Tetra Day/night cycle

[legacy]

my father recently purchaced 8 cardnal tetras from a LFS and they told him that they need a Day and a night cycle to stay healthy so we shouldn't leave the aquarium light on at night.

His aquarium isn't in dirrect sunlight and doesn't get too much light in general, and the light stays off during the day when he is at work..


do you realy think that it would hurt the fish if we left the light on at night? it made a really nice nightlight and was cool to watch at night when you cant sleep.


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[johnnyxxl]

all fish need a day, night cycle of some sort. otherwise they don't sleep, mine get about 10 hours of light a day sometimes a bit more ie I fall asleep watching either them or tv lol.

 

[cattlegrid_79]

Just set a timer up on it so that it can be on when you got to bed but then go out an hour or two later.

 

[snakeskinner]

both fish and plants need a day/night cycle but it is not going to kill the fish to change it up once in a while. Just use common sense/reasoning. We have sunny days, cloudy days, full moons, etc. so it's not like they get exactly XX hours of light per day and XX hours of dark at night. Also, the fish don't know what time it should be dark or light so as long as there is a cycle, it doesn't matter when so keeping the light off during the day and on at night is no problem. Just make sure the sunlight's not too bright during the day so that they never see a change. If they just get some indirect light then it will be similar to moonlight or a fish being near a dock with a streetlight. Kyle