If you like the idea of interacting with your pet fish, you might wonder if your fish can hear you when you talk to it and if fish hear sounds at all.
Fish detect sounds but might not hear your voice due to its frequency range and water being a barrier. Your pet fish might perceive the vibration from your footsteps. Fish are aware of many household noises. New sounds or loud noises that are audible to fish can startle them.
Do Fish Have Ears? The Anatomy of the Hearing System of Fish
Fish do not have external ears but they have ears inside their heads, located behind their eyes.
The inner ear structure is a hollow space with cilia, or nerves, supporting ear stones, also known as otoliths. Otoliths are structures that perceive vibrations in the water. The brain then interprets the vibrations as sounds.
Some fish species have other ear mechanoreceptors, too, but all bony fish have otoliths. These structures grow as the fish matures and change their composition as the fish travels to various areas of the body of water. Interestingly, scientists use otoliths to identify the age of the fish and track its migration patterns, according to the blog of the University of Florida.
Can Fish Hear Through the Water?
Although fish hear, or perceive in their way, the sounds that occur in water, most sounds outside the water do not travel through the water.
An aquarium is a small body of water, so sounds are not muffled as they would be in nature. Many aquariums, however, have filters and bubblers, which interfere with the transmission of sounds.
How Fish Hear In Captivity
Fishes perceive sound as a vibration or movement rather than hearing it like people do. Some fishes detect sounds at a very narrow range of frequencies, while others perceive a wider spectrum of sounds.
If you consider the sounds that could be important for fish in their natural habitats, the sound of an approaching predator is a good example. Hearing, or detecting sounds, provides an acoustic map of the environment for fish, which helps them survive in the ocean.
Vibration associated with the movement of a large object in water produces sounds at a low-frequency range, and most fish hear that. High-frequency sounds, such as squeaking or birds chirping, are less likely to happen in water but many marine dwellers, such as dolphins, produce them for echolocation. High-frequency sounds are not within the range most fish can detect.
Can My Fish Hear When I Talk To It? Should I Talk To My Fish?
Your fish probably does not hear your voice, at least not very well, especially through the water. It does not mean that your fish is not aware of your presence.
There are noises other than your voice associated with your presence, such as walking around or opening and closing the door, that your pet fish can perceive because of the vibration that travels through the water.
Your fish knows that you are there. As for talking to your fish, there is no harm in doing that but it is probably more meaningful to you as a form of bonding with your pet fish.
Can Fish Hear The Filter? Does the Noise of the Bubbler Bother Fish?
Most bubblers are soft enough and have padding under the connections to absorb some of the vibrations, so they do not bother your fish.
Fish also become accustomed to the filter noises, so they do not signal danger to fish.
Do Fish Hear Music?
Fish may perceive some lower-frequency sounds when you play music. It could be stimulating to them if played occasionally but it is not likely that fish could enjoy music per se. Some sounds could be stressful to fish, if loud and not familiar.
Soft music should not bother your fish, it might not even be audible to them.
To Conclude
It is challenging to understand how fish hear because their auditory system is so different from ours, as is the acoustic scene of the ocean compared to the world above the water.
It is, however, safe to say that fish are aware of your presence and any changes in your home and fish adapt to the sounds of their aquarium.
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