Lighting for bettas?

[dancersmama79]

Ive recently noticed that my betta is more active with his light off than on... are bettas more sensitive to some lights than others? i noticed he was sitting on the bottom behind his plants alot after his water change and thought it was his temp cause it had dropped from 80 to 78 once it came back to 80 to 82 he was still not active with the light on unless i was at his tank... I turned the light off and he started swimming all around and investigating evrything.... the light i have in it is the CFL incandescent bulb that came with the tank when i bought it....

 

[KaylNeko]

A lot of them prefer lower light. Best bet is find a floating plant--hornwort, dwarf water lettuce, water sprite, duckweed, frogbit--and give him a handful or two to hang out under if he wants out of the light.

 

[dancersmama79]

is there a lower watt bulb or a different type bulb i can get to use instead of the one i have?

 

[KaylNeko]

You can try a CFL that has a lower equivalent wattage to it. Most of the ones I've seen at the home improvement stores have "equivalent to 45 watts, or 60 watts, or whatever. If it's the same one that came with mine (15w equivalent), though, you won't get much lower. Try looking on the bulb to see if it says.

LEDs are an option, but a much more expensive one than a handful of plant matter

 

[dancersmama79]

okie thanks