Why don't electric eels use electricity? Electric eels are the most powerful generators of electricity among fish. Interaction with other predators

Anatomy of an electric eel. One can see a collection of cells organized into parallel structures that produce voltage and current. The following fragment shows a single cell with ion channels penetrating its membrane. Finally, a separate protein ion channel is shown

Electric eel in the aquarium

Electric eels are able to channel the combined energy produced by thousands of generating cells, creating a potential of 600 V. The mechanism for generating energy is similar to that which transmits electrical signals in our neurons: a chemical signal stimulates the work of selective “pumps” - ion channels in the cell membrane, which pump some ions (sodium) into the cell, and others (potassium) out. The flow of charged ions creates a potential difference inside and outside the cell, stimulating the work of a host of other channels: starting from a certain point, the process becomes autocatalytic, which leads to the signal propagating along the membrane of the long process of the neuron.

In total, according to LaVan, at least 7 are known different types ion channels, each of which has slightly different characteristics and distribution on the cell membrane. Nerve cells contain more than one, the task of which is not to create maximum voltage, but to quickly transmit a signal. The electricity-generating cells of some animals (electrocytes) work much more slowly, but they produce a much larger charge.

To understand how they work, LaVan and his colleagues developed a digital model of how the ion concentration gradient relates to the electrical impulse and tested it on nerve cells and electrocytes. They then looked at various ways to optimize the system - using different types ion channels - in order to achieve maximum energy productivity.

Their calculations showed that truly significant improvements were possible. One version of the “artificial cell” is capable of creating an impulse 40% more powerful than living eel cells, another option - 28%.

Now scientists are considering the possibility of practically creating “batteries” from such cells, enclosed in a cube with a side of about 4 mm and capable of generating up to 300 microwatts of energy, which is quite enough to power small medical implants. The “fuel” for them can be ATP molecules - the same as in living organisms. According to LaVan, ATP will be able to be produced from sugar in the body by modified bacteria or mitochondria attached to this “battery.” It is also good that scientists are already able to obtain individual components of such artificial cells in the laboratory - both insulating membranes and ion channels.

If, however, you prefer to use eels the old fashioned way - for example, to make sushi with them - then pay attention to our tips for choosing suitable knives - real Japanese ones: “

3.1 Least Concern :

Length from 1 to 3 m, weight up to 40 kg. The electric eel has bare skin, without scales, and the body is very elongated, rounded in the front and somewhat compressed laterally in the back. The color of adult electric eels is olive-brown, the underside of the head and throat is bright orange, the edge of the anal fin is light, and the eyes are emerald green.

It is interesting that the electric eel develops special areas of vascular tissue in the oral cavity, which allow it to absorb oxygen directly from atmospheric air. To capture a new portion of air, the eel must rise to the surface of the water at least once every fifteen minutes, but usually it does this somewhat more often. If the fish is deprived of this opportunity, it will die. The electric eel's ability to use atmospheric oxygen to breathe allows it to remain out of water for several hours, but only if its body and mouth remain moist. This feature provides increased survival of eels in unfavorable conditions existence.

Almost nothing is known about the reproduction of electric eels. Electric eels do well in captivity and often decorate large public aquariums. This fish is dangerous if you come into direct contact with it.

An interesting thing about the structure of electric eels are the electric organs, which occupy more than 2/3 of the body length. Generates a discharge with a voltage of up to 1300 V and a current of up to 1 A. The positive charge is in the front of the body, the negative charge is in the back. Electric organs are used by the eel to protect itself from enemies and to paralyze its prey, which consists mainly of small fish. There is also an additional electric organ that plays the role of a locator. It is not dangerous for humans, but if it receives an electric shock it will be very painful.

Notes

Links

Categories:

Animals in alphabetical order
Species out of danger
Gymnotiiformes
Electric fish
Animals described in 1766
Fish South America

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what “Electric eel” is in other dictionaries:

electric eel- Electric eel. electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), fish of the electric eel family. Endemic to South America. The body is elongated (about 2 m), weighs up to 20 kg, dorsal and pelvic fins No. The color on top is olive green with light... ... Encyclopedic reference book "Latin America"

Fish of the order Cyprinidae. The only species of the family. Has electrical organs occupying approx. 4/5 body length. Gives a discharge of up to 650 V (usually less). Length from 1 to 3 m, weighs up to 40 kg. In the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. Local fishery object... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Fish of the order Cyprinidae. The only species of the family. Has electrical organs occupying about 4/5 of the body length. They give a discharge of up to 650 V (usually less). Length from 1 to 3 m, weight up to 40 kg. Inhabits the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. Local object... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

GYMNOT OR ELECTRIC EEL bony fish from the family acne; water in America; has the ability to produce strong electricity. blows. Dictionary foreign words, included in the Russian language. Pavlenkov F., 1907. HYMNOT or ELECTRIC EEL... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (Electrophorus electricus) fish of the Electrophoridae family of the order Cypriniformes. Lives in fresh waters Central and South America. The body is naked, up to 3 m long. Weighs up to 40 kg. Electric organs are located along the sides. Dorsal... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Fish neg. carp-like. unity family species. Has electric organs occupying approx. 4/5 body length. They give a discharge of up to 650 V (usually less). Dl. from 1 to 3 m, weight up to 40 kg. Lives in pp. Amazon and Orinoco. Local fishery object. Lab... ... Natural science. Encyclopedic Dictionary

electric eel- elektrinis ungurys statusas T sritis zoologija | vardynas taksono rangas rūšis atitikmenys: lot. Electrophorus electricus English. electric eel rus. electric eel ryšiai: platesnis terminas – elektriniai unguriai… Žuvų pavadinimų žodynas

See Electric Fish... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Electric catfish ... Wikipedia

ELECTRICAL, electrical, electrical. 1. adj. to electricity. Electric current. Electrical energy. Electric charge. Electric discharge. || Exciting, producing electricity. Electric machine. Electrical station... ... Dictionary Ushakova

Books

Spark of life. Electricity in the Human Body, Francis Ashcroft. Everyone knows that electricity powers machines, but what is less known is that the same can be said about ourselves. The ability to read and understand what is written, see and hear, think...

Tell us about electric fish Oh. How much current do they produce?

Electric catfish.

Electric eel.

Electric ramp.

V. Kumushkin (Petrozavodsk).

Among electric fish, the lead belongs to the electric eel, which lives in the tributaries of the Amazon and other rivers of South America. Adult eels reach two and a half meters. Electrical organs - transformed muscles - are located on the sides of the eel, extending along the spine for 80 percent of the entire length of the fish. This is a kind of battery, the plus of which is in the front of the body, and the minus is in the back. A living battery produces a voltage of about 350, and in the largest individuals - up to 650 volts. With an instantaneous current of up to 1-2 amperes, such a discharge can knock a person off his feet. With the help of electrical discharges, the eel protects itself from enemies and obtains food for itself.

In the rivers Equatorial Africa another fish lives - the electric catfish. Its dimensions are smaller - from 60 to 100 cm. Special glands that generate electricity make up about 25 percent of the total weight of the fish. The electric current reaches a voltage of 360 volts. There are known cases of electric shock in people who swam in the river and accidentally stepped on such a catfish. If an electric catfish is caught on a fishing rod, then the angler can receive a very noticeable electric shock that passes through the wet fishing line and rod to his hand.

However, skillfully directed electrical discharges can be used for medicinal purposes. It is known that the electric catfish occupied a place of honor in the arsenal traditional medicine from the ancient Egyptians.

Electric stingrays are also capable of generating very significant electrical energy. There are more than 30 species. These sedentary bottom dwellers, ranging in size from 15 to 180 cm, are distributed mainly in the coastal zone of tropical and subtropical waters of all oceans. Hiding at the bottom, sometimes half-immersed in sand or silt, they paralyze their prey (other fish) with a discharge of current, the voltage of which in different species of stingrays ranges from 8 to 220 volts. A stingray can cause a significant electric shock to a person who accidentally comes into contact with it.

Besides electric charges Fish of great power are capable of generating low-voltage, weak current. Thanks to rhythmic discharges of weak current with a frequency of 1 to 2000 pulses per second, they can navigate perfectly even in turbid water and signal each other about emerging danger. Such are the mormirus and gymnarchs, who live in the muddy waters of rivers, lakes and swamps in Africa.

In general, as experimental studies have shown, almost all fish, both marine and freshwater, are capable of emitting very weak electrical discharges, which can only be detected with the help of special devices. These ranks play important role in the behavioral reactions of fish, especially those that constantly stay in large schools.

I was rightly reminded in the comments that despite its name, the electric eel does not belong to the eel order, it is closer to carp and catfish.
People learned about electric fish quite a long time ago: back in Ancient Egypt used to treat epilepsy electric stingray, the anatomy of the electric eel gave Alessandro Volta the idea for his famous batteries, and Michael Faraday, the "father of electricity", used the same eel as scientific equipment. Modern biologists know what to expect from such fish (an almost two-meter eel can generate 600 volts), in addition, it is more or less known what kind of genes form such an unusual trait - this summer a group of geneticists from the University of Wisconsin in Madison (USA) published a paper with the complete sequence of the electric eel genome. The purpose of the “electrical abilities” is also clear: they are needed for hunting, for orientation in space and for protection from other predators. Only one thing remained unknown - how exactly the fish use their electric shock, what kind of strategy they use.

Now we will find out about this...

First, a little about the main character himself.

In mysterious and troubled waters The Amazon hides many dangers. One of them is the electric eel (lat. Electrophorus electricus) is the only representative of the order of electric eels. It is native to northeastern South America and is found in small tributaries of the middle as well as lower reaches of the powerful Amazon River.

The average length of an adult electric eel is one and a half meters, although sometimes three-meter specimens are found. This fish weighs about 40 kg. Her body is elongated and slightly flattened laterally. Actually, this eel doesn’t look much like a fish: it has no scales, only the caudal and pectoral fins, and on top of that, it breathes atmospheric air.

Photo 3.

The fact is that the tributaries where the electric eel lives are too shallow and muddy, and the water in them is practically devoid of oxygen. Therefore, nature has endowed the animal with unique vascular tissues in the oral cavity, with the help of which the eel absorbs oxygen directly from the outside air. True, for this he has to rise to the surface every 15 minutes. But if the eel suddenly finds itself out of water, it can live for several hours, provided that its body and mouth do not dry out.

Electric coal is olive-brown in color, allowing it to remain undetected by potential mining. Only the throat and lower part of the head are bright orange, but this is unlikely to help the unfortunate victims of the electric eel. As soon as he shudders with his entire slippery body, a discharge is formed with a voltage of up to 650V (mostly 300-350V), which instantly kills all the small fish nearby. The prey falls to the bottom, and the predator picks it up, swallows it whole and anoints itself nearby to rest a little.

Photo 4.

The electric eel has special organs consisting of numerous electrical plates - modified muscle cells, between the membranes of which a potential difference is formed. Organs occupy two-thirds of the body weight of this fish.

However, an electric eel can generate discharges with a lower voltage - up to 10 volts. Since he has poor eyesight, he uses them as radar to navigate and find prey.

Electric eels can be enormous in size, reaching 2.5 meters in length and 20 kilograms in weight. They live in rivers in South America, such as the Amazon and Orinoco. They feed on fish, amphibians, birds and even small mammals.

Since the electric eel absorbs oxygen directly from the atmospheric air, it has to rise to the surface of the water very often. He should do this at least once every fifteen minutes, but usually it happens more often.

To date, there are few known cases of people dying after encountering an electric eel. However, multiple electrical shocks can lead to respiratory or heart failure, which can cause a person to drown even in shallow water.

Photo 5.

His entire body is covered with special organs, which consist of special cells. These cells are sequentially connected to each other using nerve canals. In the front of the body there is a “plus”, in the back there is a “minus”. Weak electricity is generated at the very beginning and, passing successively from organ to organ, it gains strength to strike as effectively as possible.

The electric eel itself believes that it is endowed with reliable protection, so it is in no hurry to surrender even to a larger enemy. There have been cases when eels did not give in even to crocodiles, and people should avoid meeting them altogether. Of course, it is unlikely that the discharge will kill an adult, but the sensations from it will be more than unpleasant. In addition, there is a risk of loss of consciousness, and if you are in the water, you can easily drown.

Photo 6.

The electric eel is very aggressive, it attacks immediately and is not going to warn anyone about its intentions. The safe distance from a meter-long eel is at least three meters - this should be enough to avoid dangerous current.

In addition to the main organs that generate electricity, the eel also has one more, with the help of which it scouts out its surroundings. This unique locator emits low-frequency waves, which, when returning, notify its owner about obstacles ahead or the presence of suitable living creatures.

Photo 7.

Zoologist Kenneth Catania ( Kenneth Catania) from Vanderbilt University (USA), observing electric eels that lived in a specially equipped aquarium, noticed that fish can discharge their battery in three in different ways. The first is low-voltage pulses intended for orientation on the ground, the second is a sequence of two or three high voltage pulses, lasting several milliseconds; finally, the third method is a relatively long salvo of high-voltage and high-frequency discharges.

When an eel attacks, it sends many volts at a high frequency to the prey (method number three). Three to four milliseconds of such processing is enough to immobilize the victim - that is, we can say that the eel uses a remote electric shock. Moreover, its frequency is much higher artificial devices: for example, the Taser remote shocker delivers 19 pulses per second, while the eel delivers as many as 400. Having paralyzed the victim, he must, without wasting time, quickly grab it, otherwise the prey will come to its senses and swim away.

Photo 8.

In an article in Science Kenneth Catania writes that the “living stun gun” acts in the same way as its artificial counterpart, causing strong involuntary muscle contraction. The mechanism of action was determined in a unique experiment, when a fish with a destroyed spinal cord was placed in an aquarium with an eel; They were separated from each other by an electrically permeable barrier. The fish could not control the muscles, but they contracted on their own in response to electrical impulses from the outside. (The eel was provoked to discharge by giving it worms as food.) If a fish with a destroyed spinal cord was also injected with the nerve agent curare, then the electricity from the eel had no effect on it. That is, the target of electric discharges was precisely the motor neurons that control the muscles.

Photo 9.

However, all this happens when the eel has already identified its prey. What if the prey is hidden? Then you won’t be able to find it by the movement of water. In addition, the eel itself hunts at night, and at the same time cannot boast of good eyesight. To find prey, it uses type II discharges: short sequences of two or three high-voltage pulses. This discharge imitates the signal from motor neurons, causing all the muscles of the potential victim to contract. The eel, as it were, orders it to reveal itself: a muscle spasm passes through the victim’s body, it begins to twitch, and the eel catches the vibrations of the water - and understands where the prey is hidden. In a similar experiment with a fish with a destroyed spinal cord, it was separated from the eel by an electrically impermeable barrier, but the eel could feel the waves of water from it. At the same time, the fish was connected to a stimulator, so that its muscles contracted at the request of the experimenter. It turned out that if the eel emitted short “detection pulses”, and at the same time the fish was forced to twitch, then the eel would attack it. If the fish did not respond in any way, then the eel, naturally, did not react to it in any way - he simply did not know where it was.

Overall, the electric eel demonstrates a fairly sophisticated hunting strategy. From time to time sending external environment“pseudomuscular” discharges, it forces hidden victims to reveal themselves, then swims up to where the waves are spreading in the water, and delivers another discharge that paralyzes the prey. In other words, the eel simply gains control over the victim's muscles, ordering them to move or freeze when it needs it.

Photo 11.

Photo 12.

Photo 13.

People have known about electric fish for a long time: back in Ancient Egypt, the electric stingray was used to treat epilepsy, the anatomy of the electric eel gave Alessandro Volta the idea for his famous batteries, and Michael Faraday, the “father of electricity,” used the same eel as scientific equipment. Modern biologists know what to expect from such fish (an almost two-meter eel can generate 600 volts), in addition, it is more or less known what kind of genes form such an unusual trait - this summer a group of geneticists from the University of Wisconsin in Madison (USA) published a paper with the complete sequence of the electric eel genome. The purpose of the “electrical abilities” is also clear: they are needed for hunting, for orientation in space and for protection from other predators. Only one thing remained unknown - how exactly the fish use their electric shock, what kind of strategy they use.

First, a little about the main character himself.

There are many dangers lurking in the mysterious and murky waters of the Amazon. One of them is the electric eel (lat. Electrophorus electricus) is the only representative of the order of electric eels. It is native to northeastern South America and is found in small tributaries of the middle as well as lower reaches of the powerful Amazon River.

However, an electric eel can generate discharges with a lower voltage - up to 10 volts. Since he has poor eyesight, he uses them as radar to navigate and find prey.

Zoologist Kenneth Catania from Vanderbilt University (USA), observing electric eels that lived in a specially equipped aquarium, noticed that fish can discharge their battery in three different ways. The first is low-voltage pulses intended for orientation on the ground, the second is a sequence of two or three high-voltage pulses lasting several milliseconds, and finally, the third method is a relatively long salvo of high-voltage and high-frequency discharges.

When an eel attacks, it sends many volts at a high frequency to the prey (method number three). Three to four milliseconds of such processing is enough to immobilize the victim - that is, we can say that the eel uses a remote electric shock. Moreover, its frequency is much higher than artificial devices: for example, a remote Taser shocker delivers 19 pulses per second, while an eel delivers as many as 400. Having paralyzed the victim, it must, without wasting time, quickly grab it, otherwise the prey will come to its senses and swim away.

In an article in Science, Kenneth Catania writes that the “living stun gun” acts in the same way as its artificial counterpart, causing strong involuntary muscle contractions. The mechanism of action was determined in a unique experiment, when a fish with a destroyed spinal cord was placed in an aquarium with an eel; They were separated from each other by an electrically permeable barrier. The fish could not control the muscles, but they contracted on their own in response to electrical impulses from the outside. (The eel was provoked to discharge by giving it worms as food.) If a fish with a destroyed spinal cord was also injected with the nerve agent curare, then the electricity from the eel had no effect on it. That is, the target of electric discharges was precisely the motor neurons that control the muscles.