Fish live in a world of sight and sound. Underwater, fish rely on both vision and hearing to hunt, avoid predators, interact with each other, and communicate. While fish don’t have vocal cords and can’t speak or make noises like mammals, they actually do make a variety of sounds in different ways.
How do fish make sounds?
Fish make sound in three primary ways:
- Body movements – Swimming, grinding teeth, vibrating muscles
- Mechanical sounds – Joing, jaws, fins, tail
- Vocalizations – Special organs that produce sound
Different species of fish make different types of sounds using one or more of these mechanisms. Let’s look at some examples of sounds fish make and how they do it.
Body Movements
Many fish species create sounds with their bodies as they swim through the water. For example, herring make a high frequency clicking sound with their swim bladder as they continuously pump it to maintain buoyancy. The Zebra danio, a small freshwater fish, makes chirping noises by vibrating muscles near their swim bladder. Some fish grind their teeth and produce a scraping or croaking sound.
Mechanical Sounds
Certain body parts on fish can produce incidental sounds simply by their mechanical operation or interaction with the environment. For example, the jaws and grinding teeth of parrotfish as they graze on coral reefs make audible sounds. The sounds can act as a warning signal to other fish in the area. Many fish also produce sounds with their fins. For example, triggerfish make chirping sounds by quickly opening and closing their fins.
Vocalizations
Some fish have evolved special organs that allow them to vocalize and produce more complex sounds for communication. For example:
- Grunters and croakers – These fish make grunting or drumming sounds with their swim bladder or muscles.
- Drumfish – Produce sounds by vibrating muscles attached to their swim bladder.
- Gurnards – Rub specially adapted bones across grooved spines on their head and pectoral fins.
- Toadfish – Make boatwhistle-like mating calls using fast muscle contractions.
Why do fish make sounds?
There are several reasons why fish produce sounds:
- Communication – Many sounds are used for mating calls, territorial displays, maintaining social hierarchy, schooling, etc.
- Navigation – Some fish use sound to navigate their environment in dark or murky waters.
- Prey detection – Certain fish can locate prey by the sounds they make.
- Predator avoidance – Sounds can act as a warning signal to other fish of nearby predators.
- Expression – Sounds may communicate threat displays, aggression, submission, courtship.
Overall, fish sounds allow fish to interact, coordinate, and share information essential to their survival. The ability to produce and detect sound gives fish a sensory advantage in an aquatic world where visibility is often limited.
What do fish sounds sound like?
The sounds fish make are quite diverse and vary across species. Here are some examples:
- Clicks – like two hard objects hitting together rapidly
- Croaks – low frog-like vocalizations
- Drums – rapid muscled contractions making a low throbbing sound
- Grunts – short low-frequency grunts
- Hums – constant low-frequency humming sounds
- Knocks – rapid woodpecker-like knocking sounds
- Purrs – rolling, trilling sounds
- Pops – quick popping sounds
- Rattles – rapid shaking/vibrating sounds
- Roars – prolonged low bellowing sounds
- Snaps – swift cracking sounds
- Thumps – heavy dull beating sounds
- Whistles – high-pitched tonal sounds
Fish sounds are often categorized into pulses, knocks, grunts, hums, drumrolls, and pure tones. Some fish chorus by coordinating their sounds together.
Can you hear fish sounds?
Most fish make sounds from 0 to 200 Hz, which is a low frequency humans can’t hear well. However, some fish produce higher frequency sounds within the human hearing range. For example, shrimp and lobster snap their claws at 5,000 Hz. Noises made by prey fish being attacked can also be audible to humans underwater.
Scuba divers often report hearing grunts, clicks, and pops made by fish on dives. Recording equipment is needed to pick up most subtle fish noises that humans can’t detect. Slowed down recordings make these sounds audible and help us study fish bioacoustics.
How do fish hear sounds?
Fish are able to detect sound through their inner ear, which contains three semicircular canals and three otolith organs – the saccule, utricle, and lagena. These organs contain calcium carbonate crystals that move when vibrations are detected, triggering hair cells that send signals to the brain.
Compared to humans, most fish detect higher frequency sounds better than lower frequencies. Some fish like carp and catfish have an extended hearing range down to very low hertz levels to help detect prey.
Water carries sound waves much better than air, so hearing is extremely advantageous underwater. Sound travels almost 5 times faster in water than air. Fish use their swim bladder to amplify sound detected by their inner ear.
Do all fish make sounds?
It’s estimated over 800 species of fish make some type of sound. However, not all fish are known to make sounds. Here are some examples:
Fish that make sounds:
- Clownfish
- Damselfish
- Dolphinfish
- Drumfish
- Grunters
- Gurnard
- Herring
- Largemouth bass
- Parrotfish
- Toadfish
- Triggerfish
Fish not known to make sounds:
- Angelfish
- Cod
- Goldfish
- Koi
- Piranha
- Seahorse
- Tetra
- Tuna
Fish species that vocalize tend to inhabit shallow, murky waters where visibility is poor but sound can travel well.
Examples of noisy fish species
Here are some fish species well known for their unique sounds and vocalizations:
Toadfish
These rockfish are also called midshipmen fish or singing fish due to the loud mating calls males produce by contracting specialized sonic muscles up to 200 times per second. These Boatwhistle-like sounds can last for hours throughout mating season. The Gulf toadfish frequents shallow, coastal waters and tidal pools.
Grunters and Croakers
These fish families includes drums and croakers that produce grunting, knocking, and drumming sounds using specialized gas bladders and muscles that vibrate against their swim bladder. They inhabit tropical and subtropical coastal waters. The sounds are used to attract mates and communicate.
Dolphinfish
Also known as mahi-mahi or dorado, these powerful offshore sport fish make a variety of croaks, barks, and other noises, especially when caught on a fishing line. Scientists think the sounds may communicate distress.
Triggerfish
Triggerfish produce a “knocking” sound by snapping their fins shut. This staccato sound helps deter predators and intruders from their nesting areas in coral reefs. They can make other grunts and clicks as well using their jaws and teeth.
Atlantic Cod
Male Atlantic cod make a distinctive rhythmic grunting or humming sound to attract females to their spawning grounds. The cod populations in the western Atlantic have declined but they can still be found making noises off the coast of New England and Canada.
American Shad
These migratory fish travel up rivers along the Atlantic coast in spring to spawn. During spawning, males produce loud drumming sounds by vibrating their swim bladder. These noises can be heard above the surface from the spawn aggregation.
Conclusion
While fish don’t have vocal cords, they have evolved some amazing ways to produce sounds critical for survival. From mating calls, to predator warnings, to navigation, sound provides fish with a crucial second sense to go along with vision in the aquatic environment. Recording technologies continue to help us discover just how vocal fishes really are below the surface. So next time you’re swimming or diving, listen closely and you might just hear the clicks, knocks, hums and grunts of fish communicating in their underwater world.