Snow While Albino

[Kephren01]

Can fish be blinded by light? I have a Snow white albino (so said the tag) you can see it here
Pseudotropheus socolofi albino "snow white socolofi" - Cichlid Lovers Picture Page

He is the one that I added to the tank (a couple days ago, b/c the first one died 2 days after I got them), and he is still alive and kicking, and I don't believe he has any nips taken out of him. He seems to do quite well (knock on wood) when the tank light is not on, and when just room lights are on. Then when the tank light goes on, he tends to try and stay out of the way, in a corner somewhere not swimming around until someone comes to nip at him. He almost looks like he swims into plants and stuff like he can't see them.

Could he have a problem with the bright light from the hood light?

lmk if you guys have any ideas.
thanks *thumbsups

 

[Kephren01]

so the tank light was off, and I just had the room light on and the albino seemed to be doing well. I went to eat dinner, and I thought the tank light was off... but apparently the timer switched it on... when I came down, he was swimming in a vertical position behind the heater in the corner.

I turned the lights back off in hopes that he will come out, but I guess we'll see.

 

[straitjacket]

Albinos are notoriously sensitive to bright lights. For this, when keeping them singly or mixing albino fish with any normally colored fish without the sensitive eyes anyone should take consideration and dim the lighting.
I did notice that while I had my mix of albinos (P. socolofi, M. greshakei, M. auratus) with some normals they were usually slimmer than the other fish and as a result, grew slower. Reason being, at feeding time the food might have been harder to see. I had bright lighting for the purpose of growing a thick carpet of algae over the rockwork to provide a natural feeding source for these cichlids but gave out to the sensitivity of the albino fish's eyes. I didn't want them to ultimately go completely blind, opting insted to use a single bulbed fixture smaller than the length of the tank (30" bulb over a 48" tank).
This evened them up. The albinos were no longer quite as shy, ate more, became more robust and some eventually topped out as some of the more dominant fish in the tank.
So in short, yes - certain lighting can have an adverse effect on the eyes of an albino fish.

 

[Kephren01]

baaaaaah! I was hoping someone wouldn't say that... Well I mean it's a good thing, b/c it means there is no problem, but now I just have to fix my lighting. I did notice that later that evening after the lights had been dimmed for a while that he (the albino) started swimming around a lot more.

If i just leave the tank dimly lit when the light is on, would that bother any of the other cichlids?

Lighting as it stands now: It's pitch black all the time untill, around 5:00pm the room light goes on, around 6pm the tank light would usually go on, now I put on a florecent lamp indirectly lighting the tank. Then depending on when I go to bed, 11pm-12midnight I turn a 25W red light on directly in the top corner of the tank and at around 12midnight the florecent light goes off, so they only have the red light from 12midnight till 4am. then dark again from 4am to 5pm.

what do you think?
ps. I like your "i hate you" icon

 

[straitjacket]

The other cichlids wouldn't mind the dimmer lighting.
So long as the lighting is dim without causing you inability to actually see what's going on in there and the albino fish is out and about then you should have no problem lighting the tank for the usual 10-12 hours a day.

P.S. Thanks! Some people don't find it quite as humorous as I do.

 

[Kephren01]

We'll its been a few days now, I have been keeping the lighting indirect, and therefore dimmer. My albino seems to be doing very well, and the other fish don't seem to be affected in any way. Actually, my Rafael seems to come out more often now.

I haven't experimented with any new direct lighting approaches yet. I was thinking of maybe using only 1 light in the hood instead of the two. Or maybe a lower wattage bulb. I don't know much about color lights if that would make a difference. Anyone have any suggestions on what would be good to try?