Do betta fish sleep?

Really, do betta fish sleep like us, humans, or other water-living creatures?

Of course they do. All animals sleep. Mine rests in his cave, or on one of his plants. He acts really startled if I come into the room at night and turn the lights on. You may not have seen your fish sleep before because they usually do it at night.

To be more precise, they rest when the lights go out. I guess it would be hard to sleep when you don't have eyelids!

They sleep under the leaves at night, nestled in next to the stem. Sometimes they take naps during the day right in-between the leaves.

Depending on the type, some fishes are Diurnal and some are Nocturnal. Of course diurnal fishes are active during the light hours and nocturnal fishes rest during that time and are active during the night hours. Most fishes tend to rest as if they stop moving and pushing water past their gills they would die. When they do rest, most diurnal fishes will be very pale and have their eyes expand inorder to see any movement as possible. Usually with diurnal fish, they will rest when the light has be off for awhile and the surounding environment is totally dark.

With nocturnal fishes, if you have any in a community tank, they will find a dark area and often rest and when other fishes rest, they will come out and feed.

Prolonged periods of lighting can also heat up the water in your tank, which is not the best for the fish. 

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