Dull neon tetras

635 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by KayakJimW, Apr 10, 2017

Clarajoy

Discussion Starter · Apr 10, 2017

Dull fish after short vacation question -

I've had neon tetras for several months now & they have been great. There are 15 fish, a handful of red cherry shrimp, and a ton of plants. Water tests are fine. I feed them pretty much every day & skip a day occasionally. So I assume they should be fine when I go for a weekend trip. However! Every time I go, the neons are extremely dull / translucent when I come back. They bounce back quickly but I assume this is not great for them. The only change is that their tank light is off for about 48 hours.

Is it just the lights? Or something else?

Thanks for helping me take care of my little dudes

🦐

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BettaBettas

· #2 · Apr 10, 2017 (Edited)

Edit: didn't see the light part!!!
Yea its the lights my apologies!

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SubstrateSource

· #3 · Apr 10, 2017

Clarajoy said:
Is it just the lights? Or something else?

Yes, it's the lights being off. :smile2:

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WaterLife

· #4 · Apr 10, 2017

Light effects their fluorescent stripe (also the red can fade). So it's normal for the colors to be dull when first turning on the lights (especially after a vacation with no lights on).

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sharambil

· #5 · Apr 10, 2017

I would suggest buying a timer... they cost 5 bucks and will make your day to day aquarium work decrease. It will turn on light at same time everyday, and turn them off at the same time...

Fish, in order to breed and maintain good health, must have a solid light on and light off time, that is set in stone. If you keep changing it up, your fish will act in a similar way... after all, the sun rises and sets on a schedule, and in the wild, fish depend on the sun. just a thought.

Timers can be found at home depot for like 5 bucks!

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roadmaster

· #6 · Apr 10, 2017

I have a couple tank's in corner ,one on each wall.
I placed a standing floor lamp between them in the corner ,and placed it on timer to come on one hour before light's over the tank come on.
Is a three way dimmable bulb (dim,brighter,brightest).
This helped considerably with fishes that used to dart about or outright jump from the tank's when sudden light over the tank came on each morning.
My lighting schedules are same times each day via a timer.

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WaterLife

· #7 · Apr 10, 2017

I revisited a old article to refresh my memory on the stripe effected by lighting.
https://books.google.com/books?id=t...ge&q=neon tetra iridescent stripe how&f=false

And yeah, I accidentally said "fluorescent" instead of "iridescent" haha

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Clarajoy

Discussion Starter · #8 · Apr 10, 2017

Thanks! Looks like I'll need to get some more gadgets

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KayakJimW

· #9 · Apr 10, 2017

+1 for appliance timers, they're great. Also If you travel often, its not a bad idea to run some lamps on timers in your front rooms. Makes it look like someone's home at nights...

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