Fish and noise/music

[duanes]

There has been some research and suggestion that Malagasy fish of the genus Paretroplus are very sensitive to certain sounds (especially water pump hum, and motor noise) and certain of these sounds may influence the success or not of aquarium spawnings.
The Malagasy genus Paretroplus, and the Indian subcontinent genus Etroplus have evolved an entirely different type auditory systems than any other genera of cichlids.

Paretroplus maculates above.
Etroplus suratensus spawning below.


Paretroplus kieneri spawn above
Paretroplus menerambo spawn below

 

[wednesday13]

I wonder about this a lot as well. The music is certainly audible underwater (don't ask how I know this, but it's easy to replicate the experiment yourself...) and I can't help but feel that at least some fish might be affected, perhaps significantly. When I am transporting fish in my truck I never play the stereo, in an effort to reduce stress. I have a stereo in my basement fishroom but only use it at very low levels, not much more than low background noise.

When fishing in a boat that has both electric and gasoline powered motors, try going for a quick dip next to the boat and listen underwater; you'll probably be surprised to learn that the crazy loud gas motor is still audible...but the electric trolling motor, which is almost silent when you are sitting in the boat, actually creates more noise underwater than the gasoline one. I am assuming this is because the actual electric motor is contained right at the propeller and is thus submerged in use, whereas the gasoline motor is above the water and only connected to the propeller by a transmission shaft. When fishing for skittish fish in shallow water, it can be observed that the fish are at least slightly startled when the electric motor is blipped a bit...and those fish are many feet away from the motor.

I'm curious to read others' ideas about this...

Edited to add: Lol, wednesday13 , you were one of the guys I was hoping would respond to this one. Just wait; the older you get, the deafer that loud music will make you, and thus the louder you will be forced to play it! I've been caught in that Catch-22 situation for a long time, and there's no return...I am comfortably numb....

i was deaf to start ???…80% loss in one ear already at 36. Have a 6 month old in house so my days of rattling the floor boards are sadly over for a while ?… been playing “un plugged”, not nearly as fun lol. My son does enjoy our guitar time tho.

 

[xenacanth9]

Helo. I just wanted to know what is your opinion if noise. Well mostly music can harm fish in some way beceause I play music pretty loud in my house sometimes or watching movies. BUT not in the same room as the fishes are. But even if it would be in same room would it be bad. I was just wondering. Thx. Until now I don't notice anything tough

I've never personally seen music harm fish in my own collection, though this is an interesting topic. I guess there could be some risk.

 

[esoxlucius]

I remember years ago as a young teenage lad getting into the angling scene. The older more experienced guys who'd be kind enough to share their wisdom would say, "you gotta be quiet kid."

I look back now and realise that that statement is possibly the single most important aspect of angling. Fish pick up the most remote sound through the water, or water's edge/banking through their lateral lines. And if that's not bad enough for the angler they have good eyesight too and can pick out movements, shadows and silhouettes just as easy. It's a tough job being a skilled angler, lol.

Of course I'm referring to wild fish here so the fish are even more alert to disturbance on the bank, they have to be, in the wild it could mean life or death! In an aquarium the lateral lines of our fish must be numb due to the constant sound of the aquarium related "instruments", not to mention background television noise, hifi, DIY noise, footfall of passers by, kids acting up etc etc etc.

Thinking more about it, i'm hoping that the fish adjust to such an extent that all this noise is just normalised for them, they are totally used to it. Because if not, then that could possibly mean that our fish are constantly stressed to one degree or another, and stressing out our fish is one thing that us aquarists strive very much not to do!

On a happier note though, we all know what the stress signs are in our fish, you know by observing them if something's amiss. And I think the vast majority of our fish are healthy and seem happy enough so maybe, after all, they do take the noise on board and just get on with it!

 

[Milingu]

I had a pair Hemichromis guttatus that I could trigger to spawn by playing loud music.
I also know from a commercial discus breeder who put his large headphones on top of the tank to induce spawning.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

playing loud music.

large headphones on top of the tank to induce spawning

I wonder whether or not these stimulated the rainy season. Rain hitting the water is quite loud and dynamic sounding, just like a lot of music out there, so perhaps the fish likened it to that and went from there.

 

[aussieman57]

As a retired scuba instructor it would blow your mind what noise sounds like underwater. And yes music, TV noise and any other noise which is basically air wave vibration will be transmitted through glass and into the water (which is much better conductor of sound). Please avoid RAP music and heavy metal which is garbage; the fish won't like it they have much better taste in music.

 

[Milingu]

I wonder whether or not these stimulated the rainy season. Rain hitting the water is quite loud and dynamic sounding, just like a lot of music out there, so perhaps the fish likened it to that and went from there.

Either rain or thunder I guess. In many places the rainy season starts with thunderstorms.

 

[aussieman57]

Either rain or thunder I guess. In many places the rainy season starts with thunderstorms.

Hard to say. I've always associated fish spawning with episodes of lower barometric pressure which accompanies storms. No rain hitting surface of aquarium in the house but that drop of barometric pressure always stimulated breeding behavior.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

I would like to point out that some fish have quite higher sensitivity to barometric pressure than others. Weather loaches probably being the best example (admittedly you can't exactly spawn them by just getting some and waiting for a thunderstorm, but they are very sensitive to it nonetheless).

Going by that, I think different species also have different thresholds for whether barometric pressure causes them to spawn or not. And that some might carry on spawning regardless of barometric pressure because a low sensitivity to it causes them to use other signals, such as the noise from rain, thunder, or music played by their owner.