The Puffer Forum

I run a tank with no sump so all of my equipemt is is in the display ( which i like to call my puffs lair, mansion, domain). I have alot of very noisy equipment( this is in my bedroom and there are nights i have trouble fallling alseep because of it). A mag drive 5 running my skimmer, another pump running my hob fuge, korlia ph, and an mp40. Does all this sound make for an uncomftable life for my puff? I have been comtemplating a custom sump plummed through the wall to the closet behind the tank and if a noise reduction would make his/her life better this would seal my desicion.

I dun believe they can hear but I think the vibrations may affect them more or less.

I've wondered about this one myself.

Having done a fair share of diving and fishing along beach and reef surf zones, I've noted wave impact areas do make loud underwater grinding noises non-stop. There never seems to be a shortage of fish living and feeding there. My guess is that if an aquarium fish is showing good condition, eating normally, and seems healthy, the vibration is probably something they've grown used to. There is no doubt that they do hear and sense it.

Obviously, placing your 750-watt-per-channel stereo's speakers so that they actually touch the glass, cueing up a serious party cut, while turning the amp's volume knob up to ELEVEN, will probably result in "Abu Ghraib Aquarium"
syndrome in fairly short order.

Actually funny you used that example. One of the clubs i go to as a cichlid tank right next to of their speakers. But yea my everything in the tank is doing great so I guess i'll leave well enough alone.

Some species of fish do have internal 'ears' inside their skulls but I'm not sure if puffers is one of them, although I have seen puffers come to investigate tapping on the glass. It's possible that they can sense the vibration or percussion of sound waves, as opposed to actually *hearing* them like we do.

Sound passes through water better than anything else; hydrophone operators on submarines can hear ships over 10 miles away. I would imagine that fish would have evolved to sense such a thing somehow.

Fish feel vibration with their lateral line and a lot of noise is transferred to the tank. They basically hear by feel. There are a few video's out where people have put mic's underwater in their tanks and the amount of noise generated by filters and powerheads is pretty impressive.

they don't like rap or hip-hop at all

I've never noticed any distress from my fish and I have multiple tanks near a speaker/turntable setup.