Fish scared of LED lights

I've been having problems with my fish not swimming. They would just stay in the back by the floor. It was advised that I didn't had enough fish. So I bought them 6 friends, unfortunately 4 passed on. And still they all stayed hidden. Then I noticed when I turned the light off they came out and swam. They hate their light. So I tried playing with it, making it dim when I first turn it on, turning my room light on first ( usually I use my lamp by my bed ), still nothing. If it wasn't for the fact that I have live plants I would just leave it off. This is the only place I can have a tank so I can't put my plants in another tank. I've also looked at other lights within my budget and I seem to find only LED lights like I have.
What else can I try? I feel really bad that it took me months to figure out what was wrong.
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Can you give us more information please?
Tank size, all the live animals in it, types of plants, does the light have a brand name? how long has the tank been set up? what are the results of tests for nitrite, nitrate and ammonia? can you post a picture of the tank? Thanks! i want to help if i can!

 

Going to need a bit more info to really help.

What kind of fish are you keeping? How many of each kind?
How big is the tank?
You say you have live plants, but how many? Is the tank well planted?
General tank info, how long has it run, parameters would be nice to know etc.

Fish are generally not aversive to light, but something is making your fish feel exposed and unsafe. It could be anything from fish distribution to having a too bare tank. Or it could be a sign of some underlying issue in the system.

 

Can you give us more information please?
Tank size, all the live animals in it, types of plants, does the light have a brand name? how long has the tank been set up? what are the results of tests for nitrite, nitrate and ammonia? can you post a picture of the tank? Thanks! i want to help if i can!

Agree with this, 4 of 6 new fish dying is concerning, more information is needed. I think the fish are stressed, but what's the cause?

I know lighting can be a factor to cause fish stress and hide, if it's too bright they will hide from it altogether. turned down they may come up higher from the bottom and tank depth plays a factor if it's darker deeper, if it's all lit up well, it causes stress or discomfort. does the LED have a blue light night setting to it?
floating plants to block some of it should dim it down for them and as they grow dim it further. Frogbit, or dwarf water lettuce maybe?

However, this has nothing to do with the 4 out of 6 new fish dying that's something else that really needs the troubleshooting.

 

Oh sorry. I have a 10 gallon with 5 harlequin rasboras, 1 neon tetra, 2 nerite snails and 1 ghost shrimp.
I've had it going since late December 2021. Ammonia is 0 or 0.25 I have a hard time telling which. Nitrate is around 20, don't have a test for Nitrite yet. I do 4 gallon water change each week. The light is a Nicrew 24/7 light, I think it's new all the reviews were from this year. Plants are 2 Anubis, 1 java fern that is not doing so well and an Asian water fern. I've had most of the plants maybe 2 months now. And I have also a large piece of driftwood and some fake plants also.

 

I'd need to know fish type and light type

I use frogbit in all my tanks but the silver dollar tank as they'd eat it. that way it acts as a barrier so fish can relax even if light is on.

My skirt tetras and silver dollar fish (SDF) as excessively shy. I always talk to them and then they calm down and coem to glass to engage me

my 55 gallon tank (SDF and catfish) doesn't even have a light on it I use ambient light for them pretty much

I wonder if may a blue led light may serve you better?

less glare but plants still grow

Most of my lights are $24.99 to 35.00 range from amazon

oldest is 4 years old.

good luck!

 

What fish died?

Make sure that you did not bury the rhizome of the java fern.

A ten gallon tank does not have room for 2 schools of fish.

I would not personally try neons in a ten gallon, I know they are small, but they are more sensitive and possibly more active than harlequin rasbora.

Can you have a pet store check your water? Ask specifically for the ammonia results.

I put layers of parchment paper between my LED lights and my glass lid to dim it slightly for young rainbow fish.

The plants you have don't need too much light.

 

Agree with this, 4 of 6 new fish dying is concerning, more information is needed. I think the fish are stressed, but what's the cause?

I know lighting can be a factor to cause fish stress and hide, if it's too bright they will hide from it altogether. turned down they may come up higher from the bottom and tank depth plays a factor if it's darker deeper, if it's all lit up well, it causes stress or discomfort. does the LED have a blue light night setting to it?
floating plants to block some of it should dim it down for them and as they grow dim it further. Frogbit, or dwarf water lettuce maybe?

However, this has nothing to do with the 4 out of 6 new fish dying that's something else that really needs the troubleshooting.

I had a bit of a problem that I didn't catch in time. After about a week my older fish started scratching so I did a fungus treatment that I had from my other fish that needed that. Then I bought some ParaGuard from Seachem just to be safe and that stopped the scratching, and no more deaths. I read alot of articles online about symptoms so this doesn't happen again

What fish died?

4 of the new little rasboras.
I do have a blue light setting and they don't seem to like that one either. I keep the setting on the dimmest. I will try the floating plants.
Do you think having a glass lid will help? I have nothing between the light and the water.

 

+1 for floating plants.

 

Yeah, harlequin rasboras can be light sensitive, I know not everyone has this issue with them but it happens frequently enough with wild caught fish, or just a generation or two from wild caught. They are naturally low to near no light fish for the rasboras, and for the tetra it's dependent on where those genetics came from when it was collected and how many generations from the collected fish your fish is.
the Harlequin Rasboras eggs are light sensitive also and light will kill the eggs.

The neon tetra if wild caught or from a recently wild caught line collected from heavy growth and tannins stained water. the eyes can't take all the brightness.

Both fish are from areas with dark stained water and heavy growth and genetically disposed to light sensitivity from where their genetic line was collected from. Very low light fish I think and anything more than that probably cause stress if not discomfort or pain.

figure it like this, with neons, from the amazon, they can be in really brown stained water with heavy plants or heavy canopy over where the are they were collected from. they would be staying local to that area for the tanins and adjustment if food is bountiful and water is good, and stay for generations, maybe from a cut off section even and isolated for generations and eyes have developed to see in near darkness and light makes them uncomfortable, at the least.

Same kind of thing for the harlequin rasboras. from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. usually collected from dark stained peat pools with tons of vegetation. if the eggs are light sensitive, the fish should be also

I fear you won't get the results you are looking for from floating plants until the tank is so dense light barely gets through at all. i'd suggest for testing before going that far to heavy planting. If your light is "cold" and not going to set things on fire or melt stuff, and you have a hood between the water and the light, you can try laying various materials between the light and the glass to act as a filter even black paper and a holepunch for a couple beams of light to get through to see with and the beams beaming on the plants you want to get light, while the majority is pretty dark around the plants. test filters and see what it takes for them to relax and come out of hiding and then figure out what it takes for the light to do that similar level by planting, but first is finding out what light level will make them comfortable and acting naturally.

dark substrate that won't reflect light back up can be helpful, dark background also. lots of shady spots and leaves casting shadows and an open space to swim that isn't bright white. maybe raising the light up 6 inches, or 10 inches off the aquarium.

I wouldn't spend the money on plants immediately until you figure out the lighting the fish need to be comfortable, and then figure out which plants can work with that level of lighting.

 

What fish died?
Make sure that you did not bury the rhizome of the java fern.
A ten gallon tank does not have room for 2 schools of fish. I would not personally try neons in a ten gallon, they are more sensitive and possibly more active than harlequin rasbora.
Can you have a pet store check your water? Ask specifically for the ammonia results.

All my plants are attached to rocks. My neon does like to stay with her friends a lot.

Yeah, harlequin rasboras can be light sensitive, I know not everyone has this issue with them but it happens frequently enough with wild caught fish, or just a generation or two from wild caught. They are naturally low to near no light fish for the rasboras, and for the tetra it's dependent on where those genetics came from when it was collected and how many generations from the collected fish your fish is.
the Harlequin Rasboras eggs are light sensitive also and light will kill the eggs.

The neon tetra if wild caught or from a recently wild caught line collected from heavy growth and tannins stained water. the eyes can't take all the brightness.

Both fish are from areas with dark stained water and heavy growth and genetically disposed to light sensitivity from where their line was collected from. Very low light fish I think and anything more than that probably cause stress if not discomfort or pain.

If your light is "cold" and not going to set things on fire or melt stuff, and you have a hood between the water and the light, you can try laying various materials between the light and the glass to act as a filter even black paper and a holepunch for a couple beams of light to get through to see with on plants while the majority is pretty dark around the plants..

I have nothing between my light and water. Will definitely be buying them a lid and try what you suggested.

 

All my plants are attached to rocks. My neon does like to stay with her friends a lot.

I have nothing between my light and water. Will definitely be buying them a lid and try what you suggested.

A glass lid won't necessarily help with diffusing the light, but it will help keep algae and water off your light and allow you to try some things as light filters without it falling into the tank. as algae builds on the glass of the lid (if a glass lid) this will dim the light getting through some in time. but eventually the algae becomes a sheet and falls off into the aquarium again and lets more light through. What I know is, plants ain't cheap, and neither are new lights. I think filtering the light you have to see what amount of light is their comfort zone is the best approach to spending what you need to to correct the problem without trying things at random ( and spending) and hoping it's enough.

maybe light in the center and dark on the edges, or light on the edges and dark in the center. there's a bunch of things you can try, different colors of light through a colored filter. maybe they want green, yellow or brown soft light, as opposed to blue, red or white, or light like a bright sun coming through really dense trees for them to be comfortable and act natural. I think that's the cost effective way to get near immediate results in order to solve the problem and find the right lighting level the fish enjoy, and you can live with to see the fish by and get enough light to your plants also. might need to be on 12-14 hours at a much lower brightness. hard to say.

 

Try floaters like frogbit and salvinia or you can even try floating stem plants like hornwort or elodea. I think those can be even better because as they grow they can create a web of stems throughout all levels of the tank. Very good for making fish feel comfy and they are easy to keep, just need trimming once in a while.