Do fish sleep?

[jimrawr]

This is probably a really stupid quetion but here goes anyways..

So I just brought home my first fish today, a Percula Clown. Everything has been good so far, and he was eating when I fed im at night. Now its 1am and I am wondering if he will sleep, which im pretty sure they must..

How will he sleep against the current though? Do they look for a low flow area? Do they sleep while flating around or do they lay on the sand bed? Right now he seems to struggle against the current but I only have one seio 620, so its not THAT much flow..

I have never seen a fish sleeping..

[drummereef]

They will find a nice cozy place to sleep. I've seen Hippo Tangs on their side asleep. Very odd looking. :)

[billr]

Yep

[jimrawr]

Does he need a low flow area to sleep? At night time I could point the powerhead from the backright of the tank to the back left, and give the front low flow for him to rest..

or is this not neccessary?

[petoonia]

If you have live rock in the tank it will find a place it is comfortable in. I wouldnt worry about it. The more you mess around with the tank the more you could stress out your newly added fish.

Good Luck!!!!

[Leandrae]

My clowns snuggle into their anemone at night and my grammas must find a hole in the rock to sleep in as I never see them after lights out. I have no idea what my tang does, guess I haven't really looked much lately.

I swear my mandarin looked dead when she slept...she usually hid somewhere at night, but one night she was on the sand in the open and looked like just nasty, but the next morning she was swimming around like normal and looked great. Sure freaked me out though.

Before my clowns discovered the wonderful-ness of anemones, they slept down on the sand at night.

I vote for not messing with the flow...they will pick the spot they like best for sleeping in =)

-Janel

edited to fix a typo

[magdelan]

My fish usually sleep on a king size water bed. The clown near the top, and the tangs stay near the back. As for the foxface...well...he always steals the sheets!! The manderin usually gets fed up with everyone and takes the couch. And the hermit crabs have sleep overs at their friend's houses...they never sleep in the same place twice. The shrimp share bunk beds and the snails try to get to bed each night but, when they get there it's always morning.

Good luck with your new friend jimrawr :D

[reefshadow]

Lol, that's cute. Love the av BTW.

Hey, Jim-

Yup, most fish do sleep, and they will generally sleep in the same spot every night once they find their perfect bed, some of them will change colours as well like Leandrae said. There seem to be alot of different habits between types of fish- some will wedge themselves tightly into the rock or coral, some will secrete mucous cocoons to sleep in, some will go under the sand. That said, I have had a few fish that never ever slept, and both of them were tangs, one an achilles, one a sailfin. Very weird, they paced the tank all night. I've heard others say this too about the same fish.

My clowns don't sleep as hard as some of the other fish seem to, instead of being motionless they bob around in bed in typical clownfish fashion. I know they are asleep though, I can easily catch them if I want. They sleep in pretty chaotic current though so there must be some awareness at least at the physical level; they don't blow around.

Have fun! :)

[nano7joy]

My false perc likes to lay up next two a closed shroom then another then another ....lol

[casingbill]

my true percs also find a spot in the sand and bob all night. there is usually a bowl shape in the sand in the morning....til the power heads come back on

[Poorcollegereef]

I have a mjmod in a 20L, it is a lot of flow. My fish sleep well though, 6line, dartfish, gamma and chromis all find caves or niches in the rockwork, the clowns have a corner so all is good.

[mjm1969]

My 5 inch Hippo Tang freaked me out at first. He likes to wedge (and I do mean wedge) himself headfirst into the rocks in a moderate flow area. I came in one night about two week after bringing him home and there he was wedged upside down in the rocks. When my heart started beating I looked him over and decided he was dead. I finally decided to remove him bt hand and he freaked. Am I the only one who didn't realize those spines on the top fins are really really sharp? Note to self...Don't be lazy...go get the net next time!