my percula is acting strange during the night.

[flipteg]

i have a percula pair for 7 years now. March of this year when i upgraded my tank from a 30 to a 57 gallons, the percula pair started spending the night near the surface at the corner of the overflow box. in the last 2 weeks, the female has began splashing water during lights out and she does it constantly. she doesn't do it when it is completely dark. i noticed she only does it when the aquarium lights are out but the room is still lit by the sunlight through the windows or by the light bulbs. i had a maroon clownfish female do the same thing before. but with the maroon, she immediately went crazy as soon as the room goes completely dark.

at first i was afraid that the fish was trying to jump out every time i hear a loud splash but when i waited for her to see how she does it, there's really no danger in getting out. it's more of an annoyance and she's getting my Radions wet. the way she does it is she puts her mouth to the glass near the water surface and starts wiggling the tail. kinda like trying to swim while pushing the glass.

 

[flipteg]

i think i figured out the problem. the fish doesn't like the dark. last night when the lights went out, the fish started thrashing again. after a while, i put one of those single LED moonlight and spot lighted where they slept. after that, not a single splash anymore throughout the night!

 

[worm5406]

haha... sounds like my 9yo a few years ago... Afraid of the dark.

 

[flipteg]

haha, i thought everything was ok with the night light but last night, i heard the male splashing... a few minutes later it was the female again... it's so annoying cause i'm trying to catch the last few winks before i have to get up for work and the fishes keeps waking me up. 12 hours later, which is right now, the pair is spawning. which might explain all the activities recently. this is spawning pair but they have stopped for a while. this is the first time i've seen them spawn again in a very long time.