Fish and music?

chunkylovah · Aug 10, 2021

Ok let me preface this with I am not crazy. I have tested this for the last month. This is not anthropomorphism, ok just hear me out! My fish have been super aggressive with each other over the last year. I have two clowns and a midas blenny. They all fight each other all the time, sometimes worse then other times.

Almost a month ago I put a bluetooth speaker next to my aquarium for no particular reason and started playing music in the mornings. I began to notice the mood in the tank was different. Like when the music is on my clowns don't fight, they just float around lazily? My midas blenny normally hides in a hole in a rock because the clowns are so aggressive towards it, but even he's sitting out in the open and the clowns are just swimming past it like they don't even notice him anymore.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Does music actually have any effect on coral/fish?

(Random photo of my blenny)

Mr. Mojo Rising · Aug 10, 2021

you're not crazy, fish love music

mine always have at least

andiesreef · Aug 10, 2021

this is an interesting idea. maybe the vibrations from the speaker have some role to play. like when you set down a heavy object on the tank stand and all the fish feel the vibrations and dart for cover. would love to know what else you find on this.

Neptune 555 · Sep 30, 2021

How could you prove your theory? I am following.. I want more data! thanks!!

N.Sreefer · Oct 3, 2021

Lots of studies done on this with mammals but not alot with fish.

"Research has shown that non-human animals respond predictably to musical stimuli, if the music is based on affective calls of their species."

Animal signals and emotion in music: coordinating affect across groups

Researchers studying the emotional impact of music have not traditionally been concerned with the principled relationship between form and function in evolved animal signals. The acoustic structure of musical forms is related in important ways to emotion ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov