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ok, what is sleep?
as long as we don't check their brain activity, we can never know when they sleep and when they "just rest". actually, the same is true with humans.
we, humans, also remain sensitive to outer stimuli that might be manacing for us (for example, the alarm clock :%)).

so are all the fish sleep? not necessarily. not even all mammals sleep. iirc, dolphins never really sleep. only half of their brain sleeps at a time. i guess fish can use the same mechanism.
also, from what i can see about my otos, they never really sleep. they have shorter rests rather than a long time of inactivity.
all tetras, barbs and labirynth fish i've encountered till now shut off for a long period of the night, and sometimes they also secure themselves in a comfortable position for that purpose.

Oh, and to add to the anecdotes, try this.

Quite a few fish change colour completely during night time. Including my Beckford's Pencils. Which go from having horizontal stripes to oblique ones and lose all their red colouration during the night!

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

jsut an interestng thought sperm whales sleep verticle in the water colume kinda weird to see discovery channel had a huge thing on them not to long ago

I think fishes respond alot to the lighting in the tank, i use to turn on my lighting through out the night for my arrowana as i notice he will make a great jump once it is pich dark in the night, knocking out the lid covering the fish tank and sometime ended up hurting himself too.

The lighting force my arrowana to 'sleep' or 'rest' alot during the day time, but when anyone approach near him, most of the time he will ended up in shock and jump up making great impact .....and i will went

After nearly 6 month he finally settle down in my tank and i can turn off my lighting in the night without any problem.

i notice he seldom get shock in the day time anymore as i believe he have enough rest in the night with the lights off.

But i don't think fishes that became active in the night like bichirs have this kind of problem, they are more likely to sleep in the opposite way.

Nice one Snogard!

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I cant ansewer if they sleep or rest, however I can say there daydreams reflect there own lives. For example if you are a poor fish keeper they might dream about housing 50 humans in a 10 gallon, over feed us MacDonalds, set the temp. at 31F, let us walk around in our own poo and lastley provide very little air. If your a good fish keeper you would see them online at humanprofiles.com looking to see what is best for there humans.....

as far as the breathing goes, when fish *sleep* their metabolism is lowered dramatically and their heart rate slows down. They don't utilize as much dissolved oxygen when they sleep as when they are fully awake and functioning.

Sleep is a relative term with creatures as diverse as fishes.

To take an example from the bird world, the European Swift is an exclusively aerial bird, once it leaves the nest it spends more or less its entire life on the wing. It eats, mates and sleeps on the wing.

Scientists found out how Swifts manage this. They shut down one half of the brain for sleep at a time, and switch sleeping and waking brain halves. I suspect pelagic sharks, that have to keep moving constantly in order to breathe, do the same.

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

A picture of one of my bettas resting very deeply on the rocks.

I snuck up on him in the dark and snapped it before he ha a chance to wake up fully.

he was UN-IM-PRESSED!

I dpon't know the definition of sleep/deep rest, but i swear, at least 3 of my fish wouldn't wake if a bomb went off, they are dead to the world when they are a-snoozin!


Callatya attached this image:


Last edited by Callatya at 13-Oct-2004 10:00[/font]

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Perhaps a stupid question but a question I have always wondered. For example, my tiger oscar can always be seen at night sitting on the bottom, however, my Arowana in my other tank, seems to always be swimming around day AND night. Now, I can only assume all creatures must sleep at some point but are fish different?

you mean standby, when screen savers come on, it still uses the same ammount of energy, a screen saver is just there to prevent pixel burn-in in a computer monitor

i like to think of fish "sleeping" the same way as your computer goes to screen-saver - they 'shut down' all their energy, but are open to stimuli (like u moving your mouse again)and are ready to react to danger etc - a good way to eplain why sudden changes from dark to light can freak them out so badly...

and whatever they're dreaming of must be so completely unlike our thougts as to be indecipherable to us...

justin

Dang, this got me curious LOL

So did some poking about and found the following:

http://www.wonderquest.com/fish-sleep.htm

http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/faq/sleep.htm

http://www.sleephomepages.org/sleepsyllabus/fr-b.html

and my favourite:

"So we can't generalize and say that all fish sleep like we do. But most fish do rest. Usually they just blank their minds and do what we might call daydreaming." from:

http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/faq/fishfaq1.html#q6

Which begs the question: what do fish daydream about?

Dex

A big No

They rest rather than sleep. I believe sharks the big Marine boys must keep on the move to allow the movement of water through their gills.

Keith

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fish dont sleep, they rest

I'm pretty sure that all fish go to sleep, or at least suspend most mental activity. I can tell when my tetras are asleep, because they swim in place, constantly flicking their fins to stay where they are. They don't respond to any outside stimulus, such as me turning on the lights, or waving my hand at them. I suspect that most fish can move while they sleep, they just aren't aware of what they're doing.

---

And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

It's my understanding that they do.

I know with large sharks, which need to always be moving in order to have water flowing over their gills, that they sleep whilst they actually swim (if it's not complete sleep the way we think of it, the vast majority of brain activity is shut down at any rate).

Maybe the Arowana has a similar ability? :%)

Dex