Mandarin acting weird... sleep swimming?

[seafansar]

I have a green mandarin in my 125 gallon tank. She was really skinny when I put her in there, but has been looking better after feeding on the numerous pods in the tank. She's still not as fat as my spotted mandarin in my other tank, which worries me a bit. She's been in the 125 for about two weeks now.
Every once in a while I spot her with a flash light at night swimming at the top of the water. The first time I saw her doing this, she was acting very weak and even getting suck to the power heads and over flow boxes. I can easily catch her and I try and push her down to the bottom of the tank, but she immediately floats back up to the top. She looks off color at night too, but during the day she looks fine and is constantly hunting.
My spotted mandarin doesn't do this, but are greens known for this? She looked starved when I got her. Could that have done some physical damage to her?
She doesn't do this every night, but I'm afraid she's going to end up in the over flow one of these nights. Any one else with this experience? Sleep swimming maybe?

This is her last night bumming into the overflow box.

 

[Packersfan21]

Maybe something wrong w/ it's swim bladder? Just a guess.

 

[BangkokMatt]

I f the fish is failing to put on any weight yet has a healthy pod supply and is swimming in that fashion I would say that it has bee cyanide caught. If I am correct there is not much you can do about it. It is unlikely that it will survive.

 

[Chibils]

Maybe a parasite? I don't know that it would explain the swimming, but the strange behavior and way she doesn't gain much weight. Also, oxygen exposure causes serious brain damage iirc. Another thing to take into consideration is collection method: cyanide? I remember reading something about mandarins and cyanide, but I can't remember exactly what.

 

[LisaD]

I haven't seen that behavior in mandarins before, but you say you've just had her two weeks, she has gained some weight (though not a lot) and acts normal in the day, with this strange swimming at night only... That's really strange. Keep us updated. I hope she makes it.

 

[seafansar]

I'll keep everyone posted. She seems fine during the day, so I don't know what's up. She definitely has been gaining weight, but I'd like to see her more plump. If she has internal parasites, how do I go about treating that? She was in a quarantine tank (that had a few pods) for a few days. I did this with the spotted. The spotted started eating frozen foods, but the green never did. So how would I treat for parasites if all she'll eat is live pods?

My talbot damsel did something similar a while back. I think I accidentally woke him up by turning on a light. He started swimming into a shell not going anywhere. I freaked out and actually picked him up! He's a fast, shy fish, so I knew something was up. The next day and ever since then he's been fine.
I wouldn't worry so much if the mandarin only did the night time swimming once, but I've seen her do this about 4 or 5 times already.

 

[seafansar]

Well I haven't seen any more sleep swimming. She doesn't look skinny any more. I don't know why she was swimming around at night, but she's seems healthy now.