Betta fish are now the second most popular freshwater fish that is kept by people within the fish keeping community with only the trusty goldfish being more popular at the time of writing.
Due to their huge existing popularity and exponential growth in popularity that betta fish are currently seeing amongst the community, we have noticed a large number of people reaching out and asking various questions about caring for their betta fish with many people asking if betta fish make noise.
Betta fish do commonly make noise in their aquariums when feeding when they splash around to get the food, other than that, it is rare that a betta fish will make any noise at all.
When fed an unsuitable diet, a betta fish can have trapped wind and blow bubbles to relieve the gas build up in their digestive system with these bubbles making a sound when they breach the surface of the water.
If you can hear a sound in your betta fish tank then it is highly likely that it is one of the other tank mates in the tank or something like a water filter creating the sound.
If you have multiple tanks on the same shelf then the sound coming from your betta fish tank may actually be due to vibrations caused in another tank transferring to the betta fish tank making it appear that your betta fish is making a noise when it is actually not.
Do Betta Fish Make Noise?
Betta fish will rarely make any noise that humans are able to hear due to the natural communication of fish often being extremely low sounds that can travel through the water better and even then, it is very rare that the betta fish species will make these sounds.
Splashing sounds can be common in a betta tank when feeding, spawning or fighting but again, this is rare in the grand scheme of things so betta fish are usually a quiet fish species to keep.
As we touched on earlier in the article, if a betta fish is fed an unsuitable food then they can end up having problems with excess gas building up in their digestive system and have to release it.
This is almost always due to the keeper of the fish giving their betta a fish food that has been designed for use with omnivorous fish species but betta fish are insectivores and need an insect based food that is free from plant matter.
This is due to the betta digestive system not having evolved to be able to digest plant matter and excess gas being produced if as well as other side effects if they are provided with a food designed for omnivorous fish.
This in turn results in the bubble-blowing that some people who keep betta fish report but the noise that these bubbles make really is minimal in the grand scheme of things and it should not be loud enough to cause any problems.
What Do Betta Fish Sound Like?
For the most part, betta fish are a silent fish and it is very rare that they will make and sound with it usually being far more likely that the tank accessories will make more sound than your actual betta fish such as your tank filter pump.
Depending on how aggressive your betta fish is when feeding, you may hear some splashing when initially feeding your betta but this tends to stop after a couple of minutes and then your betta will usually return to being silent.
Male betta fish can also make a slight sound when building their bubble nest but this does tend to be rare with most male bettas building their bubble nest being close to silent.
If you do have a noisy bubble nest builder then the sound that the betta will make is a kind of like a slow gulping sound but again, this is rare and most male betta fish will not do this when making their bubble nest.
If you are trying to actively breed your betta fish when they can sometimes splash around near the surface of their tank when spawning and this can take a while so you may hear splashing sounds throughout the day.
The majority of people who are actively trying to breed betta fish will have separate breeding tanks due to the nature of bubble nests and the fact that betta fish do eat their own babies so it is a step by step process of removing the female betta then male betta to prevent them from eating their own fry.
I Think My Betta Fish Is Clicking!
There have been a number of reports on social media of betta fish clicking but this is not a natural sound for betta fish make.
When explored further, it is usually something else in the tank making the clicking sound like one of the betta fish’ tank mates or a tank accessory causing the clicking sound.
Betta fish have no natural mechanism in their body to allow them to make clicking sounds either making it even less likely that your betta fish is the cause of the sound.
One thing that we have seen some people on social media report is that the clicking sound was actually due to their betta fish pinging their betta hammock in their tank as a sort of game rather than just relaxing on its betta hammock.
This is very rare though and we have only been able to find two examples of betta fish actually doing this in their tank so it is unlikely that this is the cause of the clicking sound in your aquarium too.
Cheap filters and even cheap aquarium lights can sometimes click if they are damaged or close to failing so this is a far more likely source of any clicking coming from your betta tank though.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over if betta fish make noise or not to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand the various types of sound that may come from your betta’s aquarium as well as what is probably making the sound. For the most part, betta fish are silent and will usually not cause any sound from day to day with the majority of them just going about their business without issue.
