why do some of my fish hate my light

[lovemybarbs]

Well it isn't the barbs, but my pictus will come out if I turn it off. Also, I just fed them and I turned it off to see if he would come out and the shrimp came out and went to the top to grab some food.

Is it all in my head and they are just sensative fish, or should I think of getting a different bulb? Is there something I don't know again? I don't have any live plants. Thanks.

 

[Billsgate]

I don't think changing your bulb will help allot. How much lighting do you have over what size aquarium?

I read that pictus like to be kept in groups and are more active when kept together with more then 1 of their own species.

What are your water parameters?

Ghost shrimp are generally more active with lights off, since with lights it is much more likely they will get picked on.

 

[lovemybarbs]

I have a 29 gallon tank. When my bulb went out, I didn't go to the pet store. I went to Sears hardware and found a GE plant and aquarium bulb that fit. It doesn't say much on the bulb. It says F2OT12-PL/AQ. Wide spectrum. Was that a mistake?

I have a short cavelike rock in one corner with some plants behind it and to the right of it. The frog likes that corner. I have another sort of cave in the other corner that is larger. It is more like a piece of driftwood looking piece with plants attached to it that come out the top. The pictus stays in there all day, unless I turn off the light. The pleco stays behind it. The catfish will come out and swims from one side of the tank to the other when I turn off the light. When I turn the light on in the morning, he takes off. Also, when I come near the tank, he thinks I'm going to turn it on and he goes and hides again.

I leave the middle of the tank fairly open for the barbs to play in.

In the evening when it is very dark in the room and the light is on, they get active again. Very strange. That is usually the only time I see the catfish out with the light on.

29 gallon tank

3 tiger barbs (one male, two female)
2 albino tiger barbs (one male, one female)
2 rosey barbs (two male)
one pleco
one dwarf clawed frog
one pictus catfish
one bamboo

I don't have room for another pictus.

 

[Zagz]

The pictus catfish are nocturnal, I have cuckoo catfish and they come out when the lights are off.

 

[lovemybarbs]

When I first bought him and he was fairly little, he would go up and go crazy and steal all of the food. I never see him eat anymore, not for about a year and a half. I guess he only grazes at night. I drop a couple shrimp pellets at night before the light goes off so he has food to eat. Now he is about six inches long.

If he is nocturnal, that makes sense, but he never acted that way before.

 

[Zagz]

I have 3 cuckoo cats and have had pictus before and they all did that. It appears yours might have just taken awhile to figure out his natural instincts. LOL