How a fish rests will depend on its species and environment, so make sure to research a fish’s general behavior and resting patterns before adding it to your aquarium. Others nestle themselves in a safe place before resting, potentially hiding in a cave, plant, or on or in the substrate. Many species adopt this method of resting their brains while their bodies keep moving, albeit slowly, while others shut down more and simply float in the water. Sharks, famously, never stop swimming, even when resting, because their gills require water constantly flowing over them to keep the shark oxygenated. Of course, there are thousands of different species of fish, and how each one rests is different. Many ichthyologists prefer to refer to fish resting, rather than sleeping, because the mechanisms of the behavior, as much as we know what they are, are so different from what we understand as sleep as to not qualify as the same process. This isn’t because fish don’t ever sleep, but they don’t really sleep in the way most humans and mammals do. Some species are known to rest on the bottom of the tank or in caves or corals, but most species never seem to take a physical rest, always floating or even swimming in the tank. Do Fish Sleep?Īfter watching your fish for a while, you may begin to wonder if fish sleep at all. Shutting their eyes, then, even if they could do it, would not have the same effect as it does for humans, of shutting out sensory information and allowing the brain to rest. Most fish instead rely on smell, sound, and lateral lines, which sense movement in the water, to understand the world. Underwater, when a meal or a threat can come from any direction, it would be impractical to rely on a necessarily limited field of vision to find food or dodge predators. There is also significantly less light in most bodies of water, particularly the ocean, than on dry land, so fish are less likely to need to close or cover their eyes to protect them from the sun.Īdditionally, because light and visibility are so limited underwater, fish do not use vision as their main method of understanding or navigating the world. Fish obviously don’t have to worry about keeping their eyes moist or protecting them from dust. Human eyelids help keep the eyes moist and protect them from dust and other debris that may enter the eye. In the context of their environment, this makes sense. They physically cannot close their eyes, whether they’re sleeping or not. The short answer here is yes, and the short explanation for why is that fish don’t have eyelids. In this article, you’ll learn more about how and when fish sleep, and of course, we’ll also answer the all-important question: Do fish sleep with their eyes open? Once you’ve gained a bit of experience, though, the distinctions between all of these behaviors become easier to tease out. The end result is that it can be hard for a beginner aquarist to tell what their fish is thinking or doing, or even if it’s sleeping, sick, or dead. They have their own methods of communicating with one another, but these don’t translate well with people. They don’t make very many facial expressions like humans do, nor do they have the expressive vocalizations of dogs and cats. It can be hard to read a fish’s mood or behavior, especially for a first-time fish keeper.
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