Should fish be in the dark 24/7?

[wesa]

my fish are in a house that i and only i visit once a day. Between visits, the lights are off: room lights and tank lights. Is doing that to my fish bad, or do they need some sort of "day and night"? the reason i don't leave any lights on is simple-lower electricity bill. But if leaving the lights on is best, then i can leave them on.

 

[yhbae]

It should be ok... Is it in a pitch dark room 24 hours a day, or is it located where there is a window?

 

[Angry_Platy]

Could you get a powerpoint timer that your tank light plugs into then set it to come on at certain times through the day? They are cheap and available at hardware stores

 

[den]

Actually a great question. I can see it being bad for plants (duh), but I just started a tank at my office at work. I plan to leave it over weekends (though may look into auto-feeder). I was planning on leaving a lamp on beside the tank friday nite - just in case they wanted to snuggle up and read poetry to each other

But maybe there's no need? Has anybody experimented with leaving fish without light for extended periods? I also want to prove my friend wrong, who states "fish don't need light - that's why they're under water!" (Uhh..maybe deep sea, giant squid,...but I don't thinkso!)

 

[bunjiweb]

A cheap light timer (Digital ones are £9.99 from Maplins) is invaluable in keeping your fish happy. As for feeding this is less important and fish will be MORE than happy being fed once every 2 days.

Ben

 

[clutterydrawer]

all the timers ive ever seen say "not suitable for fluorescent lights"

apparently its safe to ignore this?

 

[Tropjunky]

i dont bother with the lights its all on timmers if i had the money i'd time the water changes as well.

 

[sunflower]

My tank light and airstone pump are both on a timer switch. You can get them as cheap as £3 in Tesco.

 

[SirMinion]

Has anybody experimented with leaving fish without light for extended periods?

Not experimented as such, but I did have a tank with no lights once for about six months. The only light was from the window.

The fish lost all their colour, took to sulking in the corners and eventually started dying.

I spoke to a ventinary friend who explained about the relationship between light and vitamin D synthesis in creature's skins.

Keeping any animal in the dark (except for those who evolved for it) is bad for their health. Get a timer.

 

[chkltcow]

I think the timers say "not for use with flourescents" because they're afraid full voltage won't get through... and it'll screw up the ballasts. If you're that worried about it, you can find a timer intended to control other things like sprinklers, etc.... and that should be safe for you. Otherwise, the cheap light timer should be just fine. I have X-10 modules for lighting and appliances, and the lighting ones warn "not for use with flourescents" because of their dimmer feature.

 

[Dallionz]

I've noticed that when my fish are in the dark, they don't swim around nearly as much. But as soon as I turn their light on, the danios especially start swimming around like crazy and look much happier. The last few months I've only had the lights on about 4 hours a day because of the heat - I couldn't keep the temp in the tank down. Now it's cooling off and I may get to turn the heater on again. LOL

 

[Stryker]

I've got an elcheapo pack of 3 timers from focus diy for around £9.99

They do fine for my lights and air pumps. They are rated at 13 amps, more than enough.

 

[noelberg]

agreed with SirMinion. Light is necessary for so many organisms. While it's obvious for plants, other living things need it for vision or vitamin purposes as SirMinion pointed out. For humans, the sun is actually a good source of vitamin D (in small doses). So unless you have blind cave tetras, I would suggest leaving a light on a couple hours per day.

there was a good thread earlier about how a small or medium sized tank costs only pennies a day to operate .... (sorry i'm lazy at the moment)

HTH

 

[FiShDuHuHuHuHude!]

if its dark dark DARK i know that gold fish will lose there orange shine and also some other fish so mainly

color lose may be a prob turn on a good lite and check there color

 

[shrks1fan]

Fish are meant to have light, tropical fish are obviously from the topics and get light basically half the day. I wouldn't leave my fish without lights unless it was an emergency algae problem, and that would only be for a couple days (I've never had to do that anyway).

My timer didn't say anything about not using with flourescent lights, I don't see how it would affect it since you just plug the lights into the timer and the timer into the plug, I don't understand how it affects the lights <shrug>

Linda