Believe it or not, many people think that fish don't sleep because they don't close their eyes. Fish certainly do sleep, and sleep very well. Oscars are classed as diurnal fish, meaning they are active by day as oppose to many catfish which are nocturnal, active at night. Most of us will never actually see our Oscars sleeping because they do it after the lights have been turned out and everything is dark in the room. I came in late one evening and had forgotten to turn the fish tank lights on. When I turned the front room lights on, I saw the Oscars sleeping.

In the wild, fish will normally find hiding places to sleep. If they don't, they would be easy pickings for large nocturnal fish such as catfish. When you set your aquarium up, try and put in some hiding places for your fish. This may be large pieces of wood, you can use rock that the Oscars will go behind, or even make a nice big cave . If you want something easy and ready-made, go to a garden centre and get yourself a nice big plant pot, these make ideal places for fish to sleep in. I've got a large pot that the catfish uses during the day, one of the Oscars takes it over at night and use it for sleeping.

Fish settle down reasonably quickly once they are in darkness. If you have any nocturnal species such as catfish or plecos, they will become very active at this time. If you have given the diurnal fish plenty of places to get out of the way, they shouldn't get too disturbed by the fish that will be foraging about at night. Once you have turned all your lights out, try not to go back into the room and turn them all back on again, unless it is just a few minutes later. Fish don't like being disturbed once they have gone to sleep. They can often get spooked if you suddenly turn all the lights on. You will often see cuts and abrasions on Oscars when you first see them in the morning, these often happen at night if they are disturbed.

Oscars are very sweet when they sleep, if you have a pair, they will often sleep together. If you want to observe your Oscars sleeping then there are various ways you can do it without disturbing them. I have often used an infrared camera connected to a laptop. Using a simple piece of software, you can set up a simple webpage that you can view online. Infrared cameras can be bought for a very reasonable price, well under £20 if you shop around. If you don't want the hassle of setting up a webpage, you can purchase Infrared lights that you can use in conjunction with a video camera. If you set it up fairly close to your tank, you should be able to observe your Oscars sleeping without actually disturbing them.