How much darkness do fish need?

[reberly]

I have a question for the group, how much darkness do fish require? Living a college lifestyle and working at a bar, I don't typically get to bed till 5 am. We have the timer on the tank set to come on at about 2:30 in the afternoon and turn off at 2:30 am. Of course, we are all up a lot later than that so lamps in the living room are still on. I'm concerned that I'm stressing my fish by giving them only an hour (some nights less!) of complete darkness before the sun comes up. Our tank is behind the couch so the sun from the window doesn't hit it directly but it obviously still lights up the room. Obviously we would like to have the light in the tank on when we're hanging out and the tank looks great at night. Should I just bite the bullet and turn it off earlier? What are your opinions? Thanks!

Ryan

 

[ConanTheLibraia]

As long as the fish have dark spots to hide they should be alright. I have heard of people with planted tanks having 24 hour lighting, and I don't think that light from lamps not shining directly on the tank shouldn't be too much. Are you fish stressed? If there are no signs of them being stressed then I would say its ok.

 

[Guest]

College, ah those were the days! 8)

IMO, it won't do much good to turn tank lights off if you are in the same room with other lights on, partying and whatnot.

Anyway, they do need some dark time, can you close the curtains in the daytime? Even if not full dark, they can catch some zzz's. I think if you can do that your fish will be happier. Do your roomies work late too, or all on differing schedules?

I guess my conclusion would be try for 6-8 hours of dark/semi-dark, quiet room. That may be impossible, but thats my best guess.

 

[reberly]

We don't have any covering for the window yet (haha college budget) but I could get some cheap curtains for it. My roomate has class all morning and I don't wake up till around 1-2 pm so it would be dark and quiet until around 2 or 3. That would give them around 8 hours of peace. Back to walmart! Thanks!