When looking at our little buddies the neon tetra. Do you like me wonder do they need so much lighting? I mean they come from the amazon but live in murky water. They’re called blackwater fish because the water is dark right? (.)
Begs the question do they need or require the same amount of light all the time? Let’s dive in and answer this along with my main dilemma of do neon tetras need light at night.
Do Neon Tetras Need Light At Night
No Neon tetras need no light at night they are diurnal meaning they are active in daylight but sleep at night they require a minimum of 10 hours to recharge and help their circadian rhythm.
Come with me as I explain in more detail. In the daytime, natural light reflects from the water neon tetra do take some of this light and use it. They charge themselves and use the light to display that superb color they process more on that in the link.
Although this crazy little fish the neon tetra takes light as this fish like us is what’s known as diurnal. Meaning like us they are up and about in the daytime and sleep at night. This is true but this fish doesn’t overly like light and even in the daytime hours it tries to find darker spots to hide behind.
These fish swim together in a formation called shoaling or schooling. They need lots of room so make sure the tank is big enough to allow for this click the link for more on this. While schooling they tend to stay in the darker parts of the wild they stay lower in the river.
Under shrubs bushes leaf litter plants making it as dark as possible. So when night comes these fish are in their element as they can show off that amazing color.
Night Time Behavior
Have you noticed once you turn off the light in your tank boom our mates those same chilled-out neon tetra will go crazy for a few minutes? (.) This is because we generally keep the lighting too bright and then it’s dark.
The fish are busy exploring and finding any leftover food having a little playtime before going to sleep fun fact did you know they sleep on their heads? But look as though they are dead. They play dead. Find out more in the link.
Yep, they can see well enough in the dark and prefer it to the light these fish definitely don’t need light at night. We should keep the light fairly dim even in daytime hours and gently dim them nearer night and then off so we don’t shock the little fish.
What Lighting For Neon Tetras
As stated above these fish are pretty sensitive to light even natural light sunlight. Too much light can damage neon-tetras eyes. Stress from this can cause illnesses and symptoms of illnesses such as the dreaded neon tetra disease and dropsy. Not to mention the possibility of changes to water conditions algae etc.
Ideally, we need only 2 watts of light per gallon of water. We only need enough light to effectively keep the fish’s circadian rhythm. So it knows daytime from nighttime.
Let’s be honest we only need extra light so we can see the fish and if we have particular plants it’s not in any way for the fish’s health.
So we now know neon tetras have no need for light at night in fact they prefer to be in shaded light at all times. How can we achieve this within our own home tanks? (.)
Neon Tetras Don’t Need Light At Night Conclusion
Our neon tetras like it darker and love murky darker water. They need no light at night but we do have to make sure they are in good health and they do need some light for circadian rhythm. Here’s how we can achieve the blackwater amazon in our own tanks.
First, make sure the substrate is as dark as possible just go for black. Black gravel or peat moss will do the trick. Then put some shrubbery and leaf litter and float this on top of the water keeping the water darker.
Add some plants and hiding places along the substrate. Doing these few simple things will give the fish places to hide and stop any reflection of light. So you can still give the tank some light without the fish being overexposed.
We’ve now created the best of both worlds. The fish has plenty of shady darker waters to swim in and hiding places if needed. We can see them and we are giving them some light without it being directly shone onto the tank.
Make sure to put any lighting on a timer as we need at least 10 hours of darkness for these awesome little fish to thrive. As neon tetra don’t need light at night they need some rest and relaxation thanks for reading and please feel free to look around the site some more.
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