Riddle me this: can a flame angel play dead?

[MikeG]

Saturday I stopped by my parents home where my tank still resides (until I can purchase a new one, read larger , for my new home). Anyway I looked inside to see my flame angle of close to three years upside down on the sand. He also exhibited other "signs" of being dead: arched back, mouth agape, gills not moving.

So I made the necessary arrangements to try to fish him out. First I moved him with a pole towards the front of the tank as my tank is 30" deep and he was positioned in the back behind some rocks. On the second "positioning," he twitched and made some feeble attempts at swimming, albeit upside down along with rapid breathing.

So I think, "hey looks like he is past the recovery phase and is doomed," but decide to leave him and attend to some other matter on the opposite side of the tank. I left him leaning, now upright, against a coral base.

Less than three minutes later he's gone! He is now swimming in the rock work as if nothing happened! He did not eat that day, but resumed normal feeding the next.

Sorry about the long read, but what do you guys think? No new tank mates since the CBB 2 years ago. The only other fish is a PBT.

Thanks

[zemuron114]

Dont know but IME if a fish looks to be dead and then comes back to "normal behavior" it isn't to long before it is atually dead. Something is wrong if it acting funny (playing dead is acting funny to me )

What do you feed it?

[sunfish11]

Sounds like narcolepsy! LOL. I don't know, but I would keep my eye on him.

[MikeG]

Sorry for the tardy responses.

I feed all my fish a mixture of brine, mysis, squid, and blood worms. I purchase them separately, defrost them together in a bowl, add vitamins, and refreeze in small cubes. Nori for the PBT as well; never seen the flame eat it though.

Three days later and no outward signs of the incident. I agree, it is an ominous sign...

[BigBadBlenny]

my eibli did this for a few days after i got my first tunze 6000. he would flip onto his back and just sit on the sand, and swim all gimpy. i kinda think he liked the flow heh. he is still living and this happened just after new years

[MikeG]

Thanks BBB.

I've had the flame and the Tunze 6100 for more than two years -- no problems before. I had thought that it mgiht have been stray voltage, but none of the other fish were affected.

Oh well, who knows... I glad he is doing fine now at least.

[Michelle L]

I saw a yellow tang do this once in the LFS. It looked fine and was swimming normally until an employee attempted to catch it and bag it for a customer. The fish went into shock and so help me, it looked dead in the bag.

They put it back and several minutes later it revived and began swimming around...it looked a little loopy but I think it recovered. It laid in the bottom of the tank for probably a good 10 minutes before it started waking up, though.