light acclimation of fish questions?

[travis32]

O.k. so, I've had a clown and a marine betta under T 12 in a QT tank for the last 4 to 6 weeks.

Obviously not much light. Had them under 4X 65 w PC lights before that. No issues.

I acclimated them both to my 125g that has 2 X 250W MHs and 1 400W MH. I'm following the previous owners schedule of having the 1 middle 400W on from 1-5 and the two outer 250s on from 5-10.

The clown couldn't care less about the lighting, it's eating and hanging out like usual. The marine betta was acting weird tonight. I didn' thave the lights on the full period and I had screen(2 layers) under the lights for most of the day.

My corals were angry with me not having the lights at full blast. There's plenty of spots for the Marine betta to hide out of the light. He usually does this in other tanks and then comes out at night to swim freely in the dark.

So, my question is. Do I light acclimate or not? Will the corals be o.k. under dimly lit conditions have 2 layers of screen under the lights? And how do you keep the screen from falling in the tank? I laid it across inside the canopy and tried to get it to stay, but it for one would sit in the water and two, any disturbance would cause one side or the other to fall in.

I have a canopy and it's difficult to take off given that all the ballasts for the MHs are on top of the canopy. (Screwed in.)


Any suggestions would be great. It's black window screen. Not metal, probably fiberglass.

I can do something funky like have the left MH on part of the day and the right one on at a different time, and not use the 400w middle one for a week or two.

 

[mike_cmu04]

you should not have to acclimate the fish to light they should adjust to it just fine when they are turned on. There must be something else that is bothering the betta.

 

[bryan007]

Marine Betta's are not the easiest fish to adapt to captivity. Their not impossible but many are problematic and do not adjust eventually dieing. The change in lighting could have exascerbated the acclimation of this fish. I agree with Mike and the fish should have acclimated within a day or two.

 

[travis32]

My betta has been fine in captivity. He's the best fish I've ever had. I mean seriously, he's literally like a puppy. Just in water..

He comes out everyday when I come home from work. He'll swim around following me in the room (under rocks naturally), When he's in a mood he'll swim out into the open and flash his fins at me. He's very well behaved with other inhabitants. although I'm wondering where my sleeper goby went. I think the goby was too big to fit in his mouth, so I'm hoping it's just under a rock or someplace I can't see.

The betta will come up to me when I put my fingers in the water and eat from my fingers.

The betta did eat a signal goby once, but it was small, under an inch. The sleeper goby is around a 2 or 3" fish and seems larger in circumferance than his mouth. Hopefully anyways.

Overall, I like the betta a lot. I do wish I could have a shrimp or two, They would be expensive meals for him. but other than that, he's a nice peaceful and very pretty reef dweller.

He's survived a lot in my tanks and has lived through more than most fish would be capable of living throuhg. I keep him well fed, and he does fine. The thing I dislike the most is I do have to target feed him, unless I'm feeding flake, in case, if I just hold the food in my fingers just under the water, he'll come take it. He doesn't chase shrimp a lot, so I have to target him with the shrimp then he goes after it.