Do fish need lights?

[corwise]

This evening I went to the Red Lobster down in Norman. I was looking forward to seeing their salt water tank, which I hadn't seen in a few years. It used to be pretty nice, one of my inspirations for getting into salt water in the first place.
The current tank is a far cry from what I remember, the most obvious problem being that there were no lights (at least no working lights) on the tank. The only light entering the tank was from the ambiant light from the room. The tank had a Naso, a Yellow tang, a large French Angel, and three dwarf angels.
I was curious what affect not having lights long term (if its been long term) would have on the fish. The yellow tang looked pretty pale, not much color then that, but the other fish looked fine. Not sure how long it's been like that, but just kind of odd.

Dave

 

[papagimp]

unless their blind I'd imagine they need some light.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

Fish do need at least some light. However, they don't need bright light like coral do. Fish need to know when it's day time and night time

 

[scott0615]

Yes fish need light...they could care less when it is day and night but it is required for them to produce vitamin C [yes, on their own when exposed to light]. C has obvious benefits to people as well as animals, immune system to say the least [probably the pale coloration not to mention anything about water quality].

Our Atlanta location used to take care of Red Lobster locations - it was a fish tank disaster. Lots of managers that take no responsibility for the tanks. Their budget only allows for a weekly service call with MINIMAL maintenance. Everyone knows what can happen to an ignored tank in just 7 days considering this happens everyday "HEY - LOOK HOW MUCH HE CAN EAT!" AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. Then you hear "the guys that have been caring for our tanks suck!". I actually had an idiot pour a Coke in a tank...when everything died in 48 hours it was still our fault!!!!

 

[cek1313]

Coke in a tank? Wow--we have some future darwin award winners out there....

 

[Youngsilver]

yeah, im sure that even a little coke would significantly lower Ph