Why Fish Might Respond to Music Fish need to be able to hear under water for their own survival. However, in the fish's inner ear there are a number of ear bones known as otoliths. These nerves sense “particle motion” or the physical movement of the water. not exactly hear you, but when ou talk, or thump around in the boat, or make other unnecesary noises it can alert them to your presence, it works by the transmitting of sound waves through the water, and the fish can feel those sound waves, and more or less hear … However, when it comes to finding out the ability of senses based on frequency rate and sensitivity, it can be said that the hearing sense of a fish might be relatively lesser. Fish have small bodies (as you know) and thus can feel vibrations. Studies have been done, on goldfish, and it has been determined that a blind goldfish can not old recognize the owners voice, but was able to tell when the owner/feeder was in the room by other sounds commonly associated with the person. While sharks hear a smaller range of sounds than humans, they can hear low frequency sounds that are inaudible than humans. Underwater humans are unable to hear low frequency sounds but can detect higher frequencies, up to 100 kHz. Boney fish (not skates or rays) have ears like you and I have, but they don't bother with the earlobes, it would be quite a drag and look kind of funny. They need to be 'at one' with their surroundings, or it could mean death. Of course, fish do still need to hear. But can fish hear? Because a fish's body is a similar density to the surrounding water, the waves pass through it. As far as a Betta getting a headache, I'm not sure, but loud noises can startle a fish, causing it stress, in turn opening a gateway for fish illness. I recently had an awesome opportunity to go fishing with one of the world’s foremost experts on how fish hear: Dr. Arthur Popper, from the University of Maryland. Dolphin sounds and hearing, also known as SONAR and echolocation, provide dolphins with sophisticated communication techniques that are similar to how people communicate with each other. While there are usually no openings on a fish’s head for sound to enter, they do have inner ears that pick-up sound through their body. Although they have ears, many fish may not hear very well. It is said that what a fish hears, is 5 times louder that what we'd hear. Fish have a row of special cells inside a special canal along the surface of the fish's skin. So, that is what we are going to take a little look at on this page. Similar to fish, sharks also use their lateral line to assist with hearing.