flickering light puts tiger barbs into shock?

[Max Action]

Last night I came home and turned on the bright florescent tank light to check on the 11 tiger barbs in there. By the time the it finished flickering on, they were all well-hidden. A few seconds later, they started to emerge ... and all of their black stripes had faded to almost nothing.

Worse, a few minutes observation indicated that they'd gone blind or something, as they did not school at all, and swam into the decorations and tank walls.

Fearing some kind of toxic contamination, I set to work doing a emergency water change ... but by the time I got the Python set up and draining, their color, and their sight, seemed to be returning. Within 10 minutes or so everyone seemed pretty much fine.

This morning I made sure to start the lights slowly, and have it turned up and away from the tank a bit before turning it on. They were still skittish and scared, but did not fade or go blind.

Has anyone else heard of the lights coming on putting fish into shock? Is this because they're new, and they'll get used to it?

Agh!

 

[heresmike]

Was the room dark when you turned on the lights? By turning on the bright lights in a dark room, this could stress them out. You should turn on the room lights first and let them adjust to that first.

 

[Daveo]

I agree with heresmike they might of been shocked
to see those bright lites and I think that they might get better

 

[Mustang5L5]

Mine do it too. They even get scared if i turn out all the lights too quick.

Barbs are prey in the wild. If a dark shadow appears over them, they must run otherwise they might become eaten