A Crazy Story...looking for some answers.

[BassSoLow]

So, I used to have a 20G nano reef. I unfortunately had to dismantle it and gave away my fish to my LFS. While I was cleaning out that tank, I could not find my purple dottyback, but I saw what looked like part of a dead fish come out of the rocks, so I figured she had passed while hiding in the rocks.

For about two weeks, my tank sat with about an inch of water left in it. I had cleaned everything else out except for the sand bed and that little bit of water. The filter, heaters, protein skimmer, and lights had all been sold off.

I finally decided to finish the job, and much to my surprise saw my purple dottyback swimming around in the water! I have no idea how she survived, but I had to save her.

I then went to the LFS and bought a small tank, filter, lights, etc and placed her in the new tank. She hid for the first week, but then seem to really come to life and was out and about like nothing ever happened. It was a small miracle for sure.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, I noticed she was acting funny. She was getting stuck behind the filter and heater. She was straight up and down. Like she couldn’t get herself horizontal to swim properly. She would come to the top of the tank at times and then just sort of drift down. This was always in the corners of the tank. I’m still not sure what was going on.

After a couple days, she disappeared under the rocks. We could see her, but she wasn’t moving and never came out to eat. I figured that was it. We didn’t see here for about a week and she was in the same spot in the rock not moving, so we turned off the tank.

However, much to my surprise, my wife exclaims the other night, I think I just saw that fish. I’m like, don’t screw with me, but low and behold, she was still alive! The was poking her head out of the rocks and moving around!

So, I cleaned up the tank, got it set up again and I’ve seen her come out a couple times when I put food in, but she isn’t eating and never goes far from the rocks now.

This fish is more lives than a cat!

I’m wondering if anyone has any insight into this behavior or what might be happening with my fish.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Jesterrace]

Very hardy fish. Above all though quit turning off the tank until you have a confirmed corpse (literally the dead body in your net). Some fish literally have Zombie DNA in them and won't die no matter what (My Melanurus Wrasse is the same way) others on the other hand will die if you look at them the wrong way. It's just luck of the draw with how hardy they can be.