Why Pixar thought fish love bubbles
The excitement of aquarium fish for bubbles, as seen in Pixar’s Finding Nemo, was borderline obsessive. The Pixar creators in their studies of characterizing fish, may have noticed a fishy affinity for bubbles.
“But, why?” The animators seem to have asked. Do fish find bubbles delightful, or endearing, like humans? Or do they just have weird, obsessive behavioral tendencies?
Who knows.
What is known- fish require oxygen just like mammals. Being underwater and whatnot, they just obtain the life force differently. Obviously, through their gills.
Oxygen is added to water through aquatic plants of via diffusion from the atmosphere. Diffusion meaning the intermingling of substances by natural movement of their particles. More surface are on the water- created by wind or current- helps add more oxygen to the water because there is more surface for oxygen to diffuse.
A bubbling, chortling brook is a well-oxygenated brook. And a happy place for fish!
When fish are taken out of their natural habitat, a bubbler is added. A bubbler is a machine with a porous stone that sits in the water, tethered to an aerator by at long rubber tube.
Bubblers= aerators.
They add oxygen to an aquatic environment. What happens when a fish is in a small, enclosed environment, like a bucket, is they run out of oxygen.
Bubbles 101
Basic understanding of how fish breathe: Oxygen dissolved in water goes into a fish and out comes carbon dioxide. The CO2 is absorbs into the surrounding water and eventually dissipates into the atmosphere through aeration (bubbles!) An air bubble rising through water is simultaneously dissolving oxygen into the water and absorbing CO2 as it reaches the surface. A bubble popping at the surface is releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.
When aerators are on, they will try to keep oxygen levels at normal conditions.In a stream or creek, a lot more processes are at work incorporating dissolved oxygen into the ecosystem. In our case, leaving a ton of fish in a bucket of still water is risky! Adding a bubbler allows fish to breath normally while they are processed for the study.
In summary, an aerator is to a fish what a snorkel is to humans: a consist supply of breathable oxygen.
Humans need a snorkel to breathe in water. Fish need aerators in stagnate water.
