do goldfish break wind?

Answer 1

Yes, but a little different than for humans:

Biologists have linked a mysterious, underwater farting sound to bubbles coming out of a herring's anus. No fish had been known to emit sound from its anus nor to be capable of producing such a high-pitched noise.

"It sounds just like a high-pitched raspberry," says Ben Wilson of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada (Listen here, .wav file). Wilson and his colleagues cannot be sure why herring make this sound, but initial research suggests that it might explain the puzzle of how shoals keep together after dark.

"Surprising and interesting" is how aquatic acoustic specialist Dennis Higgs, of the University of Windsor in Ontario, describes the discovery. It is the first case of a fish potentially using high frequency for communication, he believes.

Arthur Popper, an aquatic bio-acoustic specialist at the University of Maryland, US, is also intrigued. "I'd not have thought of it, but fish do very strange and diverse things," he says

Grunts and buzzes
Fish are known to call out to potential mates with low "grunts and buzzes", produced by wobbling a balloon of air called the swim bladder located in the abdomen. The swim bladder inflates and deflates to adjust the fish's buoyancy.

The biologists initially assumed that the swim bladder was also producing the high-pitched sound they had detected. But then they noticed that a stream of bubbles expelled from the fish's anus corresponded exactly with the timing of the noise. So a more likely cause was air escaping from the swim bladder through the anus.

It was at this point that the team named the noise Fast Repetitive Tick (FRT). But Wilson points that, unlike a human fart, the sounds are probably not caused by digestive gases because the number of sounds does not change when the fish are fed.

The researchers also tested whether the fish were farting from fear, perhaps to sound an alarm. But when they exposed fish to a shark scent, there was again no change in the number of FRTs.

Night waves
Finally, three observations persuaded the researchers that the FRT is most likely produced for communication. Firstly, when more herring are in a tank, the researchers record more FRTs per fish.

Secondly, the herring are only noisy after dark, indicating that the sounds might allow the fish to locate one another when they cannot be seen. Thirdly, the biologists know that herrings can hear sounds of this frequency, while most fish cannot. This would allow them to communicate by FRT without alerting predators to their presence.

Wilson emphasises that at present this idea is just a theory. But the discovery is still useful, he says. Herring might be tracked by their FRTs, in the same way that whales and dolphins are monitored by their high-pitched squeals. Fishermen might even exploit this to locate shoals.

There may even be a conservation issue. Some experts believe human-generated sounds can damage underwater mammals. Now it seems underwater noise might disrupt fish too.

Answer 2

I believe all human beings else by making use of staying removed from a heater. I even have 2 Sarasa Goldfish in a ten gallon tank. I even have desperate to unplug the heater and it says approximately sixty 8-70 stages F. different fish that have compatibility with goldfish are patently different goldfish and koi. yet koi get particularly huge so i does not placed them on your tank. the different coldwater fish must be properly suited which comprise your goldfish. i does not placed extra desirable than 5 goldfish on your fifty 5 gallon tank, using fact they are able to get particularly huge! stable success which comprise your fish!

Answer 3

I would have thought it was easy to know that Fish do Break Wind,where else does the Smell come from when changing their Water??

Answer 4

any animal that eats will "break wind" it is caused by methane buildup in the bowels, and food that breaks down to create methane will cause flatulent gas

Answer 5

No, if fish produced gas during digestion they would turn upside down and float to the surface as their bellys are underneath and farts are more bouyant than water. Only dying or dead fish do this, so if your fish are healthy they arent blowing bottom burps.

Answer 6

Not sure about goldfish but, I have marine fish (clowns) and they definately fart whenever I feed them fresh seaweed. They have a very indignant look on their faces when it happens but it's fun to see!

Answer 7

next time you see bubbles wait above the bowl for them to pop and sniff!! then you'll know unless of course your goldfish suffers from halitosis (bad breath)

Answer 8

lol dang never really thought of it before, but i would suppose so. however being the fact that they swim in water i dont think anyone outside of a fish tank would know for sure

Answer 9

Yes.I catch the farts for spirit level bubbles

Answer 10

Don't you mean break water? And yes they do fart!