Sleeping with the fishies

[capncrunch5177]

I have my fish tank in my living room in my apartment. My apartment is rather small so whenever I am at home the lights are on and the fish only sleeps when I have all the lights out..

Question is: Is it OK for the fish to stay up with me until usually 11-12 at night? Or they need their beauty sleep of 8-9 hours??

If they do need that minimum hours of sleep, would it be a good ide to wrap a towel/blanket to keep them in the dark?

 

[FishChick]

They should be fine.  I don't turn my tanks off till I go to bed and that can be 11-12 at night also, or later.  I have some 5-10 year old fish with no problems that I can see from living in the light.  Idealy you would want to find out where all of your fish come from and create the same light conditions that they would have year round in there natural envioment.  I am guessing most of your fish have never seen there home land and have lived in a fish tank there whole life and are used to an extended day.   *twirlysmiley* *twirlysmiley* *twirlysmiley*

 

[colesea]

Some fish do have different lighting requirements. Nocturnal fish such as plecos would require some dark time. Other fish require different photoperiods for breeding.
~~Colesea

 

[ronrca]

On my hospital tank, I dont have a timer so once I forgot to turn off the lights. Talk about having to work overtime, the poor fishies. In the morning when I realized my error, it seemed as if the fish were "dozing". I guess its hard to tell but certainly some dark time is required.

 

[Britfish]

The only other problem you might awnt to have a think about is algae, the more light the more the algae in your tank will thrive, make sure you get some good algae eaters and it should be ok. hth

 

[FishChick]

I have very little algae in my tank that says on the longest there are 2 full sized pleco's in there and one about 8 inches. I do have a lot of people who come in to my work crabing about algae and I have to ask "do you ever turn your fish tank light off ?" I am amazed at how many people do not turn there lights off ever.  It sounds like your tank gets dark time, so you should be fine.

 

[capncrunch5177]

Yeah, I do turn off the tank around 7-8 PM when I get home from work. They still stay active from the light in the living room until I turn that off. I turn on the tank lights when I head for work around 7 AM...

So I figure they get about 12 hours of lights from the tank, 5-6 hours of lights from living room, and 7 hours of darkness.

Thanks to all your help!

By the way, I have a 1 dwarf gourami and 10 neon tetras, and its fun to watch them sleep: The gourami stays near top and behind the plants, and the tetras rest on the bottom on the gravels.  *thumbsupsmiley*

 

[colesea]

That sounds great. But? Don't you want to see your fishies when you're home? Do you have live plants?

I usually follow the reverse you do. When I leave the house or are otherwise not in the same room as my tanks, I turn all the lights off. Ambiant room light is fine for them during the day, and my tanks are pretty dimly lit, enough to see by but not enough to spawn algae issues. Then when I get home, in the evenings, from about 5pm till 11pm, I have their hood lights on so I can see the fishies swimming around while I'm on the computer or in the room. Then I turn their lights off when I go to bed (because even I can't sleep with that much light on).

Hey, as long as the tank works for you, it works for you. Ambiant light usually isn't a problem in fish tanks unless you have that endtable lamp glaring right on your tank 24/7.
~~Colesea