# Do fish sleep?



## bpswim90 (Oct 30, 2005)

Do fish sleep? When I wake up in the morning, my fish are almost always sitting quietly near the back, until I come near, when they burst into action (expecting food probably :roll: ) . This usually only happens in the morning.

Thanks!


----------



## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

yes, but not quite the same way we do.


the only animal that doesnt sleep is some frog in africa.


----------



## Georgia Peach (Sep 23, 2005)

My fish do the same thing. Its probably the vibration of you walking towards your tank that wake them!


----------



## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

Of course they do! That's why its best to give them lights out time  Also you should have a light on before you turn on the tank light to prevent them from tweaking out


----------



## Chazwick (Aug 24, 2005)

Yes, Fish go into a sort of hynotic trance thing. I've heard. They don't sleep quite like us. You'll also find that they'll lose a little colour when they're "snoozing"  Once i was positive my neon was dead, until i poked the poor little dude and he swam away so suddenly i nearly had a heart attack! lol!


----------



## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

Yeah they do... with open eyes


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

shev said:


> yes, but not quite the same way we do.
> 
> 
> the only animal that doesnt sleep is some frog in africa.


Not so.
Whales & dolphins don't sleep, either. They don't have autonomic breathing, so they have to make a deliberate effort to breathe every breath, for which they must always be awake.

Does that seem strange? That some intelligent mammal doesn't sleep?
Well, even weirder is the way they get around this problem.
Their brain halves function fully separately from each other. While one half sleeps, the other half runs everything. Then they switch.
How kewl is that?


----------



## Dez (Oct 25, 2005)

i think certain sharks dont sleep either if i can remember correctly as they have 2 keep swimming to stop them from sinking.


----------



## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

Dolphins and sharks still sleep. as you said oldsalt, dolphins just sleep with one side of their brain at a time. sharks need to move in order to move water through their gills and breath, so their spinal cord controls the moving and they dont have to think about it.


----------



## Alin10123 (May 22, 2005)

shev said:


> Dolphins and sharks still sleep. as you said oldsalt, dolphins just sleep with one side of their brain at a time. sharks need to move in order to move water through their gills and breath, so their spinal cord controls the moving and they dont have to think about it.


Hmm... So if yuo are going to train a dolphin you'd have to train him twice? Since if you train him and one brain learns it, the next day when he's using the other half, he will have to relearn it?
hahaha



jk jk


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Actually, yes. That's exactly how it works.


----------



## Georgia Peach (Sep 23, 2005)

interesting.. I never knew that!


----------



## Guest (Nov 21, 2005)

does that mean the dolphin would have two personalities? lol


----------

