Harlequin Rasboras Scared?

Bobafish

Bobafish

Star Wars Freak
Mar 6, 2005
119
0
0
37
Ankeny, Iowa
www.freewebs.com
I just got my first fish today! Im so excited! I got 4 harlequin rasboras each about 5/8 of an inch long excluding tail.
But I noticed whenever I would turn on the lights in the tank, the fish would go to the bottom and cower in fear. When I first got them they were schooling and eating just fine. Now whenever I turn on the lights they go to the bottom of the tank.
The tank is cycled and every thing. temp 75-76 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 20
Whenever the lights are off, they swim around just fine. Is there anyway I can view them without spooking them? I have 50 watts of incandescent light, 25 watts of which is blue, so the tank is not evem brightly lit!
any help here would be hot
 
Hi there. My Rasboras are pretty much the same way. You might be using too much light all at once and you may want to try less wattage. I had 16w over a 10 gallon tank. I added more later for a total of 24w, but each light had it's own switch so that I could increase the light a little at a time to make it easier for the fish. I would also turn on the lights in the room first and wait a few minutes for the fish to adjust before turning on the tank lights. I added some plants to give them more places to hide out. Rasboras prefer not having bright light anyway. Even still, doing all those things helped, but they still hid out in the corner when the lights came on, just for not as long, so I know it helped. I also made sure I did not approach the tank fast so as to scare them. Talking to them before I turned the lights on to let them know I was around also helped. As time goes by, they will adjust to being in your tank too and they won't be so skittish.
 
thx, I will try not to scare them, and I guess I did just get them yesterday, so maybe they are just not settled in yet.
I will try and get 2 lower wattage florescent bulbs for about 25-35 watts total, sound good?
 
Before I got into live plants, I still kept a heavily "plastic" planted tank just for this reason (and of course, so it looks nice). I think fish overall go through a little shock when you just turn on or even off the lights. Just my guess as I have no idea how many plants/decorations you have. Regardless... you can never have too many plants (even fake) in your tank.
 
you could go with duck weed which is a very easy to grow plant that covers the top of the water. The fish will also enjoy eating it.
 
Mine get shocked when the lights go on too, often running into the walls. If the lights are on for a while are they ok?
 
No, no matter how long the lights are on, they just stay on the bottom looking scared. I had them on for like 2 hours, and still nothing.
I dont want to scare them too bad, but right now to see them do anything I have to have the lights off.
I have no plants in my tank and I have 5 large rocks forming 2 "Caves" for the fish to hide in but they do not go there.
I dont like fake plants because they look too fake for me. I am researching real plants and will most likely get some ASAP.
 
Bobafish

Usually fish shy of lights when they come on all of a sudden, from a darken situation. I have found that this happens a lot when new fish are introduced to a new tank and enviroment. I have some of my tank lights hooked up to a reostat, and when I turn on the lights I slowly raise the lights on certain tanks very slowly. A lot of my discus tanks are set up this way. Two of the tanks I have containing discus, if the lights are put on full, it will scare the discus to where they try to jump out of the tank, and will bang against the walls and top of the tank. This will help not scare the fish, and acclamate them to the light more like in a natural state.

Mike
 
Thanks for all the info guys, I will probably get some new flourescents in a couple of days, and I will see how they do then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom