Just sharing a crazy story that occurred today: I ordered a few fish, one of which was a Datnoid, from a vendor on Thursday to be shipped out Friday and arrive Saturday [today]. Well, the vendor did a great job packaging and shipping the box but I guess somewhere in the journey the Datnoid punctured through the three bags holding him with one of his spines. By the time I got the box the package had clear signs of water damage but was mostly dry, meaning the leak from the Datnoid had occurred hours if not half a day before. After sifting through the bottom of the box, i finally found the deflated Datnoid bag with literally nothing but water vapor and the fish inside of it. At first I thought he was dead, since Datnoids are usually so fragile especially in transit and the fact that under normal circumstances, any fish would die from that long of a lack of water. Well, before tossing the bag I noticed the Datnoid was still very limber, not showing any signs of rigor mortis like an organism would after being dead for a few hours. He also looked slightly moist still as well. Out of sheer curiosity and I guess you could say hope, I poked him a couple of times. After about 10 seconds of staring I noticed his mouth actually MOVED slightly. I dont think Ive ever run so fast to my aquarium in my life, I dumped him in immediately and he sank to the bottom. After 15 minutes or so he actually started swimming kind of sideways and I assumed he was done for since, in my experience, any substantial trauma will kill a Datnoid that isnt completely stable. Well, I came back an hour later and he was swimming properly and schooling with my pbass growouts eating the food I put in for them. He's now swimming happily in my growout with his friends and enjoying life. From my educated guess, that fish survived for 4 to 8 hours in a bag void of all but a few drops of water. Im assuming the trapped water vapor that didnt escape the bag kept his gills and body wet enough to keep him alive just long enough. Long story short, Datnoids can actually be some hardy SOB's.
