February 2008 - Goldfish Care Information Diseases & Treatments

Goldfish Hearing – Do They Hear Sound?

People often wonder, do goldfish have hearing, do they hear sound?The answer to this question is yes! Many people are often curious whether goldfish can smell, taste, touch, how they eat, do they sleep and can goldfish hear. Goldfish can hear but it’s not like us how we have ears in through which we are able to hear sound. On goldfish they don’t have ears on their outer body like us, instead they have hearing from within their body.

Your probably wondering how do we really know they can hear? Well if you go to a tank and you tap on it you will see them dart away as they become frightened and scared. They heard it! Goldfish hear through an inner organ which is located within the head of the goldfish. It’s not the same as in humans as we have a main sensory organ called the cochlea and goldfish do not have that. Now with goldfish since they have no cochlea, they have something different within called the otolith which is a hard stone. Now remember when I mentioned above about tapping on a golfish aquarium or tank that the goldfish can hear this, well the otolith is what actually detects sound.

Goldfish hearing is all heard through vibrations which sound vibrations are transmitted through the water and the otolith detects it. It’s pretty neat understanding the anatomy of fish and how they react and hear things.

So goldfish can hear to answer everyones question. I know I did some research on the cochlea and we hear very much the same actually. There is fluid within the ear that has small hairs that move with sound or vibration in which then the brain comprehends into sound. It’s pretty neat actually and goldfish hear through the water in which vibrations goes through the fish’s body to the otolith, neat to know how sound is perceived. Just don’t tap on fish tanks really as it can kill fish through vibrations. It can cause fish stress and other things to occur, they can hear so don’t do it just to test the hearing theory and care for your goldfish.

Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
Goldfish Care Information Diseases & Treatments
“Helping Goldfish Owners With Advice, Fish Care and Fish Medication Treatments for Goldfish Diseases, Illnesses and Parasites”

Are My Goldfish Pregnant?

One of my readers asked me a question ” How To Tell If My Goldfish Are Pregnant” and I decided to write a post about this. Many people often get very interested in goldfish breeding and wonder are my goldfish pregnant and are there going to be little baby goldfish. What people first need to realize is that goldfish don’t become pregnant. Goldfish are not livebearers, meaning that they don’t have live young. Goldfish are called egg layers meaning that when goldfish breed during the spawning process eggs are released and fertilized by the male and then the eggs hatch into young fry a few days later. Seeing goldfish breed is very neat and interesting to see the whole process in motion.

So goldfish don’t become pregnant but you can tell the differences between males and female goldfish by viewing them from above. In order to tell when and if your goldfish will breed involves proper planning, recording temperatures, sexually mature goldfish and knowing when the eggs are ready and matured inside the female goldfish. The eggs need to be fully developed and ready in order for successful breeding to occur.

If you want to learn more about goldfish breeding visit some other posts I’ve made on breeding and raising young goldfish.

Sincerely,