Can feeding sound attract flower fish (Ptychobarbus kaznakovi)?

The use of acoustic attractants may have the potential to guide native migratory species towards safe passage. Flower fish Ptychobarbus kaznakovi, a short-distance migratory fish whose population is in decline in the past decades, was exposed to three acoustic stimuli (feeding sound, ambient riverine noise and the pure tone 1000 Hz) to examine the phonotaxic responses using playbacks approaches in a fibreglass tank. The results showed that the flower fish showed significantly greater positive phonotaxis and swam towards the sound sources significantly faster in response to the feeding sounds than to ambient riverine noise and the pure tone during the 5-min exposure. Distribution experiments were conducted to study the preference of flower fish to the three sounds stimuli. The results showed that the experimental fish in feeding sound trials spent significant more time in areas closer to the sound sources than that in the pure tone and the ambient riverine noise trials, respectively. This study indicates that the feeding sounds may serve as potential acoustic attractants to guide flower fish to safe passage routes.