Do Fish Sleep?

[Hawkins]

I added some new fish yesterday, and to cut down on algae I decided to turn my light off at 7pm instead of 10pm. When I went to bed at 10pm, I turned the light on and the fish looked bad, my Rummy Noses had pale heads, and they were generally LYING on the floor of the tank. They were very dosile when I put the net in.

After about 5 mins they were swimming normallier.

I woke up this morning and they were fine! and have been all day.

Just wondered if fish really do sleep.. ?

 

[MHunt]

Fish do have sleepy periods of inactivity, so yes, i would say they do. My guppies often rest on the bottom of the tank at night.

 

[Hawkins]

Oh right ok thanks. I was worried they were ill

 

[Faythee]

I have seen Gouramis do that as well. My Severum rests his body in a plastic Hairgrasss plant...scared the heck out of me the first time I seen it !

 

[Mikaila31]

thats normal at night. My fish also do that if I forget to turn the lights off. If its 2-3 hours pass the normal lights out time they become very inactive and act like the lights are off.

 

[J1mbo]

thats normal at night. My fish also do that if I forget to turn the lights off. If its 2-3 hours pass the normal lights out time they become very inactive and act like the lights are off.

Invest in a timer

 

[pinkdolphin_113]

a prime example of a sleeping fish would black ghost knife fish lol they spend most of their time lounging around being inactive!

off topic - Mikaila, i have to ask... what the heck is that fish in your avatar?? lol it's been buggin me for ages now!

 

[Faythee]

a prime example of a sleeping fish would black ghost knife fish lol they spend most of their time lounging around being inactive!

off topic - Mikaila, i have to ask... what the heck is that fish in your avatar?? lol it's been buggin me for ages now!

Everytime I see the avatar I think it looks like a sock puppet, LOL, but I suppose it is one of the Eels !

 

[Mikaila31]

I have timers on all my tanks, its just that I haven't plugged anything into them

pinkdolphin- its a caecilian(t. natans). Not a fish at all but an amphibian, that one is yawning. They are fun to keep, get quite large but normally won't touch the smallest of fish. You just have to make sure they stay in the tank and don't go off exploring on their own .

 

[jwddboy]

Know what you mean about the sock-puppet!

To be honest I think we overlook the lazy Clown loach!

If you look into an aquarium at night that has angel fish or other tall fish you often see them slightly tipped over on one side. They also do not respond for a while when you "wake them up" and slowly become more alert. This is why it is not a good idea to feed a tank whilst the fish are asleep unless you specifically want to feed fish that come out at night. The "sleeping" fish will not even register thet the food is in there a lot of the time!

 

[ALEXF]

i have occasionally peeked in on my tank at night and found fish to be sitting on the ground so i would say yes they do.

 

[Hawkins]

I thought they were dying because it looked as though they had lost control of their bodies.

Probably just trying to scare me

 

[beany_bot]

Yeah i sometimes watch my fish at night and they do sleep, appart from my corys, they gold WILD at night, i get up in the morning and sand is always full of dimples looks like a golf ball then by 10am its flat again, same everynight.