ticking noise

[homie27]

Hi all, it seems my house is making some ticking noise somewhere between the ceiling of my basement and the floor of my main floor. After trying to figure out where its coming from, I think its coming from this copper braided wire attached to my water heater and travelling along the floor joists under my main floor. here are the pictures. Do you know what this braided looking copper wire attached to the black pipe of the water heater is?

[homie27]

I posted pictures but not sure why they are not showing

[homie27]

ok here are the pictures. the first one is of the black pipe of the water heater. the second one is where the copper wire enters the area above the basement ceiling. There was another picture I posted but didn't come up.