Funny how some fish are active at 1st light, and some seem to sleep in…

[Magnum Man]

It doesn’t seem to be individual fish, I notice it by species…. In my South American tank, the Pristella’s just slowly start emerging from their hiding holes between an hour or two after the lights start coming on, the school is active until dark, they just aren’t a morning species here…. Same for the Apisto’s, yet the Rams are active at first light, as are the bulk of the tetras

Same for the Panda Garra’s sleeping in, in my Asian tank…

I wake up by the timer lights, which slowly turn on, and I like to watch my tanks, for a little while, before heading to work, so these are everyday observations… some fish are out swimming, as soon as the lights begin to come on ( 24/7 ) lights so they gradually get brighter, at sun rise, and gradually dimmer at sunset

 

[GaryE]

I wonder if the non GMOed, wild type Pristellas wait til there's enough sun for their silver scales to work as camouflage. Maybe there's a point at which they can see, but know they can be seen? That's pure speculation.

Around here, waves of multicolored glo-pristellas have rolled into stores, and it may result in the 'real' ones that we can see such things with dropping off sales lists. It's happened with other fish. I've been tempted to get some Pristellas and breed them because they're an old favourite, but you can only keep so many fish...

 

[Magnum Man]

I’ve not seen the glo Pristella’s around here, they are predominantly skirt tetras…
Camouflage is a good possibility, age could be as well??? the Pristella’s were tiny when they came, and are probably less that a year old now… the pandas have only been here for a few months, and while growing like weeds, came in at at 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch, so they are still pretty young???

 

[GaryE]

I've never kept pandas and don't know them, except in online info.

The farms have managed to produce red bodied glopristellas and they've shown up in my local megachain store. I have to admit, they are striking. They also have the now boring to look at green, and yellow glo versions, as well as the modified danios and skirts. Pristellas are perfect for destruction like that because they breed so easily, and have silver flanks that don't interfere with how the jellyfish genes show.

There's no winning. I hadn't seen dye injected glassfish in local stores for 15 years, and they showed up again last week in a local store. I asked the manager, whom I know, why he had ordered such a cruel product, and the answer was customer demand. And so, the hypodermics full of dye are still making money at fish farms. At least the jellyfish genes don't hurt the fish, though they may hurt the species.

For people who enjoy watching fish rather than just looking at them, this takes a lot away. What you spotted is something I've seen and never thought about, and when you try to figure out the behaviour, the natural appearance of the fish carries clues. There isn't a huge amount of info in modified fish, and I have seen stores where there were no more natural fish.

 

[Magnum Man]

One of the biggest Pristella’s came out for about 10 minutes, and when the rest didn’t follow, he went back to bed… I have several resin hollow logs mixed in, with natural driftwood, for peace keeping for the dwarf Cichlids I think the Pristella’s go between one of those and a plant… 10 minutes later, and they are all out now, about an hour and half after the lights started coming on…
Pandas in a different tank, but with the lights on the same timeframe aren’t out yet, but the biggest one was out on an almond leaf for a few minutes, about 10 minutes ago, so I expect they’ll be all out soon

 

[GaryE]

I have some of the cool lights that you can set to come on gradually in the morning, and settle in in the evening. I set them them so they take an hour to come on and go off, to mimic dawn and dusk. I'm going to watch how the fish react to that in more detail. My older lights just start in a blaze of glory every morning.

 

[Magnum Man]

Another interesting thing, that happens daily, is the Pristella’s seem to like the right side of the tank, but always sleep on the other side… both have the same structure and flow… the only difference is the side they sleep on, the plants have wider leaves… maybe they feel more secure with the wider leaves ( these plants are realistic plastic plants as hard structures to hide filter tubes and heaters and such )

 

[Magnum Man]

I have been replacing my old lights that were not as bright, and that I turned on in increments, with these new Nicrew 24/7 fully adjustable lights… I have them come up quicker in the morning, so I get to actually see the fish before I leave (over a 2 hour period), but with more reds to begin with, and then go down, at day's end, more slowly, again with more reds at the end to best simulate sun rise and sun set… my other lights were a medium heat white, and not anywhere as bright, so turning them on and off in increments worked ok (most tanks had 4 of those lights, which were only 18 inches long) … I have a black light pretty far from the tanks, on a timer to come on an hour before and after the white lights, that will go away, after I replace the rest of the lights with the fully controlled lights... the new lights are fully the width of the tank, even though they come with wire supports to expand them, I like the actual lighting to go full width of the tanks...

 

[Magnum Man]

One of the times in my day, that I’m allowed to sit and watch my tanks, is in the morning, so I’m often sitting here drinking my caffeine, and watching the lights slowly come on… this give me a short window to observe the fish at 1st light, and was the basis for me starting this thread… to further this, this morning I was watching, and got to witness the newer Apistos waking up… the 3 I have currently, are all spread around the tank, they do not hang together, yet interestingly, they seem to wake and become active, at the same time, and later than lots of their other tank mates… the 2 biggest are on opposite ends of the tank, and almost with the precision, of talking on the phone, came out of their holes at exactly the same time??? The other schooling fish, a lot of them do the same, but expect they hang in the group until the bulk are ready to go out for a swim, but the Apistos, are on opposite sides of the tank???

 

[GaryE]

Once Apistos are adult and settled, they should only share each other's company if they have paired off. Otherwise, they become enemies, or at the very best, frenemies. Is it 1m, 2f, or the reverse?