>The fish that Weiwei Li checked on every morning had spent an unusual night. Their small aquaria were illuminated by LED lights of a single wavelengthāiridescent blue, rusty red, or a tangerine orange. This artificial light replaced what would have been darkness had the fish lived in the wild, in rivers or lakes, someplace away from human settlements.
A behavioral ecologist based at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Li is interested in how certain kinds of artificial light, which mimic light pollution in bodies of water near urban settlements, affects the health of fish. Her results were concerning. At the conclusion of the study, [published this year](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969724064921?via%3Dihub), Li and colleagues found that not only do artificial lights at night causeĀ what they considerĀ āanxiety-likeā behavior in zebrafish, this behaviorĀ is passed down to their offspring, even when the offspring are born into an environment with natural light regimes
āThe light levels that we used in our study matched what is already shining into the homes of animals at night through the many sources we place outdoors,ā says Li. āAnd we found extremely strong and clear negative effects on the behavior of fish and their offspring after only a few bright nights.ā
_CMDR_ on
TL;DR turn off your fish lights at night. Full off.
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Here’s an excerpt.
>The fish that Weiwei Li checked on every morning had spent an unusual night. Their small aquaria were illuminated by LED lights of a single wavelengthāiridescent blue, rusty red, or a tangerine orange. This artificial light replaced what would have been darkness had the fish lived in the wild, in rivers or lakes, someplace away from human settlements.
A behavioral ecologist based at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Li is interested in how certain kinds of artificial light, which mimic light pollution in bodies of water near urban settlements, affects the health of fish. Her results were concerning. At the conclusion of the study, [published this year](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969724064921?via%3Dihub), Li and colleagues found that not only do artificial lights at night causeĀ what they considerĀ āanxiety-likeā behavior in zebrafish, this behaviorĀ is passed down to their offspring, even when the offspring are born into an environment with natural light regimes
āThe light levels that we used in our study matched what is already shining into the homes of animals at night through the many sources we place outdoors,ā says Li. āAnd we found extremely strong and clear negative effects on the behavior of fish and their offspring after only a few bright nights.ā
TL;DR turn off your fish lights at night. Full off.