For the past 3 years I’ve have a small (30 gallon) saltwater tank at work by my desk.

One of the first fish I bought for it was a blue tang, or “Darcy” as every visitor under the age of 12 calls it.

A few weeks after I got it it contracted Hole In Head Disease, a fish disease that is almost always fatal. I tried all the speculated remedies (the cause is unknown and therefore so is a cure), and eventually the fish died.

I scooped its body from the tank, put it in a cup, and started walking to the restroom to flush it. But halfway down the hall the unexpected happened… the fish started flopping in the cup.

I dashed back to my desk and poured a small amount of aquarium water into the cup. I then poured in the entire contents of every bottle of every medication I had and swished the fish around in it for about 20 seconds. Effectively, I was giving the fish a massive dose of chemo. I then removed the fish from the cup and put it back in the tank.

Amazingly, the chemo bath seemed to cure the fish. While the head wound would continue to spread for several weeks, the bone damage healed and the fish quickly came to a full recovery.

But there was one strange side effect.

Either the fish’s skin never grew back, or it grew back with a complete lack of pigment. As a result, the skull, jawbone, and facial musculature are all now clearly visible.

The fish does not seem to be in any distress and appears perfectly normal other than this feature. It’s been nearly 3 years since the day I prematurely pronounced it dead, and it’s still going strong — albeit without a face.