Blue Light Blues

[gwand]

Something to consider.

Study shows artificial light at night changes the behavior of fish, even into the next generation

Scientists have shown that light pollution—especially light in the blue spectrum—can alter the behavior of fish after only a few nights, and have knock-on effects for their offspring. The team from China has studied how female zebrafish responded after being exposed to artificial light at night...

phys.org

 

[Magnum Man]

I didn't read the whole thing, but got the impression that there was no actual darkness, just blue light at night???

I use blue lights, as my main lights go down, to trigger "evening", & those lights are used in conjunction with my lit back grounds... blue lights stay on for less than an hour, then just the lit backgrounds for another hour, then total darkness for 4-5 hours, before sun rise begins... & this seems to be working well for the fish

I'd be curious if they found the blue spectrum more disruptive than red ( for example ) or if the study, actually shows an issue with lack of darkness enough to trigger sleep in the fish...

interestingly, I occasionally wake before my tank light schedule begins, & I've posted on my Tin Foil barbs didn't appear to sleep, they are in continual movement in the dark... one morning I observed them, as the 1st lights began coming on, & there is a moment that looks like confusion, as the lights 1st come on, like they are waking up ( becoming more conscious ) I assumed they sleep, but not all of their systems shut down like most animals, when they sleep

 

[gwand]

I end my tank days with blue light too. I have never noticed agitation or stress like behavior. But I don’t have a good metric to judge accurately.

 

[Colin_T]

Blue light only occurs during the day and should not be used on aquariums or any animals, birds, reptiles or amphibians at night. Blue light at night screws up people too.

In the morning when the sun is coming up the light is mostly yellow. Shortly after sunrise there is more red light. By about 9am (3 hours after sunrise) blue light is starting to appear along with ultraviolet (uv).

In the afternoon (around 5pm) the blue and uv light is mostly gone and red and yellow are dominant. As the sun starts to set the red goes and then we get the typical yellow sunset.

There is no blue light in the morning, evening or at night and just because lighting companies sell light units with blue moonlights, doesn't mean they are correct. We need to give our pets and ourselves normal light that relates to what we would get if we were outside. Yellow light first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Blue and uv light during the middle of the day. And darkness at night so we can sleep properly.