[HN Gopher] One of world's smallest fish found to make sound as ...
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       One of world's smallest fish found to make sound as loud as a
       gunshot
        
       Author : sandebert
       Score  : 128 points
       Date   : 2024-02-27 11:27 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | ozfive wrote:
       | All I want to know is, can you keep them in fish tanks without
       | the glass shattering?
        
         | jareklupinski wrote:
         | sure, as long as you use bulletproof glass :)
        
       | xrd wrote:
       | Tampa Bay is having a lot of problems with noise
       | (https://www.npr.org/2024/02/01/1228286349/south-tampa-myster...)
       | that none of the neighbors can figure out. Some speculate on a
       | party boat with speakers. Some are speculating is it the black
       | drum fish (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_drum) making loud
       | noises when mating.
        
         | ocal5 wrote:
         | That's Daft Punk - Daftendirekt, actually.
        
       | garyclarke27 wrote:
       | Mantis Shrimp can punch as hard as a bullet, can break aquarium
       | glass and can create a cavitation bubble hotter than the sun.
        
         | 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
         | Has NIF tried mantis shrimp?
        
           | andrewflnr wrote:
           | This is the closest I found, searching for "acoustic
           | confinement fusion". Short story: probably doesn't work.
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_fusion
        
         | pwython wrote:
         | Relevant neat video of Mantis Shrimp breaking glass, albeit
         | thin test tubes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSRahhMdfxM
        
         | decafninja wrote:
         | It's a biological plasma cannon
        
         | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
         | I only knew that I had one in my tank because I would hear the
         | loud "crack" at night. Luckily it was the shrimp making the
         | noise, not the glass breaking.
         | 
         | Months later when I drained the tank to move into a new house,
         | and removed all the live rock I found it dead at the bottom.
         | Amazing that such a tiny thing can make so much noise.
        
           | jstarfish wrote:
           | You sure that wasn't a tiger pistol shrimp?
           | 
           | Mantis shrimp are exotic terrors of the deep you don't
           | exactly forget you have.
        
             | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
             | After doing a bit of research I think you're right. For
             | some reason I got them confused.
        
               | jstarfish wrote:
               | They're one of two shrimp associated with the tapping
               | noise, so it's an easy mistake.
               | 
               | You usually have to special-order mantis shrimp. It's
               | easy to accidentally get a pistol shrimp when you asked
               | for a peppermint; they look similar.
        
         | suzzer99 wrote:
         | Mantis shrimps are show-offs. They hog all the records.
        
       | WhitneyLand wrote:
       | Seems like very misleading science reporting. It relies on the
       | wow factor of a 12mm fish producing a sound as loud as what many
       | people would associate with a jet engine (>140db).
       | 
       | - Sound levels are usually assumed to be measured 1m away. For
       | the fish, it's measured one body length away (inverse square law
       | applies)
       | 
       | - Jet engines are often measured from many meters away (again
       | inverse square law)
       | 
       | - The fish's sound is pulsed and lasts only 2.5ms, while jet
       | engine noise is continuous.
       | 
       | - The frequency emitted by the fish "exceeds 20kHz". The
       | frequency range of a jet engine spans almost the entire range of
       | human hearing.
       | 
       | - Standing next to one might startle you a bit, the other will
       | irreversibly damage you.
        
       | kdfjgbdfkjgb wrote:
       | "produces sounds that exceed 140 decibels" is a nonsense
       | statement. They probably meant dBSPL.
        
         | huimang wrote:
         | Pedantic nitpick: it's not nonsense if the common person
         | understands the meaning. Your average english speaker uses
         | "decibels" to mean "dBSPL" since most people aren't aware of
         | the other ones.
        
           | ssl-3 wrote:
           | It's still nonsense and devoid of meaning, and the nonsense
           | has nothing to do with the unit presented or any
           | simplification of that unit.
           | 
           | Sound pressure level measurements relate to the pressure at a
           | point in space, and do not relate -- by themselves -- to the
           | total sound energy being produced by a thing.
           | 
           | I can make an SPL measurement, in air, that is ~6dB higher or
           | lower by halving or doubling (respectively) the distance
           | betwixt the thing making the sound and the thing measuring
           | the sound.
           | 
           | If a sound measures 100dB at a distance of 2 meters, then the
           | _same sound_ also measures 106dB at a distance of 1 meter, or
           | 112dB at 0.5 meters, or 118dB at 0.25 meters.
           | 
           | A difference of 18dB is a difference of nearly two orders of
           | magnitude.
           | 
           | The study says this fish made a sound at a level of 140dB at
           | a measurement distance of one fish length of 12mm, in water.
           | 
           | To compare a 140dB fish-noise that to a the SPL of a gunshot,
           | we'd first need to measure a gunshot -- in water -- at a
           | distance of 12mm (or extrapolate for a larger distance).
           | 
           | And I have certainly not done this measurement myself, but I
           | strongly suspect that the intensity of the gunshot will blow
           | the noise of this fish out of the water in an an apples-to-
           | apples comparison.
        
       | paulrpotts wrote:
       | It's always disappointing to me when articles describing a sound
       | don't include an audio clip. Someone must have a hydrophone
       | recording!
        
         | qup wrote:
         | There was a video with audio.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | [stub for offtopicness]
        
         | shireboy wrote:
         | It must be a fundamental law of nature that the organisms with
         | the smallest brains are the loudest.
        
           | xeornet wrote:
           | I think you may be onto something here.
        
         | heroku wrote:
         | evolution is a lie this proves.
        
         | agilob wrote:
         | Ok, but what if we feed the fish 500 l of jet fuel?
        
           | mewpmewp2 wrote:
           | Jet fuel can't melt fish scales.
        
       | dxgray wrote:
       | Mr. Limpet?
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-28 23:00 UTC)