strange fish behavior when i turn off aquarium lights

[froggygirl37]

Whenever i turn off the lights in my aquarium the fish all swim around in a sort of frenzy, then they all get really slow and many start swimming on an angle, tilted to one side.

I have a 55gal lightly planted tank with an assortment of tetras and a couple marbled angles.

Is this normal? If not, what could be going on? Ill include a pic of the tank in case that helps

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Its normal imo
Turning on a room light before they go off usually helps with that.

This thread here was started a few weeks ago about the same thing. May be an interesting read for you.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f100/lights-out-fish-go-nuts-252415.html

 

[Kimlafeiet]

I think it is prety normal. Some of my fish do the same thing when thier light clicks off, and my Angel sleeps sideways consistently.

 

[Zimmanski]

My angels do this too, I second turning the room light off too, my fish seem to do it less when the room is dark too

 

[froggygirl37]

Thanks everyone!

 

[manbeast]

fish mainly use light to determine up from down so

 

[manbeast]

sorry, as I was saying when they are swimming or sleeping on an angle it's usually due to the light entering the tank from an angle, years ago I saw a study on this where they lit a tank only from the bottom with no other light sources around and eventually got the fish to swim upside down

 

[azmodan]

Can you imagine if day turned to night like a gigantic aquarium light? I'd probably freak out too.

 

[Zimmanski]

Can you imagine if day turned to night like a gigantic aquarium light? I'd probably freak out too.

Mine don't, but I have "sunset mode" haha. I use a marineland hidden led along with my t5ho so its steps down gradually from high light to the white LEDs to the moon lights, then to darkness and reverses in the morning

 

[bob mccoy]

awesome zimm i nead some of those

 

[tbrazil230]

Mine don't, but I have "sunset mode" haha. I use a marineland hidden led along with my t5ho so its steps down gradually from high light to the white LEDs to the moon lights, then to darkness and reverses in the morning

That's pretty cool