Listen: Scientists have discovered that a tiny fish is one of the noisiest species in the world

At 12mm long, Danionella's brain is the loudest fish on the planet.

A small fish can make a sound, Scientists have discovered that the sound is drumming on its own bladder as loud as a gunshot.

The creature, Danionella cerebrum, uses its swim bladder to create noises that belie its small size.

For him, the Fish, 12 mm long (less than half an inch), is the loudest fish on the planet, capable of producing sounds up to 140 decibels.

A .22 caliber rifle shot produces about 140 decibels. decibels, and larger caliber rifles and pistols can be noisier.

Scientists at Charité University in Berlin decided to conduct the study after noticing buzzing and clicking noises coming from aquariums in their laboratory.

Danionella cerebrum is a popular species for scientific research because it is transparent, meaning scientists can easily observe its brain and internal organs.

Verti Cook, lead author of the study and a PhD student at the university, told the BBC -si: “People just walked past aquariums with fish, they heard these sounds and wondered where they were coming from.”

“It turned out that they came from the fish themselves. . And it's unusual because they are so small and so loud.»

Experts believe the sounds are made by the fish as a form of communication and searching for each other — the species is native to Myanmar, where it lives in the murky, murky waters of a mountain range.

Or it could be so. associated with mating behavior — only males make sound.

The small fish makes the sound by contracting its muscles and pulling on the rib, which creates tension on a strip of cartilage. When this cartilage is released, it hits the swim bladder, a gas-filled organ that all fish have, making a drumming sound.

«Fast, loud pulse»

The fish's muscles are particularly resistant to fatigue, allowing them to hit their swim bladder frequently.

«We discovered that they have a unique sound apparatus that includes tympanic cartilage, a specialized rib and a stable to fatigue the muscle that allows the fish to accelerate the tympanic cartilage with extreme forces and generate fast and loud impulses,” the scientists said in their findings, published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This amplitude quite unusual for an animal of this size.”

Scientists measured the volume using underwater microphones.

Science knows of noisier fish species, but they are all much larger. than the tiny Danionella cerebrum.

«In terms of communication signals, I couldn't find another animal this size that made such loud noises,» Ms Cook said.

Little Fish have another advantage — they have the smallest brain of any vertebrate in the world.