# What do fish do at night?



## sq33qs (Jul 12, 2010)

I know this may be a simple and dull question, but i'd rather ask than not.

Do fish " rest" at night or what are they up to, anything that they don't do during the day?
I know my pleco is actually a nocturnal fish, but besides that i'm in the dark about what fish do at night. 

Can anyone shed some light on the matter for me? ( sorry, once i got started with the puns...)

sq33qs


----------



## Erotik (Jul 11, 2010)

sq33qs said:


> I know this may be a simple and dull question, but i'd rather ask than not.
> 
> Do fish " rest" at night or what are they up to, anything that they don't do during the day?
> I know my pleco is actually a nocturnal fish, but besides that i'm in the dark about what fish do at night.
> ...


They sleep.


----------



## FishMatt (May 12, 2010)

I'm going to watch this thread closely cause I kinda want to know too lol. Hmmm....... and the pleco nocturnal Some are some not. My two types move all day most of the night and then take breaks lol well I'm not up at 2am to find out lol Just been watching my catfishes


----------



## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

Erotik said:


> They sleep.


Oh, then how do you explain all the tiny beer cans lying around the tank in the morning...  :chair:


----------



## Peeps (May 24, 2010)

The do sleep. They stay still. But cichlids usually lay down in a corner or something.


----------



## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

toddnbecka said:


> Oh, then how do you explain all the tiny beer cans lying around the tank in the morning...  :chair:


if you wake up to find only beer cans on the bottom of your tank then you are lucky. Its like flippen mardi gras in my tank every night haha but seriously one day i walked into my work to find to gold banded loaches laying on their sides one directly on top of the other it was AWESOME!


----------



## petlovingfreak (May 8, 2009)

It depends on the fish, my eels are out and about during the night, searching for food, even though they ate a ton of food just hours prior. But most hang back to their usual spot to rest and relax, my clarkii clown chills in his carpet anemone, and others find their nooks in the live rock.


----------



## sq33qs (Jul 12, 2010)

Hehe, good answers, still, I hear livebearers are more likely to drop their fry at night?
Any specific reason for this? Maybe it's more comfortable for them?


----------



## tyger_eyes (Mar 11, 2010)

i've noticed some fish change their colors drastically at night. in my SW tank the yellow goby turns ghost white and lays in a corned, scared me when i first got him. in one of my FW tanks the african butterfly turns from green and black to much more pale but still active.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

My sunfish sleep at night, they get really still and sit down near the bottom,
my kuhlis race around their tank
I don't think I've ever seen a guppy sleep 
and my ghost shrimp are more active

and as for the spawning at night thing, I would say from experience that there could be something to that as both my ghost shrimp and my guppies chose to give birth late at night. Perhapse it has something to do with them feeling safer due to the darkness.


----------



## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

Discus have a tendency to plot my death while I'm asleep at night. I can tell, by the way they look at me when I walk by their tank.


----------



## sq33qs (Jul 12, 2010)

Toshogu said:


> Discus have a tendency to plot my death while I'm asleep at night. I can tell, by the way they look at me when I walk by their tank.



Hahaha, i know what you mean.


----------



## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

If they kill you, no one will feed them. It's the blasted snails raiding the refrigerator that worry me though. If the fish convince the snails to bring some leftovers back for them our days are numbered... :twisted: :rip:


----------



## chocolatecrunch (May 21, 2010)

I would try setting up a video camera every night for the next week and see what happens  Hey! that would be a good science project...lol.


----------



## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

Video camera idea might be fun. Course then again it may give you nightmares for the rest of your life. Do you really want to know what they do while you sleep?


----------



## petlovingfreak (May 8, 2009)

I work nights, so on my nights off I am awake and watching my fish, some, like my eels and my marbled cat shark are more active at night, exploring and searching for food, the rest of my fish retreat back to their chosen spot for some rest and relaxation, so when they are up in the morning they can get back to their aggressive territory guarding.


----------



## PuterChickFL (Feb 23, 2010)

my platy perched himself in a plant while "sleeping". scared the heck out of me cause I thought he was dead :lol:


----------



## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I haven't had a chance to watch my puffers yet. My betta floats in his plants. My L15 finally gets moving. My rubberlips move around more int he dark. My danois/barbs/tetras all swim in place (aka sleep on the go). I am not sure if my loaches are more active at night than during the day but if so then they really need to get a bed time because they are little buggars all day long. 

I really want to know why there is a mysterious wet bar in front of my tank every morning with no fish sitting at it. I suspect that they are up to something fishy.


----------



## PostShawn (Dec 22, 2009)

My goldfish mostly all go to the bottom half of the tank and just rest. They kind of keep still sort of just drifting a little bit.


----------



## sakarptitsa (Jan 7, 2010)

My betta rests in his silk plants, and my goldfish floats straight up and down, either at the very top, middle, or bottom.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

webcam. Show the world. Mine mostly sit on the bottom, some lay, the betta sits in floating plants. When my lights are on a timer, they wake up and start moving around before the lights go on. But if I override and turn the lights on in the middle of the night, they either look dead or startle and zip around (i try to avoid this since fish can die from striking the lid).


----------



## Superfly724 (Sep 16, 2007)

My Peacock Cichlids were rather peaceful until I turned the lights off. Because the tank was at the foot of my bed, and there was a light on the other side, I could see their silhouettes dashing around the tank. I would constantly hear thrashing at the top of the water, and I could just see them spinning in circles, comparing mouth sizes, and charging each other. I had to clean the front of the glass every morning because they'd splash and I'd have water marks running down the front of the aquarium. And these are supposedly more peaceful than Mbuna! :lol:


----------



## dan3345 (Jan 27, 2010)

Toshogu said:


> Video camera idea might be fun. Course then again it may give you nightmares for the rest of your life. Do you really want to know what they do while you sleep?


ha ha, this made me laugh, and also slightly fear my peaceful appearing fish. keep your eyes peeled people. they were the first to evolve from cells, they know something o.0


----------



## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

well they can yawn, so ideally the next best option is to sleep. So sleep they do, zzzzzzzzz..........


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

lol thats cute


----------



## sq33qs (Jul 12, 2010)

Ok, since I originally posted, I have been observing my fish closely for the last couple of days, all my fish do what most of the people above have said, but i noticed that specifically my bala shark would really be the one showing that he is either " resting/ sleeping".

When night comes and I switch off the tank light, I still have a low bed-lamp that i can see the fish by. My bala will tend (after 30 mins of semi-darkness) to hover in single place, middle of the tank, but leaning towards one side, and slightly head down, always keeping position and will really seem to be in la-la land aka sleeping, he seems to dream!
Will stay in position for a while then twitch weird and slowly, like watching when a puppy dreams, same effect. ( he's not sick or anything, it's behavior that i noticed at night).
Is it possible that fish might be capable of a state of dreaming of sorts?

To top off, i also noticed my to snails sit together at night by the front of the tank and seems to grin at me when i go to bed...


----------



## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

Mikaila31 said:


> well they can yawn, so ideally the next best option is to sleep. So sleep they do, zzzzzzzzz..........


Kinda offtopic, but there is the cutest snake yawn right at the end of this animal montage from America's Funniest Home Videos. I tried to find just that clip but no go :/
It's literally the last little bit they show at the end. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYaNUirE04M&feature=PlayList&p=481B5D5D1AD044AD&playnext=1&index=23


----------



## Patrico12345 (Aug 3, 2010)

Lol some funny responses! I've also tried watching my fish at night but it's difficult because I can't see them because it's dark (go figure ). But yea I have turned on a small light in the room and I see some of my guppies on the bottom in the gravel and some of them rest on fake wood centerpiece I have. Yet a lot of times I can see tons of activity and movement in the tank at 3:00am when the lights have been off for a long time. Maybe they're all still partying :fish:


----------



## Plecostomus (Jul 31, 2006)

Neon Tetras will actually lose their shiny color when they go to sleep. Some fish you can never tell if they are asleep or not, like hatchetfish and danios since they are always swimming around.


----------



## ThatDude (Jul 10, 2010)

My orange swordtail gets a real dark color and floats. In the case of my prego guppie, she jumps up against the lid in her attempt to escape.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

fish dream? Why not. They are vertebrates like us. nightmares would explain the sudden midnight smacking the lid.


----------



## MsBugg (Aug 2, 2010)

Hahahaha, the responses to this thread makes me giggle. xD


----------



## sq33qs (Jul 12, 2010)

emc7 said:


> fish dream? Why not. They are vertebrates like us. nightmares would explain the sudden midnight smacking the lid.


I agree, why not? Fish have active minds that also needs rest at some point.
I am also of the opinion that fish do in fact feel pain ( but thats a whole other thread) .


----------



## FishMatt (May 12, 2010)

Haha I agree too my fish smack the lid at midnight!


----------



## WINDY (Aug 17, 2010)

Many fish sleep. Even though this is a fish forum, I thought I could add something about this regarding fish sleeping. Sharks like the Great white sharks don't sleep at all. They have to keep moving so that they get oxygen through there gills. But yes fish do sleep well most of them anyway. I say add a pillow and blanket so your fish can sleep more comfy


----------



## sq33qs (Jul 12, 2010)

Agreed, my brothers neon tetras lose their color every night and look very pale, but i guess that is a natural defensive mechanism. I have noticed that my apple snails seem to become much more lively at night.

Ragged tooth sharks also need to keep water flowing over their gills but have been found lying in caves where there are strong currents that allows the shark to be stationary on the sea floor while sleeping. Correct me if it is not the ragged tooth, been a while since i've had to remember my sharks...


----------



## heatran15 (Apr 12, 2010)

They sleep I check once with my light then it took him like 5 seconds to wake up.


----------

