Many species will recover if the growth loss is not for too extended a period. In the wild, it's normal for some species to lose access to sufficient food due to season, migrations, disasters, competition, etc. for many weeks or months. In tests, those species rapidly recovered when given the right conditions.
Having said that, I am skeptical that a fish kept whose growth was held back for 1-2 years would ever fully recover if those were the first 1-2 years of it's life. Maybe some one has tested that or has raised a fish that recovered from that, but in the wild, species can indeed be permanently stunted from events that last 1+ years.