Noise impact on aquarium fish?

[thomaswal]

Hey!


Has anyone noticed an impact of noise/vibrations on aquarium fish behaviour?


We've probably all heard of the impact of anthropogenic noise on marine wildlife.
Anthropomorphism may not be relevant, but given what happens to me whenever I hear some disturbing noise or vibration in my daily life, I would think that the same happens to our fish.
Obviously, their senses are different from ours, but given their reaction when I accidentally close the door of my tank's cabinet a bit too hard, they must be pretty sensitive to vibrations.


I've never tried to put a hydrophone in an aquarium so I don't know what happens there or if the pumps are really silent...
We are trying to make our equipment as silent as possible to us. Is it really the same in our tanks and if not, should we do something about it?

I've had a quick look on the forum but haven't found any real discussion about this. I did the same for scientific research on the web, but what I found was mainly focused on wildlife studies.

;)

[Filip]

There is no doubt in my mind that they can sense even the slightest of vibrations in my apartment .
When they were new and still scared they could sense my footsteps coming from the other end of the apartment and immediately hide .
I'm not so sure about the sounds though . I've never notice them getting scared or shy away from an loud sound or noise In my room .
I'm not even sure if they have sound hearing organ at all .

[bluelagoon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensor...n_fish#Hearing

[brewmaster15]

I have no doubt that noise, Particularly vibrations can affect our discus. I used to have a well pump in my fishroom that was old and loud. I had a tank of discus near near it that were very edgy and skittish.. I tried moving the fish but what ever went in that tank became skittish. I finally noticed while doing a water change that went the well pump went on I could feel it in the water.

Shortly after that the well pump died and when I replaced it we upgraded to one buried in the yard... never had a problem in that tank after that.

hth,
Al
.

[thomaswal]

Thanks for your replies!
So the fish are sensitive to vibrations (not that I'm surprised)!
Does anyone know if the equipment we may use in our tanks (pumps, wave makers etc) produces such vibrations that the fish may dislike?

[brewmaster15]

Thanks for your replies!
So the fish are sensitive to vibrations (not that I'm surprised)!
Does anyone know if the equipment we may use in our tanks (pumps, wave makers etc) produces such vibrations that the fish may dislike?

I have not noted it or perhaps I just have not paid attention to it, but I would imagine noisy impellers from filters might travel through the water to the fish and annoy them. I know they annoy they heck out of me. I love aquaclear filters but as they are they get way too noisy!

al