How well do the fish hear?

ahh.. acoustics.. did i mention i'm a sonar technician by trade? ;)

Sound DOES travel slowest by air.. and faster by water. sound waves passing through extremely dense objects, like steel, are INCREDIBLY fast.. the way sound gets quieter (losing amplitude)over larger distances is called attenuation, and that is why youll feel and hear noises traveling though walls and floors a lot easier than through the air. hence, fish are going to be exposed to a MUCH higher level of noise than we are, based on the fact that their water is physically connected to a line of solid objects, starting at the water, and then the tank, to the stand, the floor, and the walls.. so any sound that hits those objects is going to be pretty effectively 'amplified' within the tank, which is why in a lot of raised floor rooms, if you stomp your foot or drop something, youll see the fish in the tank 'jump'.. because while it was a loud noise to you, it was an extremely loud CRASH to them.

so even though the subwoofer is across the room, it can still be very stressful to the fish, and even the speakers can, although the higher frequencies will tend to attenuate much quicker and over a shorter distance, you'll find the bass is what bothers them the most.
 
Does it help I have very thick carpet?
 
it helps somewhat, but rather minimally.

the biggest difference is wood floors vs. ANY kind of carpet.
 
I have thick carpet and underneath the carpet is cement.
 
KidInTheHall said:
I have thick carpet and underneath the carpet is cement.
Click to expand...
You could look into putting rubber padding (Sorbothane), under any speakers making contact with the floor or walls. If you Google "rubber acoustic damper", lots will show up (good prices on ebay).

My brother was a musician (writer & producer), particular to percussion and piano. At one point, we had a 100 yr old house that was semi- detached; the old farts on the attached side used to complain about his piano practice (Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" can get a bit heavy... ;). Anyway, he employed tactics from his studio for our home and put rubber padding between the piano and the hardword floor: Peace (and quiet) was made w/ the neighbours. :)

Hope this helps.
CQ
 
if you can see ripples on the surface of the water like in Jurassic Park, you should probably turn down the volume. with movies like Star Wars, this can be a problem because everything is blowing up and the lightsaber fights can get pretty loud because the sound the lightsabers make tend to come out as bass...but thats half the fun :D. this should be such a problem in the LOTR movies.

since i have a tank and stereo in my room, i have to be careful how high i turn up the volume. if it goes up to high the bass can really bug the fish, and it doesnt help that my stereo starts getting "loud" at 10... it goes to 40 :D. not that i would play it that loud though...when its at 15 you can hear it from my front lawn. our big stereo is in the family room though.
 
at one point a long time I ago, I made speakers for gallo accoustics and audio component stands for zoethecus, which made isolation platforms. if you really want to disconnect the bass from the floor, the 2 best things you can do are to put an isolation platform under the subwoofer itself, that rests on 4 machined aluminum cones that come to points.

the isolation platform could be laminated mdf and pvc, or a composite box filled with sand... the idea is that the unit floats.

ZOETHECUS-1.JPG
this was one unit we made to house several components, you can see the isolation platforms and cones.. on this unit the legs were also bored out and filled with sand at the bottoms.
 
I wonder, too, if the fish become accustomed to your "normal" noise and don't get upset by it - but then if you suddenly did something new and loud, it would probably make them react. I say this, because I was told that when bringing a new fish home, to keep the car quiet (no loud radio etc) and when getting home, don't play music, make a lot of noise etc. Yet, after they've been here with me, everyone gets used to the various noises that go on. Nothing I do is very loud - but you know what I mean. Hope my point was in there somewhere, I am awfully tired and not feeling too well.

Interesting post though - really enjoyed hearing from the sound experts. :)
 
HMMM..... we usually listen to rock on the way home from the lfs. That's why our fish have names like Ozzy, Jethro, Led and Zepplin
 
My fish only dart around when I punch a wall really hard or stomp really hard. I got 2 12's 12 feet from them with a pioneer amp they seem to not mind it. Other people in the house seem to though haha. I just hope it doesnt break the glass.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom