Barbs freaking out when I turn on light. Are barbs bad with light?

[Amaracalle]

I just found my light for my 75 gal aquarium and when I turned it on my three T barbs when crazy till I turned it off. Are they not good with light?

 

[jake37]

A lot of fishes will freak out if you got from dark to bright light. I have mine on a timer so they slowly ramp up.

 

[MrBryan723]

They were probably asleep. The sudden change in lighting blinds them for a bit and freaks them out. It isn't unusual, but it's not great either. Can be stressful. Usually they get over it pretty quick.

 

[Basil]

When Tiger barbs sleep, they really sleep lol! Mine didn’t like a sudden
bright light either and are much happier with the light that ramps up and down.

 

[Flyfisha]

Putting the aquarium light on a timer might help the fish settle into a routine Amaracalle ?
It should be on for a total of less than eight hours.

 

[jake37]

Well a lot of the newer lcd lights have a ramp up feature where they slowly turn on over a definable period of time. That is what we mean by 'ramp up' or for evening 'ramp down'. The intensity changes over a period of time to emulate sunrise/sunset.

 

[e_watson09]

As others have mentioned it's probably just you waking them up and blinding them a bit for a little while. Its kinda like when people turn the bright lights on when your eyes are use to the dark.

I personally don't have lights that can ramp up so I just have timers on mine and I have them turning on a bit later in the morning. So then the light from outside fills the room a bit to get them in a little brighter environment before the tank lights come on.

My lights all come on between 9:30-10:30am so even in the winter when days are shorter the fish still get some daylight before the tank lights come on.