The Sound World of Zebrafish: A Critical Review of Hearing Assessment

Zebrafish, like all fish species, use sound to learn about their environment. Thus, human-generated (anthropogenic) sound added to the environment has the potential to disrupt the detection of biologically relevant sounds, alter behavior, impact fitness, and produce stress and other effects that can alter the well-being of animals. This review considers the bioacoustics of zebrafish in the laboratory with two goals. First, we discuss zebrafish hearing and the problems and issues that must be considered in any studies to get a clear understanding of hearing capabilities. Second, we focus on the potential effects of sounds in the tank environment and its impact on zebrafish physiology and health. To do this, we discuss underwater acoustics and the very specialized acoustics of fish tanks, in which zebrafish live and are studied. We consider what is known about zebrafish hearing and what is known about the potential impacts of tank acoustics on zebrafish and their well-being. We conclude with suggestions regarding the major gaps in what is known about zebrafish hearing as well as questions that must be explored to better understand how well zebrafish tolerate and deal with the acoustic world they live in within laboratories.