What Sounds Do Your Fish Make?

[gwand]

Like our avian friends fish apparently make distinctive sounds specific to their species.

https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ai-deciphers-fish-grunts-growls.html

 

[GaryE]

And humans thought they were the only ones with opera!

 

[FranciscoB]

Clicking sounds from yoyo and clown loaches. Major gulping sounds from silver dollars catching items at surface.

 

[anewbie]

I have no clue - they are too busy splashing me to spend time talking.

 

[raylove]

Yes, clicking from loaches but also angel fish.

 

[gwand]

Yes, clicking from loaches but also angel fish.

Is the sound generated by their mouth?

 

[GaryE]

We lose so much with the sounds of the mechanical systems we have. Bubbles, hums...

 

[anewbie]

Is the sound generated by their mouth?

This is what mr. google claims:
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Loaches click by grinding their specialized pharyngeal teeth (throat teeth) together, often while eating hard foods like snails or pellets, but they also do it to show excitement, dominance, or during territorial disputes, with sounds sometimes heard outside the tank, notes Reddit user @mcskewsme and Wikipedia.
--
I will say that my larger loaches do sometime make quite a bit of sound esp when they want me to feed them. They are bizzare they spend all day hiding for me - but at feeding time in the morning they will pile up by the side window while i feed the fishes around them and make it clear it is their turn to feed. Then when i actually put the food in they will dash back to their caves while the other fishs eat and then dash back out and grab as much as they can.

 

[gwand]

Wow. It’s a good thing that humans don’t have pharyngeal teeth! That would be freaky.

 

[anewbie]

Wow. It’s a good thing that humans don’t have pharyngeal teeth! That would be freaky.

But if we had them we wouldn't grind down our teach clicking.

 

[raylove]

Is the sound generated by their mouth?

I don't have angels now but when I did they would sometimes square up to each other, twitching their mouths and making sounds.

 

[Back in the fold]

With my hearing ? I’m lucky to hear the garbage truck outside .

 

[GaryE]

Our human senses are shaped by our own evolution. There are levels of sound other species can hear that we can't, and for a fish with a lateral line, the possibilities to receive vibrations are huge. We know we have lousy vision compared to a lot of other animals (and much better compared to many others). I have a better than average sense of smell, but my dog makes me look like I have permanent covid.

Sometimes we need sophisticated scientific instruments to hear, see or smell what's normal to other creatures. My fish could be singing like finches and I wouldn't know.