Fish and Loud Noises

NotReefsafe · Oct 12, 2022

Will loud noises harm fish health? As a musician I cannot avoid being loud, but if necessary I could be loud not near my tank. So far I have not noticed any stressed but wonder if this differs by fish.

BaliReefBox · Oct 12, 2022

I suppose it depends if they like the kind of music you play them..

Spare time · Oct 12, 2022

It may stress them out. I wouldn't practice music in the same room as the tank. I would think any sort of low pitch frequency thud might be problematic.

NotReefsafe · Oct 12, 2022

why specifically low pitch?

Note I play trumpet so neither low pitch nor thuds will be occurring

Spare time · Oct 12, 2022

NotReefsafe said:
why specifically low pitch?

Note I play trumpet so neither low pitch nor thuds will be occurring

Fish communicate with low frequency sounds, plus the boom from an amp or percussion instrument might spook them. I'd think a trumpet would be fine so long as it isn't aimed right at the tank

Spare time · Oct 12, 2022

Btw this is a pretty neat read if you are interested in fish sounds

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6519373/

This too https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749119371994 (let me know if you need a pdf version since it might ask for you to access it through an institution

NotReefsafe · Oct 13, 2022

Really interesting stuff. Thanks!

DaJMasta · Oct 13, 2022

Water is a pretty strong low pass filter, so especially higher frequencies (or just higher frequency content like drum hits) is filtered out most strongly as you pass through it. That said, sound can have an effect, and some of my fish do jump a little bit when a pistol shrimp snaps in its den in the tank.

I haven't noticed any sound that I've made have an impact on them - powerhead vibrations and the filtering effect of the water mask and attenuate it pretty strongly - but impacts on the stand or glass could certainly make for strong impulses that they may react to.

I play bassoon about 3m from my tank on the regular and haven't noticed either ill effects or changes in behavior. My orange spot goby likes to come out and watch - presumably because I'm not close enough to be really imposing and because likes to keep an eye on things rather than an appreciation of music.