Fish And Barometric Pressure

[B13]

Hi all,

I was having a chat with a 'fishie' pal of mine and she says that the chap at her LFS always suffers with stock dying if there are storms brewing.

I guess it makes some kind of sense because if that rise in barometric pressure causes the pressure inside the tank (which is a glass box with non-movable sides) to also rise, fish would suffer.

I'm just curious about this, so can anyone shed any light on it?

Ta!!

 

[Ashley1991]

surely if it was true people in countrys that have loads of storms would not bother keeping fish as they would all die

but i will watch this topic im interested now

ash

 

[B13]

Well, that's what I was thinking... I mean, we don't see squillions of posts here saying, "Eek!! It's really stormy and all my fish have croaked!!"


I suppose you could argue that seeing as some folks get migraines, etc before storms because of the change in atmospheric pressure - it's entirely possible that other creatures can be affected too.

 

[ajs2294]

I don't believe a change in barometric pressure could kill a fish at all. I live in Tampa Florida the lightning capitol of the world and often get daily thunderstorms in the summer along with the occasional hurricane or tropical storm and have never lost fish for that reason. Now there is a tiny bit of inconclusive research that suggest barometric pressure that's static can cause aggression between species or changing in eating habits but this is move leaned towards the wild. There really isn't anything pressurized differently in a tank as its not truly a closed container, so I'd call the fish deaths a pure coincidence

 

[mark4785]

I watched a dark cloud form over my house about 1 hour ago. It is now raining really heavily and it's accompanied by thunder and lightning. My fish aren't floating as of yet lol..

 

[Ashley1991]

same here just got a storm in sheffield england its a bit of a beast for us

i could not resist but go run outside like a 5 year old

all my fish are ok

ash

 

[Davo86]

I wouldn't say that it could kill fish, but you should see the koi and especially the grass carp at work jump like crazy if we have a thunder storm,

 

[cybergibbons]

Typical atmospheric pressure ranges from 950-1050mb.

Moving from the surface of water to 90cm in depth changes the pressure 100mb as well.

Do you know any fish that can't move from 90cm deep to the surface without dying?

 

[james_fish]

I've just seen plenty of thunder and lightning and possibly the heaviest rain i've seen in 5 years about 2 hours ago. Northwest England, screw the hose pipe ban!

James.

 

[Tolak]

When a storm is coming through barometric pressure is dropping, higher pressures are associated with fair weather. Dropping barometric pressure, cooler water changes and plenty of live foods are some of the environmental changes associated with spawning fish. This is what happens during the rainy season in areas with seasonal changes, imitating these changes as well as planning it with low pressure systems coming through is one of the tricks used when trying to breed fish.

Sounds like a LFS excuse for poor stock or poor animal husbandry to me.