Pale Noses On The Rummy Nosed Tetras

[TCfishies]

do fish sleep?

My fish tank lights are set on a timer so they are on when I wake up. But lately I've been getting up earlier and am up when the lights come on.

The last 2 mornings I've noticed that my little school of 8 rummy nosed tetras have very pale noses first thing in the morning.

I've read all about how they go pale if they are unhappy or if the water quality is bad, but I don't think this is it. I just changed the water and it all tests good. They were bright red the night before and after a few minutes and some breakfast they go bright red again.

Have they been sleeping? Do fish sleep? I think their noses have gone pale while they were asleep!?

Has anyone else noticed this with their rummy noses?

cheers

TC

 

[hanny93]

My neons change colour at night.

If I come in after a night out and look at my tank I notice that the blue stripe turns lilac and the red stripe almost disappears!

 

[TCfishies]

interesting! maybe they are conserving energy?

TC

 

[littlegreentiger]

That's interesting to read. I have a school of 10 Rummy's so I'll pay particular interest in the morning. I usually just feed them and leave for work without really looking so I can't comment today. I guess it's possible that as they rest at night their noses fade and then become bright as they are active and swimming around together enjoying life.

 

[StandbySetting]

It's normal and is actually a form of camouflage, the same is apparent when fish are kept in tanks with dark substrates, the fish will darken in order to blend in, with lighter substrates they'll be paler than normal. The same can be applied to lights on/off.

 

[TCfishies]

It's normal and is actually a form of camouflage, the same is apparently when fish are kept in tanks with dark substrates, the fish will darken in order to blend in, with lighter substrates they'll be paler than normal. The same can be applied to lights on/off.

makes sense i guess.

thanks for your comments!

TC

 

[Caprichoso]

do fish sleep?

My fish tank lights are set on a timer so they are on when I wake up. But lately I've been getting up earlier and am up when the lights come on.

The last 2 mornings I've noticed that my little school of 8 rummy nosed tetras have very pale noses first thing in the morning.

I've read all about how they go pale if they are unhappy or if the water quality is bad, but I don't think this is it. I just changed the water and it all tests good. They were bright red the night before and after a few minutes and some breakfast they go bright red again.

Have they been sleeping? Do fish sleep? I think their noses have gone pale while they were asleep!?

Has anyone else noticed this with their rummy noses?

cheers

TC

They are always pale when you first turn the light on, totally normal. I feel the same way each morning until I get a cup of coffee, wheeee!!

 

[TCfishies]

They are always pale when you first turn the light on, totally normal. I feel the same way each morning until I get a cup of coffee, wheeee!!
[/quote]

Indeed! Glad it seems normal, they do seem very happy otherwise.

cheers

TC

 

[littlegreentiger]

Well well, my Rummy's do indeed appear a little less colourful in the morning. I hadn't noticed before as I tend only to look at them properly later in the day rather than first thing in the morning.

 

[TCfishies]

Well well, my Rummy's do indeed appear a little less colourful in the morning. I hadn't noticed before as I tend only to look at them properly later in the day rather than first thing in the morning.

There you go! Sounds like it's just normal!

TC

 

[littlegreentiger]

Indeed.

One day I will have a huge tank and it's going to be very difficult to resist the temptation to put 100+ of these guys in it.

 

[TCfishies]

Indeed.

One day I will have a huge tank and it's going to be very difficult to resist the temptation to put 100+ of these guys in it.

Why not! Mine don't seem to like to explore much behind the plants, they stick to the front of the tank...are yours like that? My zebra danios zip around everywhere, but the rummy noses are more timid.

 

[littlegreentiger]

I posted the following on the 'Rummy Nose or Blood Fin' thread a couple of days ago.

I have 10 Rummy's and am very happy with them. They generally hang out pretty close together but in the company of only a few tank mates that don't bother them it can be a lose shoal as they appear full of confidence. This has been particularly noticeable since I increased my school from 5 to 10. They now swim in areas of the tank they didn't bother with before (higher up and also towards a corner 'owned' by my Odessa Barbs). They appear to 'play' with the water flow from the filter. I have it angled to bounce off the upper side of the tank rather than directly down into the centre of the tank. There's not much evidence of the flow to the naked eye but my Rummy's seem to enjoy 'riding' the flow one way then swimming back against it and 'riding' the flow again. There are periods that some of them repeat this many times over before moving on to another part of the tank. I've also seen them having a much closer look at the bubbles from the air stones since I increased the school size. And I saw some behaviour I wasn't expecting yesterday. Given their greater confidence now it's not unusual to see one or two drift away from the main group a little. I guess as it's only a 43l tank they feel comfortable that they're never that far from the main group. But yesterday I noticed all 10 were initially swimming around in a loose 'follow the leader' pattern until one wasn't paying attention to the change of direction and got left behind. 3/4 of the 9 broke away from the group to return to 1 that had been left behind (he was just 'sitting' in the mid level looking the wrong way). They swam around him and then back to the group. He did not follow, so again 3/4 (not sure if it was the same ones or not) returned to the 1. I think it was only on the 4th attempt that they managed to get him to follow them back to the main group. It was absolutely fascinating to watch.

With regard to exploring behind the plants - The way my tank is planted they tend to swim in front of the row of plants at the back of the tank, as there's not much room behind, but not exclusively so. I have a couple of pieces of wood with plants on that they like to swim around.

I think the fact that it's a small tank and there's 10 of them and only 4 other fish means that they have plenty of confidence.

If/when I ever get that huge tank I dream of I think I would like it to be predominantly Barb based so I'd probably go for a big group of Cherry's in that case. It would mean that I could have more Rummy's in their tank they're in now though.

 

[TCfishies]

I've only got 8 but they pretty much stick together too.

Nice fish

TC

 

[SchottayB]

I haven't noticed this before, but I did the same! Woke up to check the colour

They were slightly less colour, not a dramatic difference though!