends.

The man believes the fish splashed the child in retaliation for not being fed that morning. He explained that he usually feeds his fish when he wakes up but had forgotten to do so that day.

He said he was having dinner with his family when he put his son down for a rest, and that was when the fish splashed water on him.

The father added that he suspected the fish did this out of 'protest'.