Are Danios Nocturnal? Why They May Be Moving About At Night

Are Danios Nocturnal? why they may be moving about at night

It is a fact that many fish are nocturnal, meaning that they have the ability to see at night or in the dark, but the question is, can Danios see at night or in the dark? Danios could sometimes be seen at the surface of the tank at night when the lights are off and this made many people who have noticed this suspect that they are nocturnal fish, but the question is, are they? You will learn all about that in this article, so read to the end.

Are Danios nocturnal? Danios do not have cone cells in their eyes which enables some fish to see in the dark. They can’t see in the dark because they are diurnal and not nocturnal fish.

The truth is, without the cone cells in the eyes of some fish which makes them see in very low light and could be able to move about with their activities at night, they won’t be able to do it, and any fish that doesn’t have it can’t be classified as nocturnal.

Although their eyesight might be far more clear in darkness than human eyes and other animals too, that may be the reason Danios are sometimes seen in their tanks moving about when the light is out.

The fact is, they are very active fish, although not nocturnal, even with a tiny bit of light, they might be able to at least see a little, that might be why they could sometimes move about despite having the lights switched off.

In the wild, Danios sometimes swim about at night to protect themselves from predators that parade during the daytime, so many of them do exhibit the same behavior even in captivity, so it is considered normal if you see them still moving about in the dark, but it doesn’t prove that they are nocturnal.

Is It Ok For Fish To Be In The Dark?

Yes, fish deserve to be in the dark at night to sleep and rest after all their daylight activities.

Fish do deserve to be in darkness for some time so that they can rest.

This includes even the nocturnal fish too because they do sleep and rest too, so they deserve to be in darkness for some hours.

How Many Hours Of Darkness Do Fish Need?

Every fish deserves at least 12 hours in darkness for them to sleep or rest.

As I explained above, every fish deserves to have sleep and rest, including the nocturnal fish, so they need nothing less than 12 hours a day in darkness.