Can Fish Hear?

Bruce · 06-03-2007, 12:34 AM

Well...I might not be exacly asking that because I know that they are able to hear noise... Actually, I wanted to know how loud the noise of aquarium hardware is to fish and inverts. Heck, if its loud to me, they must be pretty upset.

MDeth · 06-03-2007, 12:40 AM

Maybe thats why fish jump :p
^Could be a constant migraine from pumps, etc.

geekdafied · 06-03-2007, 02:14 AM

I dont think its so much as hearing, I think its more of feeling the vibrations etc.

coral reefer · 06-03-2007, 02:54 AM

Like sharks, they pick up vibrations and can see pretty well, and have a great sense of smell! That is what I think! Could be wrong though.

geekdafied · 06-03-2007, 03:18 AM

fish dont have ears, lol

inwall75 · 06-03-2007, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geekdafied

I dont think its so much as hearing, I think its more of feeling the vibrations etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by coral reefer

Like sharks, they pick up vibrations and can see pretty well, and have a great sense of smell!

That's what their lateral line is for. It picks up vibrations from other fish. That's why fish with HLLE are often picked off by more aggressive fish. HLLE basically takes away one of their most important senses. (Kind of like going deaf and not hearing a mugger running at you from behind).

djnzlab1 · 06-03-2007, 05:32 AM

HI,
I used to dive in FLA and you can hear numerous sounds for miles,PROPS make a screaming whine, and then theres GRUnts, moans and pops from all the critters in the rock. I think sharks use sound too, Ive noticed they seem to feel the vibration of a wounded fish , and those dang baracuda used to follow me around and when I speared of fish they would try to take it off my spear very pushy I usally let them have it and had to get another for me. adn would always use a floating food holder a innertube with a a fish net bag to hold fish, If you ever spear fish in the key never wear your fish bag on your belt your chumming the sharks to bite, you although they are very quiet in the day adn sllep mostly in deep water., they can stil seem to wake up when they smell chow.
I hate to think about how much noise some of those tanks pumps impellors make. Maybe theose mag impellors that work thru glass are pretty quite.
Doug

Twan013 · 06-07-2007, 11:34 AM

i always thought they (all fish) used vibrations too... but if you think about it, sound is nothing more that vibrations... well, sound causes your eardrums to vibrate... and about sharks sleeping... i've always been told that they don't sleep... which brings me to a question of my own.. i know some fish are active during the day, and others during the night... but one of my mollies is always active! during the night, when i use my red lens light to study my tank, one molly is always in the top corner of the tank swimming in place, and the other one is MIA... but my biggest one, is always swimming around, even when i'm not using the flashlight, i can see him swimming around (because of my led's that are on)... and it can't really be stressing him out too much because he's the very first fish i ever put in there, so he's been through a LOT... my damsel has a cave that he hides in (when you shine the light on him, he acts scared and swims around frantically) and my blenny doesn't respond to the light at night... you can always find him somewhere or another, hidden between 2 rocks, with his head poking out, staring right back at ya, but he never moves... but what's the deal with that one molly? why does he swim around 24/7???

90_Berlin_joe · 06-07-2007, 02:10 PM

WHAT! WHAT! SPEAK UP I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!!

Fish can not hear, there are no ear drums of any sort.. However, they do use Vibration like mentioned above.

The Navy has been using Sonar for the longest time to communicate with sea mammals such as dolphins. Sonar emits a subsonic pulse (sound waves) in the water which is picked up by the fish. Example bass in your house/car. If you cover your ears you can still feel the sound from the speakers.

So in essence if you have a loud (((VIbRaTInG)))) tank then yes you are driving your fish, and coral up the wall. It’s kind of like living next door to that teenage rock star at 3am in the morning.

Twan013 · 06-07-2007, 10:29 PM

HAHAHAHA!!! berlin joe, that last bit reminds me of some friends of mine..they were playing late one night/early one morning, and woke their dad up, so he came in wearing whitey-tighties and a wifebeater, trying to jerk the amp powercord out of the wall screaming "aaron, have ya learned your lesson?!?!?" the part that makes it funnier, is he's a 6'4" 300 lb equadorian (essentially, a mexican!) in my opinion, just absolutely hilarious!