Behavior of DAY fish at night...

J

JamisonBWolsh

I am what I am. Defender of truth!
Nov 1, 2002
967
1
18
Hawaii
After getting the Miracle Beam nightlight for my fish, I have started to watch their Night behavior. The Nocturnal fish comes out and swims around. Thats good.

Now, I thought at night, the Day fish would sort of "freeze", stop swimming and the tank would be very quiet. However, in the night I noticed a difference. ALL the fish were swimming as if it were daylight and some of them are even SWIMMING MORE! Is this Natural for them or did I add too much light to the tank? I am only using 2 LEDS (night lights).

I have had this tank for a year and never paid attention to it once I turned out the lights (went to bed). When I was growing up and living with my parents, I never really shown much interest in the tank at night (I did the typical high schooler stuff).
 
Well...I did watch them when I turned the lights out and they were active. When I woke up the next morning, they were still active..

Some of them like the Dist. affinis (tetra relatives) are even MORE active during the night.
 
My tanks take a while to settle down after the lights out. I have a mag-light with a red lens that I use. They don't even notice it.

I'm not familiar with the Miracle beam night lights. What kind of light do they put off?
 
When I turn my lights off, it takes a while for my fish to settle down. When I turn my lights back on, its a different story. It all depends on how long the lights were off. If they were off for a shorter period of time, the fish will seem groggy and take 5-10 minutes to wake up. On the other hand, if the lights were on for a longer period of time, the fish will be awake and lively before the lights are on...
 
A few of the fish that you would think of as mainly diurnal fish are really much more active at night. Here's a neat little experiment: turn off ALL the lights in the room and in the tank, and shine a flashlight into the tank. If your fish's eyes glow, you've got a fish suited to nocturnal activity. If they don't, they're a daytime swimmer.

I don't think most fish actually just freeze in place at night. Most fish take a while to settle into a comfortable spot in the tank (usually in some kind of cover), or else just swim about sluggishly, kind of "sleepswimming".

I'm never home (and awake) during daylight hours in my home, so my fish get their "sunlight" at odd hours anyhow. Your experience may vary. I have always had mainly night-fish in my tanks because I'm always home in the late night...

EDIT: Jamison, I'm sure a mod would be happy to delete the mistake thread for you...
 
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My tanks too take a while to settle down right after I shut the light. The most active "night fish" in my tank that takes on a whole different personality is my glass cat fish. He is a swimming maniac when the lights are out.
 
All I've noticed when I turn my tank lights Back On in the morning, is that my parrots will be floating vertically in a plant, practically upside down and pretty much stay that way for about 5 minutes til they wake up! They're funny to watch. Very nerve racking when you first come across these guys nose down. Ya think they're dead, but that's just how they sleep for some reason.
My barbs go completely white at nite....all their black bars disappear....After a while, their color comes back and all is normalsville again! ;)

Beth
 
I had a fish that would go nose-down into a plant to sleep a long time ago...while he was sleeping one night, a very EVIL chinese suckerfish got on his back and sucked a sore there...he died shortly thereafter....

Such is life....

Most of my fish get behind plants or just kind of "hang" there in one relative spot to sleep. I've noticed that they don't sleep for very long, just a little while at a time instead of the whole time the lights are off...
 
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