Do Fish Sleep?

[Guest]

This might sound silly, but I never thought about this until I installed moon lights on my 55 gal tank. I was watching my fish, and they were just as active as in the day and I wondered if they ever slept. I know the clown loaches might when they hide in their caves, and the cats just rest on the bottom, but the tetra's and danio's always seem to be on the move. Do fish ever sleep?

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

Yep. Some rest on the bottom; others will just "hang" in the open water like they're frozen in a block of ice.

 

[Alshain]

I have a tank with about 50 quarter inch swordtail fry in it. When I turn on the lights in the morning, they are all on the bottom of the tank. They almost look like they are dead but after about 10 minutes of light, they perk right up.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

i would say that fish more "rest" than sleep... usually when i go to sleep at night, they are just slowing down, and by the morning before work, they are ready for food. If I do however wake up in the middle of the night and glance in, they are still with only small movements to keep balance and upright... i would assume that is their sleeping time

 

[Devilishturtles]

I agree. Different animals sleep in different ways and fish definitely do.

 

[Sesos]

Yeah, I observed my neons last night and they were just kind of floating around in the bottom corner. They almost looked as if they were drunk (maybe they were having a kegger and I wasn't invited!)

 

[hc8719]

my kissing gouramis rest on the gravel and dont move, my neons look drowsy at night, all my diturnal (opposite of nocturnal) fish are asleep but my moonlight gouramis, which is irrating because when i go to feed my bgk bloodworms at night, they're awake picking at the rocks, pushing my bgk aside...

and while we are on the topic, my bgk sleeps on her side during the day

 

[Ferret_Friend]

I know that true sharks don't sleep because they need constant movement to breathe given their larger size as a fish. That's all I know and that's just from one of those discovery channels.

 

[hc8719]

actually they did find a shark sleeping a bit ago, dont know which one it was though

i thought it was interesting

 

[Pinky]

i see my bettas sleep all the time, they like to rest in their plants, it's so cute lol

 

[JustOneMore20]

Yes fish sleep! My 3-spot gourami always hides when I come around the tank, but at night if the lights have been off for awhile and I walk by the tank, he is out and I can get right up to the tank and he won't hide. So I know he had to be sleeping. And it does look like they are drunk. My angels almost float on their sides when they sleep...very funny!

 

[Ferret_Friend]

actually they did find a shark sleeping a bit ago, dont know which one it was though

i thought it was interesting

Nurse shark perhaps? I know they are relatively small and mostly just eat sea urchins.

 

[mobiusnu]

My fish (cichlids and a few tiger barbs) definitely stop moving around. The cichlids go to the bottom of the tank or rest against rock outcroppings, while the tiger barbs sort of "hang" in the water.

 

[collegelife101]

One of my 10 gals has 2 kuhli loaches, 6 zebra danios and 1 oto in it. The loaches are always sleeping under rocks, the oto occasionally sleeps on plant leaves, but I've never seen the zebras stop moving... even at night.