Shy Bluespotted Sunfish

I have six bluespotted sunfish and a madtom in a 40 gallon aquarium. I recently added a flourescent light which sends the sunfish for cover. Oddly, the madtom seems to be more active with the light on. Unexpected.

Anyway, I read on this forum that some folks use a red light to "sneak up" on aquarium fish at night to aid in capture. This made me think of trying red as general lighting that might be less scary to the sunfish.

I covered the bottom of my fluorescent fixture with that red tape you see on busted car tail lights. When I turn it on now, the tank glows with a brilliant pink light and the sunfish don't seem to notice the light at all. They are out in the open and happy (if I am any judge of fish happiness).

So my question is does anyone see any negative effect from using this method? Algae growth has not been affected so far - that was something I was worried about.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

I recently caught about 9 of the blue spotted last weekend and have them in a 33g long with many of the same plants I grabbed from the same pond. They don't seem to be having any social problems at all. Is your tank planted? If not, maybe that is the problem. They do tend to live amongst aquatic plants in the wild.

I recently caught about 9 of the blue spotted last weekend and have them in a 33g long with many of the same plants I grabbed from the same pond. They don't seem to be having any social problems at all. Is your tank planted? If not, maybe that is the problem. They do tend to live amongst aquatic plants in the wild.

Yes, the have lots of cover. That is where they were hiding when the fluorescent came on. But now, with the red light, they come out from the plants and are all over the tank. No social problems to speak of now.

Maybe I could try to remove the red tape one tiny bit at a time and attempt to acclimate them slowly to the standard light? It is worth a shot.

If that works I will post more info. Thanks.

Adult bluespotted sunfish seem to have a fear of flourescent light. Younger ones don't mind and "adapt" to it and don't seem to have a problem as they get older. I've read it in articles and experienced it myself, so it's probably pretty common. Try getting non-flourescent light.