Fish freaked out and hide/sink to bottom when light is turned on

[l4id8ack]

60gal
9 small/medium sunfish variety


Fish all normally swim around and interact with us and thus far display normal behavior. Just yesterday they appear to have been spooked by an unknown cause erratically swimming around the bottom of the tank kicking up rock substrate almost in a frenzy. Then almost at once the all lay motionless on the bottom of the tank tightly packed. Also noticed they quickly lightened up their colors turning pale almost. They are eating normally. When the light turned off last night they began to return to normal. When the light turned on this morning they all went to the bottom again almost hiding and changed pale colors. At this point, it appears the light will trigger them to act strangely but I haven't seen this the previous 2 months. We even tried the blue night mode thinking the white was too bright and they still acted strangely.

Any ideas?

 

[AnthonyFish20]

your tank is too small sunfish can get bigger than 10inches

 

[kno4te]

Try some floating fake or live plants to disperse the light. Might help.

 

[Duckman77]

your tank is too small sunfish can get bigger than 10inches

So your thought is the fish are behaving erratically because they somehow know they will outgrow their current tank?

Come on man..you don't know what his future plans are for the fish. Keep your reply relevant to what is being asked.

 

[AnthonyFish20]

Think of it this way im assuming he caught them from a pond and now they are in 4ft of space they are still stressed out how long have u had them

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

Think of it this way im assuming he caught them from a pond and now they are in 4ft of space they are still stressed out how long have u had them

4ft would be closer to a 90 gallon actually. Fish that are coming from an overstocked brightly lit LFS will definitely settle in to your home faster than a fish pulled from 1000's of gallons of murky pond/lake/river water. Some wild caught fish will not settle in at all -so getting an environment close enough to the real deal is essential. Pond fish rarely do well behind glass. In huge planted tanks with large submerged drift drastic light changes have less of a stressful effect on your fish.

 

[AnthonyFish20]

I use to keep sunfish give them a shady cave and they should start to be better and give them time to settle in