Do koi need to sleep?

[Akai-San]

Just a basic question regarding the sleeping requirements of keeping koi. Do koi require sleep? Has anyone documented the differences of sleep deprived koi? Just wondering if detrimental to our cold blooded friends.

Would koi grow faster with constant swimming activity 24/7? Probably eat more too. I know us humans would deteriorate away pretty fast...anyone thought about or have any information? Thanks.

[luke frisbee]

Excellent question.
As higher animals need to organize and flush the brain, but lower animals do not have the "higher" thought processes we have to deal with...but then they don't have a brain that can handle anything but the "lower processes...
So does a lower/simpler brain need downtime to process lower/simpler thoughts?

[ajm808]

not sure about sleep but i think they like to rest now and again my air domes are on timers when they are on the fish are constantly swimming against currents
when they are of they seem to relax and cruise and rest abit so when they come back on the fish seem more lively.
just my views from watching them.

[Valarc]

I don't know about sleep, but I've wondered about the rest issue. I'm cycling my indoor pond three times an hour, and there are some fairly strong currents going on. Sometimes I worry whether the fish are having to swim for their lives constantly.

[monscine]

I ever read literature that said actually fishes also sleep. The one we would think they don't is because they don't have eyelid on both eyes. At night my kois would lay down on a flat surface section side by side just like they live on a dormitory .

I feed my kois 8 times a day with interval 2 hours each using autofeeder machine. The amount of the food given is not that much cause I ever read that kois don't really "digest" the food. So then I think it's better to give them small amount but in maximum time which could be.

Cheers,

[koifishgirl]

Yes koi sleep and I do think they should have a good nites rest just like everything else or they will become stressed and sick. I noted this years ago when the lights would be on at night in my tank, when the lights were cut off the fish would stay at the bottom of the tank and sleep. I used to keep my pond lights on pretty late and thought better of this knowing that the koi needed their rest so I only let my lights say on for a few hours after dark. I figure mother nature know best and like to follow her guidelines.

Judy

[mekoi]

I'm not sure that they sleep, maybe they just rest. I know mine does coz if I check them in the early hrs of the morning they're all laying at the bottom and as soon as I turn the lights on they start swimming around. My pond light are on timer, will switch on just before dawn and off by 11pm

rgds,
Jon

[cbcdesign]

The vast majority of living creatures sleep in fact so I think Koi must sleep. My tropical Fish certainly sleep and during the winter, I often come into the office (where the tanks is kept) before the tank lights come on to find the fish in all sorts of peculiar stationary positions. The neons (I am a fan of blue fish) lose all their colour overnight and only brighten up ten minutes or so after the lights come on and they have been swimming around for a while. From these observations, I am quite certain that fish sleep.

Alan.

My first post on this forum.

[Spike Cover]

These researchers say they do, http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bjmbr/v32n10/3339m.pdf

[Doug Ward]

Basically, when a fish isn't eating it's " sleeping"
Thats why I feel a koi pond should have an area of very minimal current so they can quit " working' in order to grow.
Muscle is built, in all creatures, during periods of rest... " sleep"... if you're a fish.
Muscle is scarred during " work" and heals itself, increasing in size, during rest.

An example. Ounce for ounce there is probably no stronger freshwater fish than a carp or Largemouth bass.
Look at their habits in the wild.

On the other hand there is certainly no freshwater fish with the ENDURANCE of a river trout... a thin, powerful fish... Kinda like a block mason or drywall hanger or sledge hammer swinger at the Railroad.
Usually thin, lean, guys with lots of endurance but cant lift what a linebacker or powerlifter can because they work "too much" and the muscle is used to long periods fo steady " work" or current" work", if you are a fish.

Look at the Jewfish..oooops Goliath Grouper. ..sheeeesh :-(
He is big, thick, and strong as hell with "burst energy" but most of the time he is laid up in a hole.

In comes the Tuna, or cuda, or jack... fighting the currents 24/7

This is one of the main reasons a mud pond gives that body to a koi that cannot be duplicated ( normally) in a recirc. system with TPR currents.