Clowns affraid of new light?

[icejam]

I changed my lights about a week ago to more bluish. (DIY LED)
Since then my 2 clowns are sitting in the corner of the tank afraid to come out even during feeding times. They will swim out slowly and get a little food that is close to the corner and rush back in the corner quickly.
So when I turn down blue LEDs, so the light is pure white, the fish come out almost instantly and swim as before all over the place. As soon as blue light hits the water they are back in the corner.

Anybody observed that before?
Should I leave the blue light on or off?
Will the fish ever get used to it?

thanks

Edit: I will try to post a video of this behavior somewhere on the internet.

 

[Amoo]

they'll figure it out. They are called clowns for a reason.

 

[icejam]

Yeah, I remember a similar behavior when they were new in the aquarium.
I didn't realize that change of light could have same effect. Thanks.

 

[NY_Caveman]

At night, the pink light of my Chaeto LED shines through one of the overflows and my tiny Ocellaris swims around that spot in the glow all night. As soon as the display LEDs come on he returns to swimming around the whole tank. Weird.

 

[Katrina71]

At night, the pink light of my Chaeto LED shines through one of the overflows and my tiny Ocellaris swims around that spot in the glow all night. As soon as the display LEDs come on he returns to swimming around the whole tank. Weird.

Maybe it's just an Aerosmith fan?

 

[BubbleFett42079]

Just like your corals, your clowns will need to acclimate to the different color spectrum. Just give them some time and the clowns will start swimming out from their corner.

If you want to try and coax them out, try to target feed some brine shrimp a little farther out from their comfort zone.

Good luck.

 

[icejam]

Im trying exactly that but they just got me worried staying in the corner all day long.

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[davocean]

At night, the pink light of my Chaeto LED shines through one of the overflows and my tiny Ocellaris swims around that spot in the glow all night. As soon as the display LEDs come on he returns to swimming around the whole tank. Weird.

Often they will be drawn to the brighter objects/areas of tank, in fact it's a trick to entice clowns to place a flashlight over an anemone you're hoping your clowns will discover as lights ramp down.

Not sure OP's issue sight unseen, but they are nesting fish more than open column fish, maybe a frogspawn or hammer could entice them if you don't have an anemone

 

[icejam]

With white light they are all over the place but blue light freaks them out it seems.
So I do not know if I should leave the blues on or turn off and slowly turn up some % every couple of days.
I'm afraid of 'breaking' them even more at this point.

 

[davocean]

Well like I said, hard to SEE what's going on w/out pics, but I am one of those old school reefers that prefers natural light as main lights, and keep the blues for ramping up or down hour before and hour after main lights, or some to enhance color.
It will not harm them, and if you were getting seemingly positive results w/ brighter light...

It's hard for me to imagine they are actually scared of blue light though

 

[icejam]

I'll try to post a video this weekend.
But it's pretty much white light - fish swim - add blue light - fish don't swim just hide

 

[davocean]

My best guess on that,and just a guess, perhaps the blue addition tricks them into thinking it's around night time and seeking a sleeping area, maybe

 

[icejam]

I like that explenation
I might play with the light levels and try to isolate the specific power setting or wavelength.

 

[davocean]

I like that explenation
I might play with the light levels and try to isolate the specific power setting or wavelength.

I know I like a fairly distinct warm up and cool down, my LEDs kick on an hour before main T5's, and they stay on an hour after, so it's a noticeable sunrise/sunset effect, and my fish definitely recognize it and start going near their caves and stuff as sunset time comes

 

[Nick30G]

I have a similar experience. If i use blue spectrum only on my LEDS my clownfish female will go crazy and start attacking my male clown. They absolutely hate blue spectrum only for some reason. They will start getting stressed out over it. Once i add my whites they are completely fine. I think the blue light alters the way my male clown looks to the female in a way that she thinks he is a intruder.

 

[icejam]

Thing is mine are doing this with the white light on at the same time.
Smallest amount of blue light and they disappear. I have 3:1 blue to white at the moment and it looks like I might need to look into swapping some blue leds for white.

 

[icejam]

I have no way of posting a video but I changed my lights setup and all seems fine. [emoji4]
Thank you all for your input.

 

[morning runner]

I currently have this same thing going on. Not sure if the clown type has anything to deal with it. I have a female mocha storm and the male is a midnight. The male has a tendency to fall in line with whatever the female does. The strange thing about my situation that differs from the rest is that the behavior is dominantly shown by the female. The male will occasionally do his normal rounds and then come back to her in her little cove.

I actually just noticed the behavior two days ago first hand and have been watching it every day since. In the morning they both swim freely through out the tank and the second the lights start turning on the female goes crazy causing the male to act the same. They both hide in the cove looking super stressed until the male makes his first move usually caused by the female nudging him to go check it out?

I haven’t changed my light schedule since the start of spring/summer to reflect the local sunrise/sunset - but with doing that I only adjusted the light schedule by shifting the on and off time. I never adjusted the over all brightness/output.

At this point I’m genuinely puzzled but plan on adjusting the blues tomorrow based off what people have recommended based off this thread. Any additional insight would definitely be appreciated!

 

[morning runner]

I forgot to mention, I’m running an AI Prime Hydra 32 and have been using one of the presets on their sites with minimal tweaks made. I’ve also had both clowns for a year and 4 months at this point.