Fish and The "Outside" Environment

Fish and the "outside" environment

Due to an eye injury in one of my two cats, my bedroom has needed to be in complete darkness. She has a scratch on her cornea and is being given a pain killer that is applied directly to her eye. This causes her pupil to dilate, so she needs complete, or near complete darkness or it will hurt her eye. Both the fish tanks are in the bedroom. The gold fish tank is easy, just keep the light off. They won't care to much and the java fern will survive. The 60 gallon tank however is heavily planted and cannot go a week or so without light, so I have taped garbage bags around the tank. This way the lights can be on, but the light exiting the tank in minimal. My fish seem to find this very interesting, or perhaps I am just finding their reactions very interesting.

The fish are all constantly huddled near the small opening, trying to see outside of their aquarium. I have always noticed that my fish watch me and react to changes outside of their aquarium. I just wasn't sure how much they really cared. This has led me to believe that they are very interested in what is going on outside the tank. Every time I happen to be going by the aquarium, I can see at least 4 or 5 little fishy faces peering out of the gaps between the garbage bags. I was not really that surprised to see that the angelfish and the gouramis and dwarf cichlids (A. thomasi) were curious, as they seem to be a little smarter. However, even the harlequin rasboras and the hatchet fish are often peaking out into the world. The botias don't seem to care one way or the other however.

This makes me wonder about fish in stores, where there are constantly people going by. I wonder if they enjoy seeing all the different people or if it stresses them out. I know that the Discus at the store I worked at often were at the front of the glass, wiggling excitedly for people. I think they felt secure in their tank. It was planted and they had places where they could be out of sight if they wanted. I wonder to what extent their inside environment affects how they react to their outside environment. For example, if they feel more secure inside the aquarium, will they be more likely to pay attention and react positively to the outside world? I am thinking yes.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/swambo/158783218/