Study – Mozart Makes Your Fish Grow Faster
A rather unusual study by a bunch of Greek scientisis has shown that aquarium fish quite enjoy classical music – and show their appreciation by growing faster (beware of playing Mozart if you have a small tank however).
Experts from the Department of Applied Hydrobiology at the Agricultural University of Athens played Gilthead seabream, Sparus aurata, piped-Mozart under different lighting intensities via an underwater speaker to see how they responded.
The young fish that were played the music during the first 89 days of rearing grew better than those that only got to listen to the ambient noise of their aquarium’s pumps and aerators.
The fish listened to Mozart every day, from Monday to Friday, but had the weekends off.
According to the study, the growth of the fish was enhanced in several ways:
“During the first 89 days of rearing, music resulted in enhanced growth. “Nevertheless, at the end of the experiment (on day 117) no significant differences were found for body mass but music treatment resulted in more homogeneous fish populations than controls.”
The study claims that brain neurotransmitter levels were reduced when the exposure to Mozart coincided with brighter lighting, and feed utilisation was better when the music was played in four-hour sessions.
“Mozart’s music was chosen because it is characterised by pure and single sounds, rhythms and melodies of relatively high frequencies and exerts a calming and almost clear anti-stress effect on humans,” the authors wrote in the Journal of Fish Biology. [Via]
