Seasons change

[Back in the fold]

soon enough will have to acclimate my fish to a new feeding schedule, thanks to the spring forward, fall back crap.

Your fish don’t tell time like we humans do . Nothing changes for them. Stick to your schedule and disregard the clock in this case .

 

[GaryE]

Your fish don’t tell time like we humans do . Nothing changes for them. Stick to your schedule and disregard the clock in this case .

Ah, but they do tell time. The ones from the tropics don't respond to photo-period, lighting like temperate fish do, but it doesn't matter what you do in terms of artificial lighting - they seem to know when the rains come in their homeland, and they react. Some fish will only breed in certain months, even in windowless fishrooms.
If I collect plants in August, they die in October. If I collect them in the same places in June/July, they never die back. I have endless Springtime Vallisneria americana that that grown and spread for years now, but if I go in my kayak today and grab some that has been exposed to the shrinking sunlight, they will go from looking great to dead in 6 weeks.
They perceive the outside world. I had a burst of species breeding after the hurricane that swept through, as soon as I did a water change. They are keyed in.
My relatives can't tell time, as I'm reminded every time I invite them over. My fish? They get it.

 

[Back in the fold]

@GaryE I didn’t mean it like that . Everybody (I hope) knows what you said , I just meant that hour difference ain’t diddly . I don’t change my timer on my light , I let it ride . I feed during daylight hours so nothing changes but I suppose somebody working a full time job might have to fine tune their schedule a bit . But , and this is a big but , what you said about the flurry of activity around about hurricane time caught my attention . I have seen my fish react to outside weather changes . Rain and atmospheric barometric pressure changes and moon phases - they are in tune with that . I’m retired and spend a lot of time watching my fish so I have seen this with my own two eyes .

 

[gwand]

Fish and mammals have clock genes in the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the CNS that regulate such behavior. The genes are only partially influenced by the photo period. The genes are also regulated endogenously which explains some fixed circadian behaviors not regulated by the photoperiod.