Animals’ preferences are often used as the basis for experimental paradigms in neuroscience, where an environment considered preferred or aversive is used to test anxiety. Presently, this is a problem for the use of the light/dark box paradigm in zebrafish standard behaviour tests, as based on the species biology, adult zebrafish are expected to prefer the lit side of the apparatus, but some papers report scototaxis.To understand whether different methods can explain the apparently contradictory results, we have reviewed the literature addressing the natural preference of adult zebrafish regarding light conditions and background colour. We then proposed a standardized terminology that adequately reflects test conditions. Applying this terminology would clear the confusion and contradiction involving zebrafish light preference making the results reported consistent and coherent with the methodology used.