How Many Hours Do Guppies Sleep?
- Jun 26, 2022
- Anshika Mishra
- 663 0 0
Like most fish, guppies don't have eyelids, so you might believe they don't sleep. However, guppies sleep at night when it's dark. Their sleep cycle is unknown, but they rest when the lights are off.
If you have a planted guppy tank, you likely have lights on your aquarium, which have to be turned on and off every day. If you don't use artificial light, you should probably not worry about guppies getting enough sleep.
How Much Sleep do Guppies Need?
Leaving the lights on 24/7 is a bad idea. Guppies need darkness to be able to rest. Having the lights always on might eventually result in dead fish. Guppies need at least 6-8 hours of sleep a day. This does not mean you need to keep the lights on 16-18 hours a day. Excessive light might not harm your fish but will encourage algae to grow.
Keeping the lights on for 8-10 hours is sufficient to keep your fish healthy, grow your aquarium plants and avoid algae growth.
If you forget to turn the lights on and off, I recommend getting a programmable timer.
How Do Guppies Sleep?
Guppies do not sleep like humans. When lights are turned off, the fish will stop swimming and becomes inactive. Guppies may choose to rest on the substrate at the bottom of your tank, on plant leaves, decoration, or at the water's surface.
In resting mode, guppies might appear dead and discolored. Their breathing rate is also decreased, and they may become less sensitive to sound. Once the light is turned on, they regain their colors and become active again.
What Lights To Use for Guppy Tank?
When choosing lights for your aquarium, you want to imitate nature as much as possible. Guppy fish is not sensitive to what light you are using on your tank.
If you keep plants with your guppies, you should choose a light that provides your plants the light spectrum they need to photosynthesize; another way, they will eventually die.
Imitating Natural Light
If you want to imitate sunrise and sunset in your aquarium, you can get a LED aquarium light that will do that. For this purpose, you will need a special dimmable and programmable waterproof LED light, which allows you to set time for sunrise and sunset.
Guppies are stressed every time you turn on and off the lights.
Having the sunrise and sunset feature in your fish tank, the fish will transition slowly from sleep to awake and vice versa, which is stress-free.
Light for Guppy Fry
Like adults, guppy fry also needs 8 hours of sleep daily. However, if you want to speed up the growth rate of your guppy fry, you can keep artificial lights on for a more extended period.
Guppy fish breeders use a solid and bright light to stimulate fry growth. Mornings might be on for 12-18 hours daily on a guppy, grow-out tank.
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