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For everyone and about everything. The electric eel is a predator that has no enemies Electric eels do not use electricity for lighting

I was rightly reminded in the comments that despite its name, the electric eel does not belong to the order of eels, it is closer to carps and catfish.
People learned about electric fish quite a long time ago: back in Ancient Egypt the electric ray 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 (almost two-meter eel can generate 600 volts), in addition, it is more or less known what kind of genes form such an unusual feature - this summer a group of geneticists from the University of Wisconsin in Madison (USA) published a paper with complete sequencing of the electric eel genome. The purpose of "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 strategy they use.

Now we are going to find out about it...

First, a little about the main character.

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 found in the northeast South America and is found in small tributaries of the middle, as well as the lower reaches of the powerful Amazon River.

The average length of an adult electric eel is a meter and a half, although sometimes three-meter specimens are also found. This fish weighs about 40 kg. Her body is elongated and slightly flattened laterally. Actually, this eel does not really look like a fish: there are no scales, only caudal and pectoral fins, and plus 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 awarded 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 an eel suddenly finds itself out of water, it can live for several hours, provided that its body and mouth do not dry out.

The color of electric coal is olive brown, which allows it to remain unnoticed by potential prey. 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 whole slippery body, a discharge is formed, with a voltage of up to 650V (mostly 300-350V), which instantly kills all 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 bit.

Photo 4.

Electric eel has special organs, consisting of numerous electric plates - modified muscle cells, between the membranes of which a potential difference is formed. Organs occupy two-thirds of the body mass 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 a radar to navigate and search for prey.

Electric eels can be enormous, reaching up to 2.5 meters in length and 20 kilograms in weight. They live in the rivers of South America, for example, in 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 it usually happens more often.

To date, there are few known cases of people dying after an encounter with an electric eel. However, numerous 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 by means of nerve channels. In the front of the body "plus", in the back "minus". Weak electricity is formed at the very beginning and, passing successively from organ to organ, it gains strength in order to strike as efficiently as possible.

The electric eel himself believes that he is endowed with reliable protection, so he is in no hurry to give up even to a larger opponent. There were cases when eels did not give in even to crocodiles, and people should avoid meeting with them at all. 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 of its intentions. The safe distance from a meter-long eel is at least three meters - this should be enough to avoid a dangerous current.

In addition to the main organs that generate electricity, the eel also has one more, with the help of which it reconnoiters the environment. This kind of locator emits low-frequency waves, which, returning, notify their owner of 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 different ways. The first is low-voltage impulses intended for orientation on the ground, the second is a sequence of two or three high voltage impulses, lasting several milliseconds, and finally, the third way is a relatively long burst of high-voltage and high-frequency discharges.

When an eel attacks, it sends a lot of volts to the prey at a high frequency (method number three). Three or 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 - 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 "live stun gun" works in the same way as an artificial one, causing a strong involuntary muscle contraction. The mechanism of action was determined in a peculiar experiment, when a fish with a destroyed spinal cord was placed in an eel aquarium; they were separated by an electrically permeable barrier. The fish could not control the muscles, but they contracted on their own in response to electrical impulses from outside. (An eel was provoked to a discharge by throwing worms at it 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 electrical discharges was precisely the motor neurons that control the muscles.

Photo 9.

However, all this happens when the eel has already determined its prey. And if the prey hid? By the movement of water, then you will no longer find it. In addition, the eel itself hunts at night, and at the same time it cannot boast of good eyesight. To find prey, it uses discharges of the second kind: short sequences of two or three high-voltage pulses. Such a discharge imitates the signal of motor neurons, causing all the muscles of a potential victim to contract. The eel, as it were, orders it to reveal itself: a muscle spasm passes through the body of the victim, it begins to twitch, and the eel catches the vibrations of the water - and understands where the prey hid. In a similar experiment with a fish with a damaged spinal cord, it was separated from an eel by an already electrically impervious 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 attacked it. If the fish did not answer in any way, then the eel, of course, did not react to it in any way - it simply did not know where it was.

In general, the electric eel exhibits a rather sophisticated hunting strategy. Sending from time to time external environment"Pseudo-muscular" discharges, it makes hidden victims discover themselves, then swims to where the waves propagate in the water, and gives another discharge that paralyzes the prey. In other words, the eel simply takes control of the prey's muscles, telling them to move or freeze when it needs to.

Photo 11.

Photo 12.

Photo 13.

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

Electric catfish.

Electric eel.

Electric Stingray.

V. Kumushkin (Petrozavodsk).

Among the electric fish, the championship 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. Electric 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 live battery generates a voltage of about 350, and in the largest individuals - up to 650 volts. With an instantaneous current strength of up to 1-2 amperes, such a discharge is capable of knocking a person down. With the help of electrical discharges, the eel defends itself from enemies and earns its own food.

in the rivers Equatorial Africa there is another fish - 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. Electricity reaches a voltage of 360 volts. There are known cases of electric shock in people who bathed in the river and accidentally stepped on such a catfish. If an electric catfish falls for a bait, then the angler can also receive a very noticeable electric shock that has passed 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 electric catfish took pride of place in the arsenal traditional medicine by the ancient Egyptians.

They are able to generate a very significant electrical energy and electric ramps. There are more than 30 types of them. These sedentary inhabitants of the bottom, 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 current discharge, the voltage of which is at different types stingrays are from 8 to 220 volts. The stingray can cause a significant electric shock to a person who accidentally comes into contact with it.

In addition to electric charges of great strength, fish are also 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 are even in muddy water perfectly oriented and signal each other about emerging danger. Such are the mormiruses and hymnarchs that live in the muddy waters of the rivers, lakes and swamps of Africa.

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

3.1 Least Concern :

Length from 1 to 3 m, weight up to 40 kg. The skin of the electric eel is naked, without scales, the body is strongly elongated, rounded in the anterior part and somewhat laterally compressed in the posterior part. The coloration 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.

Interesting is the development in the oral cavity of electric eel of special sections of vascular tissue, which allow it to absorb oxygen directly from atmospheric air. In order to take in fresh air, an eel must rise to the surface of the water at least once every fifteen minutes, but usually it does this somewhat more frequently. If the fish is deprived of this opportunity, then it will die. The ability of the electric eel to use atmospheric oxygen for breathing allows it to stay out of water for several hours, but only if its body and oral cavity remain moist. This feature provides increased survival of acne in adverse conditions existence.

Almost nothing is known about the reproduction of electric eels. Electric eels do well in captivity and are often used as decorations in large public aquariums. This fish is dangerous in direct contact with it.

Interesting in the structure of electric eels are 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 one is in the back. Electric organs are used by eels to protect themselves from enemies and to paralyze their prey, which are mainly small fish. There is also an additional electric organ that plays the role of a locator. It is not dangerous for a person, but it will be very painful with an electric shock.

Notes

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Categories:

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  • Species out of danger
  • Gymnotiformes
  • electric fish
  • Animals described in 1766
  • Fish of South America

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See what "Electric eel" is in other dictionaries:

    electric eel- Electric eel. electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), a 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 coloration above is olive green with light ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "Latin America"

    Fish of the carp order. The only species in the family. It has electric organs occupying approx. 4/5 body length. Gives a discharge up to 650 V (usually less). Length from 1 to 3 m, weighs up to 40 kg. In the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. Object of local craft. ... ... Big encyclopedic Dictionary

    Fish of the carp order. The only species in the family. It has electric organs, occupying about 4/5 of the body length. They give a discharge up to 650 V (usually less). Length from 1 to 3 m, weight up to 40 kg. It lives in the Amazon and Orinoco rivers. The object of the local ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

    HYMNOT OR ELECTRIC ENE 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 Cyprinoid order. Dwells in fresh waters Central and South America. The body is naked, up to 3 m long. It weighs up to 40 kg. Along the sides are electrical organs. Spinal … Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    Fish neg. cyprinids. unity family type. Has an electric organs occupying approx. 4/5 body length. They give a discharge up to 650 V (usually less). Length from 1 to 3 m, weight up to 40 kg. Lives in pp. Amazon and Orinoco. Object of local craft. Lab.… … Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary

    electric eel- elektrinis ungurys statusas T sritis zoologija | vardynas taksono rangas rūšis atitikmenys: lot. Electrophorus electricus engl. 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

    ELECTRIC, electrical, electrical. 1. adj. to electricity. Electricity. Electric Energy. Electric charge. Electric discharge. || Exciting, generating electricity. Electric car. Power plant. ... ... Dictionary Ushakov

Books

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

Electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) are the most dangerous among all electric fish that exist in nature. If we take into account human sacrifices, they are ahead of even piranhas. These creatures can deliver powerful, repetitive electrical shocks that cause heart or respiratory failure. So it is better for a person to stay away from these amazing and dangerous creatures of nature. Based on this, it is not recommended to keep them in home aquariums. This is a very dangerous fish!

Electric eel: description

The electric eel looks very much like a snake. It has the same slippery skin, a long cylindrical body and a flattened head with a wide square mouth. The fish does not have a dorsal fin, it has a long anal fin that helps it swim well.

AT natural environment Electric eels can grow up to three meters in length and weigh forty kilograms. In an aquarium, fish of this species do not exceed one and a half meters in length. Females are noticeably larger than males.

From above, the color of the eel is dark green or grayish. Belly of an electric fish with a yellowish or orange tint. Young eels are olive brown with yellow spots.

In the front part are all the vital organs, which occupy only 20% of the entire body, the rest is a solid electrical organ, which consists of a thousand elements that reproduce electricity. This organ develops immediately after birth. If you touch a two-centimeter fry with your hand, you can already feel a slight tingling current. When the baby grows up to 40 mm, the power will increase greatly.

Electric Organs

The positive charge of the eel is in the front of the body, the negative, respectively, in the back. In addition, the fish has an additional electric organ that plays the role of a locator. It is the three electrical organs that distinguish this creature from other animals. They are connected to each other, this feature contributes to the fact that even the smallest discharge of an electric eel is powerful, since the charge is summed up. As a result, it becomes so strong that it can lead to the death of the one who encounters it.

Thanks to the electric organs, the eel finds its prey like a radar. Other than that, they are also used to communicate with each other. Especially during the breeding season, when the male emits loud frequent calls, and the female responds with longer ones.

When the eel is in a calm position and resting, electricity does not come from it, but when it leads an active lifestyle, an electric field forms around it.

Habitats in the natural environment

Electric eels are often found in Guiana, but mostly live in a natural environment in the South American region in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. Amazing creatures love warm waters and prefer fresh muddy waters. Best Places for electric fish, these are bays, flat bottoms, swamps and floodplains.

Lifestyle

Electric eels to this day remain not fully understood. For example, their life expectancy in wild nature has not been installed yet. At aquarium maintenance the female can live from 10 to 22 years, the male is able to live under the same conditions from 10 to 15 years.

As mentioned earlier, the hallmark of acne is the electrical organs. In addition, they have another amazing feature - they breathe air. This is necessary for them, since the respiratory mechanism of electric giants is very complex and designed in such a way that the fish need to regularly swim to the surface of the reservoir and inhale the air. Due to this feature, eels can be out of the reservoir for several hours.

The eyesight of a fish similar to giant snakes, cannot brag, and behave actively for the most part at night.

Electric eels are carnivorous, they definitely cannot be called vegetarians. Their diet includes fish, small birds, amphibians. Sometimes these monsters of the reservoirs can eat a small mammal. So they can be safely classified as predators.

reproduction

Amazing details about these unusual creatures are not yet all listed. Electric eels multiply very interesting way. The male uses his saliva to build a nest in which the female lays her eggs. It is simply amazing that from just one such masonry, about seventeen thousand small electric eels are born.

Newborn babies immediately eat the eggs that their mother lays after her firstborn. Children of the electric eel remain close to the parent until they develop orientation organs.

How to catch electric eel?

The eel, although electric, is still considered a fish, which means that it can be caught, like any other, by going fishing. But not everything is so simple - these creatures are deadly, so anglers are not eager to have such a catch, despite the fact that eel meat is considered a delicacy.

In areas where electric eels are found in water bodies, locals came up with an easy way to catch these dangerous fish. If you ask what to catch eels with the method invented by the natives, the answer will be very unusual - they are caught on cows! The whole point is that cows are needed in order to take over the first powerful discharges electricity. The fishermen noticed that cows, unlike all other living creatures, very easily endure electric shocks from snake-like fish, therefore livestock they just drive them into the river with eels and wait until the cows stop mooing and rushing about in the water.

The calmness of the herd is a signal that it is time to drive them ashore and catch eels from the river with ordinary nets, which at that time become completely safe. After all, these monsters cannot radiate current for a long time, each subsequent discharge is weaker than the previous one. It will take time for the fish to regain their power. This is such an unconventional fishing, but the catch is very unusual!

August 17, 2016 at 09:31 pm

Physics in the animal world: electric eel and its "energy station"

  • Popular Science,
  • Biotechnology,
  • Physics,
  • Ecology

Electric eel (Source: youtube)

Electric eel fish (Electrophorus electricus) is the only representative of the genus Electric eels (Electrophorus). It occurs in a number of tributaries of the middle and lower reaches of the Amazon. The body size of the fish reaches 2.5 meters in length, and the weight is 20 kg. The electric eel feeds on fish, amphibians, if you're lucky - birds or small mammals. Scientists have been studying the electric eel for decades (if not hundreds) of years, but only now some features of the structure of its body and a number of organs have begun to become clear.

Moreover, the ability to generate electricity is not the only unusual feature of the electric eel. For example, he breathes atmospheric air. This is possible thanks to a large number special kind tissue of the oral cavity, permeated with blood vessels. An eel needs to rise to the surface every 15 minutes to breathe. It cannot take oxygen from water, since it lives in very muddy and shallow water bodies, where there is very little oxygen. But of course the main distinguishing feature The electric eel is its electrical organs.

They play the role of not only a weapon to stun or kill its victims, on which the eel feeds. The discharge generated by the electric organs of the fish can be weak, up to 10 V. The eel generates such discharges for electrolocation. The fact is that the fish has special "electroreceptors" that allow you to determine the distortion of the electric field caused by its own body. Electrolocation helps the eel find its way through murky waters and locate hidden prey. An eel can give a strong discharge of electricity, and at this time a hidden fish or amphibian begins to twitch chaotically due to convulsions. The predator easily detects these vibrations and eats the prey. Thus, this fish is both electroreceptive and electrogenic.

Interestingly, the eel generates discharges of various strengths with the help of three types of electric organs. They occupy about 4/5 of the length of the fish. High voltages are generated by the Hunter and Main organs, while small currents for navigational and communication purposes are generated by the Sachs organ. The main organ and Hunter's organ are located in the lower part of the eel's body, Sax's organ is in the tail. Eels "communicate" with each other using electrical signals at a distance of up to seven meters. With a certain series of electrical discharges, they can attract other individuals of their kind to them.

How does an electric eel generate an electrical shock?


Eels of this species, like a number of other "electrified" fish, reproduce electricity in the same way as nerves with muscles in the organisms of other animals, only electrocytes are used for this - specialized cells. The task is performed with the help of the enzyme Na-K-ATPase (by the way, the same enzyme is very important for (lat. Nautilus)). Thanks to the enzyme, an ion pump is formed, pumping sodium ions out of the cell and pumping potassium ions. Potassium is removed from cells due to special proteins that make up the membrane. They form a kind of "potassium channel", through which potassium ions are excreted. Positively charged ions accumulate inside the cell, negatively charged ions accumulate outside. An electrical gradient occurs.

The potential difference as a result reaches 70 mV. In the membrane of the same cell of the electrical organ of the eel, there are also sodium channels through which sodium ions can again enter the cell. Under normal conditions, in 1 second, the pump removes about 200 sodium ions from the cell and simultaneously transfers approximately 130 potassium ions into the cell. A square micrometer of membrane can accommodate 100-200 of these pumps. Usually these channels are closed, but if necessary, they open. If this happens, the chemical potential gradient causes sodium ions to enter the cells again. There is a general change in voltage from -70 to +60 mV, and the cell gives a discharge of 130 mV. The duration of the process is only 1 ms. Electric cells are interconnected by nerve fibers, the connection is serial. Electrocytes make up a kind of columns that are already connected in parallel. The total voltage of the generated electrical signal reaches 650 V, the current strength is 1A. According to some reports, the voltage can even reach 1000 V, and the current strength - 2A.


Electrocytes (electrical cells) of an eel under a microscope

After the discharge, the ion pump works again, and the electric organs of the eel are charged. According to some scientists, there are 7 types of ion channels in the membrane of electrocytic cells. The location of these channels and the alternation of channel types affects the rate of electricity production.

Electric battery discharge

According to a study by Kenneth Catania from Vanderbilt University (USA), an eel can use three types of discharge from its electric organ. The first, as mentioned above, is a series of low-voltage pulses that serve for communication and navigation purposes.

The second is a sequence of 2-3 high-voltage pulses with a duration of several milliseconds. This method is used by the eel when hunting for hidden and hidden prey. Once given 2-3 digits high voltage, the muscles of the hidden victim begin to contract, and the eel can easily detect potential food.

The third way is a series of high-voltage high-frequency discharges. The eel uses the third method when hunting, giving out up to 400 impulses per second. This method paralyzes almost any animal of small and medium size (even humans) at a distance of up to 3 meters.

Who else is capable of generating electricity?

Of the fish, about 250 species are capable of this. For most, electricity is only a means of navigation, as, for example, in the case of the Nile elephant (Gnathonemus petersii).

But electrical discharge Few fish are able to generate sensitive force. These are electric rays (a number of species), electric catfish and some others.


Electric catfish (