Can you feed fish after lights out? (1 Viewer)

[Cody]

I wonder if fish need sight to find food. If the lights are off and you feed, then can they find it by smell? Of course, the tank isn’t pitch black though. Some ambient light from the room is in the tank.

 

[soymilk]

so my gem tang had a stroke, as a result he’s blind.

I keep him in a different tank now. He’s been blind for 3 months. It’s finding the food I drop into that tank.

I tried teaching it to eat from a pippette but that seemed to stress it out more than just finding food I drop down in the corner

 

[R-BallJunkie]

Most fish sleep at night, you can go up to most and just touch them. Predators are feeding on the reef at night.

Its pitch pitch pitch dark. Dual strobes + torches light up the water. Without dive lights, you cant see 1" in front of your face.

 

[Cody]

so my gem tang had a stroke, as a result he’s blind.

I keep him in a different tank now. He’s been blind for 3 months. It’s finding the food I drop into that tank.

I tried teaching it to eat from a pippette but that seemed to stress it out more than just finding food I drop down in the corner

How in the heck did you reach the diagnosis of stroke?!!

 

[Cody]

Most fish sleep at night, you can go up to most and just touch them. Predators are feeding on the reef at night.

Its pitch pitch pitch dark. Dual strobes + torches light up the water. Without dive lights, you cant see 1" in front of your face.

Yeah the degree to which the ocean is dark at night is insane, I'm sure. Even being on the surface at night with no lights is pitch black, let alone 80 feet under!

Are you suggesting that at night they won't eat because they're in survival/stay safe mode?

 

[soymilk]

How in the heck did you reach the diagnosis of stroke?!!

Blind, 100% non responsive to light

Eye twitches, cloudy iris

 

[frankc]

Every tang I've ever had, including several yellows, has been a pretty deep sleeper, except for my current yellow tang which is a night cruiser. I will often see it swimming in the dark, and if I feed the corals at night with just the blue lights at 1%, he is the only one trying to steal the food. (This could be a whole different discussion - why do people always say to feed corals at night? Most of my corals close up at night after having their polyps open all day. The only advantage is that most of the fish are "sleeping" and not trying to steal the food.)

I have a stop-light cardinal fish that I have only seen twice in the two years I've had it, and only in the dark. I don't know if it is finding something to eat in the dark, or if enough food goes into whatever rock crevice it's hiding in during feedings so it doesn't have to come out.

On a semi-related note, I used to have a blind cave tetra in a 50-gallon freshwater community tank. It lived about 12 years and was usually the first to get the food, despite literally having no eyes. Of course, it's a little different when a fish evolves to live in total darkness.

 

[decimal]

I was always under the impression that fish do not sleep at all. They enter a “dormant” period that allows rest but they are still actively aware of their surroundings. Presumably due to predators and things of that nature. Can’t really sleep to deep of everything is trying to eat you all the time.

 

[reeftopia]

Never feed mine after the lights have been out an hour, Really no need their not going to starve because they miss a few days feeding

 

[Reefahholic]

Mine are all tucked in bed.

 

[R-BallJunkie]

I was always under the impression that fish do not sleep at all. They enter a “dormant” period that allows rest but they are still actively aware of their surroundings. Presumably due to predators and things of that nature. Can’t really sleep to deep of everything is trying to eat you all the time.

the big eyed fish are up.....others, you can poke.

 

[BigRick]

so my gem tang had a stroke, as a result he’s blind.

I keep him in a different tank now. He’s been blind for 3 months. It’s finding the food I drop into that tank.

I tried teaching it to eat from a pippette but that seemed to stress it out more than just finding food I drop down in the corner

I think mines partially blind too... wonder if it was from collecting. Hes the last to eat, he should be a lot more aggressive. My yellow is starting to outgrow him, Eats 3x more too.