Tropheus Behavoirs at Lights Out - Too Bright?

[Chris Derrick]

I have two AH Supply 96watt brite lite kits on my canopy for lighting, I also have the standard two 36'' cheap black lights that come with aquariums running a 50-50 combo light on them. Well I let the cheap lights come on and then crank on the sun tan lights in the am and turn em off about an hour before bed each night. Well tonight I turned off all the lights to aquarium and had my living room lights on so the tank was dark but could still see fish just fine! These fish are totally different in this setting, I had fish at top of tank fighing splashing water, I had three groups all T-positioned up doing shake and bake, and the fish were really colored up bright yellow!??? Any of you see anything like this with your fish? I am wondering if I should leave my bright lights off for few days and just run the cheapo factory units for a while see if fish act different?? Could the bright lights be scaring them or making them feel unsafe in any way? Maybe I am crazy but I saw what I saw! Thanks guys CD

[Zulaab]

What kind of fish are we talking about ? Sorry if you have already posted this in another thread, but I am to tired to go look

[Zulaab]

okie I did a search. Ikola are surface fish (ie lives in the top 33 ft of the water coloum) where sun light comes in strong. They should be used to bright lights...

[TaTeR ToT]

mine act the same way yours do when i turn off the 2x t5 ho's and just have the room lit with the regular room lights.

although since they have all settled in now for several months, they act like this most of the day during lights on aswell.

i am fixing to upgrade the lighting on my 4ft 75g troph tank from 2x 54watt T5HO to 4x 54watt T5HO Fixture and move this light to my new 55g when i get it.

the 55g will have cyps and a small colony of bembas.
trophs like bright lights from my exp.

in the wild they graze on the shoreline rocks where the waves hit the beach and light is strong in these areas alot of algae grows on the rocks and this is their staple diet along with the micro orginisms in the algae.

[myjohnson]

Put them lights on a timer man. I don't think you have to much lights at all. I like seeing my fishes graze on algae.

I do notice when the lights go out at night and the room light is all that's on the tropheus seem to start picking at the sand as if there is food there.

After a while they just stop and start hanging around. Aggression does go down a lot too.

[geoff_tropheus]

Fish that were a bit shy, and others that were overly agressive cause the lights were on...bascially chill at dusk/dawn like conditions.

I have my Ikola tank on timers, its my only one with it, and they sometimes show the best colors overall group wise when only the actinic is on, or just the LED's

Pretty cool..

But right now I am not setup 100% yet after the move...then I take some pics.

Geoff