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This order is more closely related to catfish. In 2019, electric eels were split into three species: for more than two centuries before that, the genus was believed to be monotypic, containing only Electrophorus electricus. They are nocturnal, obligate air-breathing animals, with poor vision complemented by electrolocation; they mainly eat fish ...
Electric catfish or Malapteruridae is a family of catfishes (order Siluriformes). This family includes two genera , Malapterurus and Paradoxoglanis , with 21 species . [ 1 ] Several species of this family have the ability to generate electricity , delivering a shock of up to 350 volts from its electric organ . [ 2 ]
Electric organ discharges are two types, pulse and wave, and vary both by species and by function. Electric fish have evolved many specialised behaviours. The predatory African sharptooth catfish eavesdrops on its weakly electric mormyrid prey to locate it when hunting, driving the prey fish to develop electric signals that are harder to detect.
Type species. Gymnotus carapo. Linnaeus, 1758. Despite the name, the electric eel is a type of knifefish. The Gymnotiformes / dʒɪmˈnɒtɪfɔːrmiːz / are an order of teleost bony fishes commonly known as Neotropical knifefish or South American knifefish. They have long bodies and swim using undulations of their elongated anal fin.
History of bioelectricity. The history of bioelectricity dates back to ancient Egypt, where the shocks delivered by the electric catfish were used medicinally. In the 18th century, the abilities of the torpedo ray and the electric eel were investigated by scientists including Hugh Williamson and John Walsh.
Electroreception and electrogenesis are the closely related biological abilities to perceive electrical stimuli and to generate electric fields. Both are used to locate prey; stronger electric discharges are used in a few groups of fishes (most famously the electric eel, which is not actually an eel but a knifefish) to stun prey.
The American eel (Anguilla rostrata) is a facultative catadromous fish found on the eastern coast of North America. Freshwater eels are fish belonging to the elopomorph superorder, a group of phylogenetically ancient teleosts. [2] The American eel has a slender, supple, snake-like body that is covered with a mucus layer, which makes the eel ...
Electrophorus electricus is the best-known species of electric eel. It is a South American electric fish. Until the discovery of two additional species in 2019, the genus was classified as the monotypic, with this species the only one in the genus. [2] Despite the name, it is not an eel, but rather a knifefish. [3]