However just like their wild cousins captive betta fish do need to sleep at night.
Do you turn betta fish light off at night.
If you don t want to go this route you can use alarms to remind you each day as to when to turn the lights on or off.
These light timers are probably the most effective and easiest manner of replicating your fish s night and day cycle.
The easiest way to do that is by turning the tank light on when you get up in the morning and switching it off when you go to bed at night.
As for the filter.
Consistent light cycles that replicate daylight and nighttime reduce stress and mimic natural environments.
Also a cheap appliance timer may do the trick if your bulbs don t eat up too much power.
Here is a picture of some.
You ll see this stress play out in feeding habits mostly.
Light timers are the easiest most effective way to regulate your fish s night day cycle.
Too much sunlight can overstimulate your betta causing stress and agitation as well as possibly causing feeding problems.
And of course the answer is off.
If you don t want to use light timers set an alarm and turn the lights on and off at the same time each day.
Basically it plugs into the wall and then plugs into your aquarium light and it switches the light off at your certain set time everyday.
And the most important things you need to remember are.
If your betta fish has too much light it can become overly stimulated and stressed.
Always best to leave it running.
Some bettas won t eat at all when stressed by too much light.
Simply set the timer to turn the light off at the same time each evening and to turn it back on the next day.
With all due respect guppies4life ive seen you say 16 hours before when advising on light hours 8 10 is about right someone running at 14 16 as ive seen you say will more than likely cause algae problems at some point.
So you must turn out the tank lights overnight to replicate the natural day night cycle that the fish enjoy in the wild.
One becomes dominannt and keeps picking on the weaker one until it dies.
You can keep female betta together but you need large tank and a decent group of fish 5 to spead out any aggression.
Now you should have a solid understanding of whether to leave a betta fish light on or off at night.
Now betta will survive the night with the filter off but you are harming the biological filter itself.
Yes you should turn the light off you re never giving your fish a chance to sleep if you don t keep the light 8 14 hours a day that s what i do.