Barometric Pressure and Aquarium Fish Activity

[AKL1950]

I’m curious as to what everyone notices about their fish during storms. I know rapid changes in barometric pressure has a dramatic effect on fish, and now that I’m getting my DT stocked up I’m seeing a very close correlation to it in my fish activity. My DT is isolated from outside light so they can’t see light changes, but obviously not from the effects of barometric change.

when it’s bright and sunny outside, the fish are active, swimming a lot and all over the tank. When a storm moves into the area (barometric drop), they all move to their hiding places and stay there till the storm has past. Sun comes back out, so do they.

Does anyone else see this? I feel like I need to change my feeding times if a storm is present, because they dont seem to want to eat during that time.

Jetson

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I’m curious as to what everyone notices about their fish during storms. I know rapid changes in barometric pressure has a dramatic effect on fish, and now that I’m getting my DT stocked up I’m seeing a very close correlation to it in my fish activity. My DT is isolated from outside light so they can’t see light changes, but obviously not from the effects of barometric change.

when it’s bright and sunny outside, the fish are active, swimming a lot and all over the tank. When a storm moves into the area (barometric drop), they all move to their hiding places and stay there till the storm has past. Sun comes back out, so do they.

Does anyone else see this? I feel like I need to change my feeding times if a storm is present, because they dont seem to want to eat during that time.

Jetson

The primary issue we see is protein skimmers overflowing when the barometric pressure drops. Not sure if hobbyist units show the same thing.
Corydoras catfish are known to react to storms by spawning.
To be honest, I’ve never seen a noticeable reaction in our systems to passing storms. We do have an emergency exit door that if it gets opened on a sunny day, causes the reef sharks to freak out.
Jay

 

[Projects with Sam]

I know bass fishing is affected by storms.

 

[fishguy242]

i think you have a good point here, as a lifelong fisherman, believe pressure drops effects the feed in Freshwater large catfish ...

 

[AKL1950]

We are in the rainy season here in central Florida. When it’s sunny and clear outside, the fish (chromis and tangs) go into a feeding frenzy when I put the food in. If there is a storm present outside and I feed, they all stay out of sight and only grab what comes to them. It’s pretty consistent that way. I’m suspecting low pressure signals then to be cautious. Maybe what you said about the sharks has something to do with it. I do know that if you go fishing in inclement weather, you won’t catch much.

Jetson

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I know some fish react pretty intensely to changes in barometric pressure (and other storm-associated environmental changes), but typically it's with increased movement not decreased.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328161672_The_effect_of_atmospheric_pressure_and_water_temperature_on_the_swimming_activity_of_round_goby_Neogobius_melanostomus_Actinopterygii_Perciformes_Gobiidae

Tropical storms influence the movement behavior of a demersal oceanic fish species - PMC

Extreme weather events strongly influence marine, freshwater, and estuarine ecosystems in myriad ways. We quantified movements of a demersal oceanic fish species (gray triggerfish Balistes capriscus; N = 30) before, during, and after two hurricanes ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

I would say (though I'm not aware of any studies to back this guess up) this is likely due to fish migrating to deeper/more sheltered waters during storms either for safety or to follow their prey.

Either way, the relationship between fish behavior and barometric pressure is interesting to think about.

 

[AKL1950]

Another observation I’ve noticed is the color of the little school of Chromis I have. Bright sunny outside and they are lite blue green. When the thunderstorms start moving in, they turn to a blackish dart green. Same as they do when the lights go out at night. Pretty cool to watch. Like having a living barometer in my living room.

Jetson

 

[dennis romano]

Freshwater tropical fish are highly affected by barometric pressure. When fish breeders know that a strong storm is coming in a few days, they start to heavily feed their fish. This causes eggs to develop. The day of the storm, they do a heavy partial water change. The water change and drop in pressure causes the fish to go into spawning mood. It imitates the start of the rainy season which for many species is breeding season. This works fairly well with many cichlids, cats and characins.

 

[AKL1950]

Lol! Big storm just started. Lots of lightning and thunder. Chromis‘s and Tang went and hid. Clowns act like nothing is happening. Guess they are immune to WX changes.

Jetson

 

[AKL1950]

Storm passed about ten minutes ago. Now everyone are out swimming around and my Tomini is busy grazing again. This is amazing to watch. They can’t see what’s going on outside.

 

[legionofdoon]

Freshwater tropical fish are highly affected by barometric pressure. When fish breeders know that a strong storm is coming in a few days, they start to heavily feed their fish. This causes eggs to develop. The day of the storm, they do a heavy partial water change. The water change and drop in pressure causes the fish to go into spawning mood. It imitates the start of the rainy season which for many species is breeding season. This works fairly well with many cichlids, cats and characins.

I used to trigger cichlid spawning by lowering the water in their tank by about a third for a few weeks then abruptly bring it back to normal. Electric blues are just as bad as blue devils!