Animal Ears 🐠 How animals hear
Goldfish hearing range in hertz
Carassius auratus
Top of the class among fish: it comes with a built-in amplifier.
In short
A Goldfish hears from about 50 Hz up to 3 kHz, and the pitch it catches best is near 500 Hz. Animal Ears lets you take any sound of yours and hear it exactly as it would.
The goldfish is a specialist. Most fish only feel the water swaying, but this one has a chain of tiny bones connecting its swim bladder — a bag of gas — to its inner ear. The bag vibrates with the sound and the bones carry that vibration inwards: in practice, a factory-fitted amplifier. The result: it hears from 50 to 3,000 Hz, far more range than its neighbours in the tank.
Hertz (Hz)
Which pitches it hears
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
A low sound rumbles (think thunder); a high sound squeals (think a mosquito). These three numbers mark how far down this animal goes, how far up it goes, and which pitch it hears most clearly of all.
| Lowest it hears | 50 Hz |
|---|---|
| Highest it hears | 3 kHz |
| Hears most clearly | 500 Hz |
| What you hear | 20 Hz – 20 kHz |
Your ears vs a Goldfish's
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 3 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Audiogram
| Hertz (Hz) | Hearing threshold |
|---|---|
| 50 Hz | 75 dB |
| 100 Hz | 70 dB |
| 200 Hz | 62 dB |
| 300 Hz | 58 dB |
| 400 Hz | 55 dB |
| 500 Hz | 54 dB |
| 700 Hz | 56 dB |
| 1 kHz | 65 dB |
| 1.5 kHz | 80 dB |
| 2 kHz | 98 dB |
| 3 kHz | 122 dB |
Pressure audiogram in dB re 1 µPa; goldfish is a Weberian hearing specialist that genuinely detects sound pressure, so the curve is EQ-meaningful.
Can a Goldfish hear things you can't?
A Goldfish picks up everything from 50 Hz (the deepest) to 3 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 500 Hz.
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 3 kHz there is nothing left for it.
Frequently asked questions
What sounds can a Goldfish hear?
A Goldfish picks up everything from 50 Hz (the deepest) to 3 kHz (the highest), and hears best around 500 Hz.
Can a Goldfish hear things you can't?
It does miss the highs you can hear, though: above about 3 kHz there is nothing left for it.
How does Animal Ears make a sound like a Goldfish would hear it?
Scientists have measured, pitch by pitch, the quietest volume at which a Goldfish starts to hear each sound. We take that curve and apply it to your recording like a giant equaliser: we turn up the pitches the animal hears beautifully and turn down or remove the ones that simply don't exist for it. The result gets close to what it would notice... but it still arrives through your ears.
Hertz (Hz)
Hertz count how many times per second a sound vibrates. Few vibrations = low (the rumble of thunder, about 30 Hz). Many vibrations = high (a microwave beeping, about 3,000 Hz). And ‘1 kHz' is just shorthand for 1,000 Hz. You hear, roughly, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
Where these numbers come from
- Fay, R.R. (1969). Behavioral audiogram for the goldfish. J. Auditory Research, 9, 112–121.
- Jacobs, D.W. & Tavolga, W.N. (1967). Acoustic intensity limens in the goldfish. Animal Behaviour, 15(2–3), 324–335. doi:10.1016/0003-3472(67)90019-X
More animals
Shark
Only lows interest it: a wounded fish thrashing hundreds of metres away.
Dragonfish
A listener from the abyss: we know so little that this is an honest hypothesis.
Clownfish
Its larvae listen for a reef crackling to find their way home.
Frog
Hearing split in two, tuned to the two notes of its own call.
Animal Ears
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