How does my fish stay alive with no food?

Question

I have had a tetra fish for about five years. They are only supposed to live for a few years. My family evacuated during hurricane katrina and the fish was left home for months with no food. We had eleven other fish and all the others died. The tetra was probably fed 2 months after the storm, and then about once a month for 4 more months. Now it is fed daily. Why is it not dead?

Oh PS i think you should know that it spazzes out when people get near its bowl. Some mental or freak issue. He/she starts bouncing around everywhere and whacks into the sides of the bowl

Answer 1

The fish probably ate off fecal matter, algae, and old rotted food at the bottom. then after he did this he most likely ate off the dead fish. that's why hes still alive.

Answer 2

all my fish died then i got neon tetras and not one has died yet. i fed tehm every day but i do have a cleaner fish that ahs not died but other than the tetras and the cleaner all my other fish dies. maybe the tetras just have more of a will to live!!!":

Answer 3

He must have a hearty digestive system & can live off of the fecal matter, the dead fish bodies, the algae, etc.

There are actually lots of fish that can survive like this.

That is what they do in the wild.

Answer 4

mightve been bugs

Answer 5

maybe ate the dead fishes bodies?

Answer 6

WOW!!!  That sounds like one of those amazing stories.

Answer 7

Your fish probably eats the bacteria in your tank to live. Or he eats the half disintegrated fish food left over in the bottom of the tank.

Answer 8

Maybe a secret stash of food he kept hidden.

Answer 9

it ate its own c**p

Answer 10

is there any allegi (green suff at the sides or bottem or on stuff) beacouse my fish eat that so he/she probaly survived off that stuff

Answer 11

The fact that it spazzes out could be the fact that there are high nitrate or nitrite levels in the water, particularly if the fish lives in an unfiltered bowl. High nitrate/nitrite levels causes stress, so that could explain why they freak out. Also, being an old fish, it may be more sensitive to changing chemical levels which could have occurred in the time when it was alone.

They probably suvived on debris in the tank and parts of the other fish.