do blacklights hurt fish?

Question

can a ultra violet blacklight harm a fish? can i use it instead of regular light?

Answer 1

The jury is still out on black lights in fresh water species. Some believe it damages the cones in the fish eyes causing a problem. Others say it doesn't.
If you have fish like tetras or brightly colored breeds, the black light brings out the colors better and cuts down on algae growth.
Some Salt water species are damaged by black light. I wish I could remember the study.
Black lights on show fish tanks are common and popular. If you have a dual light hood set in one black light and one regular bulb or bar and switch from one to the other.
The fish do need regular light (unless they are like albino cats, strangely, light don't matter to blind fish) at a minimum 4 hrs a day.

Answer 2

in case you want blind fish then do it. black lights fixtures received't harm fish in a fashion that you'll visibly see despite the indisputable fact that it is going to blind them. I truly have made this blunders earlier at the same time as i change into nonetheless protecting gold fish, after a month or so i couldnt decide why my fish wernt looking foodstuff in any respect, a touch study later i got here across out that black lights fixtures blind them.

Answer 3

Yes it hurts saltwater fish and it may hurt freshwater- experts are currently arguing this point. I personally would not suggest it if you care about the fish.

Answer 4

Instead of asking about "UV Lights" or the even more butchered down variant "Black lights" perhaps you should check out some information into the light spectrum, understand the difference between aplitude and frequency... Without knowing this it is extremely difficult to explain why a 420nm lightsource will let something like coral grow twice as fast as if its under a different type.

The basics come down to what we can observe in the world. The argument that the narrow bandwith light damages the photonic receptors in the eyes of fish is up for debate, and I can concur that using narrow bandwith light is not healthy for your fish... I will explain why.

Most fish will not live upon the surface of the water. For example the cichlids of Lake Malawi are nearly never found about the surface of the water unless it is being fed by a person.

Because of the fact that fish live below the surface of the water, and sometimes a great way below the surface, they will be exposed to less types of light, but not neccessarily less light at all.

As light containing the yellow and red ends of the light spectrum collides into the surface of the water, immediately a large amount is "reflected" away. As you may know or understand now... a blue pen isnt blue, it simply lacks blue, therefore when light of all colours shines upon it, all colour is absorbed except for blue, the reflection of the blue then identifies to us that this is a blue pen. When in truth it is simply reflecting blue light back at your eyes.

As you make your way further down in a lake, or ocean, or river or any body of water, microsopic life forms, small pieces of plants, general obstructions such as dirt or mud, algae and so on will not only get in the way of light, which I will tell you travels in a straight line without the addition of an excessive amount of gravitational force. (black hole stuff here) Because light travels in a straight line and comes into such things in the water, the MASS majority of your light is being blocked. (see Google.com Light Spectrum)

It is believed that about 50m below the surface of the ocean, red light is no longer visible. As we walk down the light spectrum from red, into yellow, into blue into UV we're starting to see trend, Systematically the light waves are losing aplitude, this makes them skinnier and able to travel faster. They reach the depths of the ocean for our fish to use. This light intensity is generally accepted to have approximately 420 nm (nanometers) of wavelength. (see Google.com Plants photosynthis under water.)

Now... This is >>Why<< light hits the bottom of the ocean... The next question to ask yourself is how deep your aquarium is?

Clearly it is incomparable to the depths of an ocean, so no you dont >>NEED<< narrow bandwith light to have happy fish. UV light as a direct exposure would almost certainly burn their eyeballs out since they're also exposed to all other bandwiths of light aswell. This is similar to waking up in the middle of the night and turning the bedroom light on to feel that sudden intensity of light attacking you. But they'd experience it on a much greater level. (see Google.com Fish Eyesight)

Plants also photosynthesize at the bottom of the ocean. And interesting enough it does it in the same way as a plant on terrestrial ground using red and yellow light would. The plant will break down CO2 into sugars (CHOH) although they will in this instance uptake bicarbonate ions in the form of inorganic carbons for use in the Calvin cycle. (See Google.com Calvin cycle).

Other species such as snails or other invertibrates will greatly bennifit from 420 nm light sources as will corals in a reef aquarium this is due to their anatomy and natural body chemistry.

I hope this is an adequate explanation of why narrow bandwith light is bad in aquariums but good in the fishes natural environment.

Answer 5

yes blacklights hurt fish because it always fight them if dont know who they are and it like to hurt the fish all the time.

Answer 6

you probably could for freshwater, but I would not recommend for salt water, and if you do in freshwater make sure you have a reg light to put on for a few hours everyday, because they need it to survive

Answer 7

No, it won't hurt fish.