Blacklight Fish

[cidley69]

Is there such thing? Does anyone have blacklight for lighting in their tank?

Are there any fish that naturally glow or look florescent?

I heard at the pet store they used to dye fish and that it was illegal so they stopped doing it.

anyone know the story about this?

[rahim101]

There are still several dyed varieties of fish available for sale in Calgary.

And you don't even need black lights for them be look bright.

Painted skirts and "Lazer" cory cats come to mind!!!

[cidley69]

Ideally I'd like my tank to look best in a darkened room, and thought blacklight sounded like a nice soft light that would bring out fish colors.

What amount of light do fish prefer? Do they need/like a day and night schedule?

(Do fish even sleep?)

I guess like everything else it is probably species dependent.

If no one uses blacklight it must be for a reason, to dim for the fish, or just to hard to see them at all with. My tank has one of those spiral bulbs in it now, and the light is very white, reminds me too much of the flourescent light in my office (and i want a tank to take away nasty thoughts like work, lol).

So does anyone have a lighting suggestion?

[Nandopsis]

Fish don't "NEED" light so if you wanted you could use a black light although if you wanted it a little brighter you could just but a Actinic bulb for your light fixture.

[cidley69]

If fish don't "need" light, then do they even "care" if it is light or dark?

This may sound stupid, but do fish sleep?

Do they prefer a day/night cycle, or from a fish's point of view it doesn't matter?

[Rainmaker69]

JMHO All natural creatures need a day/night cycle, including plants. Fish may not actually sleep, but some species, such as my Green Spotted Puffer. seem to. He will tuck himself up against the heater in the tank, curl up his tail and go to sleep. Others, such as my Danios, seem to be active at all hours and never slow down enough to sleep.

[sammyswife]

Welcome to AA Cidley69!

I think I know the blacklight you are talking about for lighting a fish tank. The light gives a blueish sort of blacklight hue to the fish tank. These are called coral light bulbs (at least that's what the one we purchased was called). They give the best results in a fixture with two bulbs so you can add a regular light and a coral light otherwise, the coral light IME is too dark on it's own.

This has a blacklight effect and will show all the colours beautifully in your fish..... no need to have dyed fish.

Hope this answers some of your questions.

Amy

[Cap'n]

The "blacklight" effect can be achieved in a variety of ways. Actinic or blue spectrum bulbs will cause many colours to stand out that are nearly invisible in daylight or white or yellow spectrum bulbs. It's all a matter of personal taste, some like 10000k, some say that is too white.

You could also use moonlights, typically LED's which are used as a night light. These are oftened timed to start slightly before the daylight bulbs go out and stay on most or all of the night. They provide a light at near the same spectrum as natural moonlight.

Fish are dramatically influenced by the light schedule they are subjected to in captivity. Good idea to use a timer and only vary the intensity gradually.

[Toirtis]

There are still several dyed varieties of fish available for sale in Calgary.

And you don't even need black lights for them be look bright.

Painted skirts and "Lazer" cory cats come to mind!!!

'Laser' Corydoras are not dyed, me boyo.

[dunl]

Most fish do not "sleep" as we know it, but rather go into a prolonged rest period where many functions shut down for a period of time.