From the GreenTracks Amazon Herping Tour 10/06 - 10/13, 2018
from Dante Fenolio
Notes from the Amazon No234: Electric Eels (Electrophorus electricus) aren’t actually eels at all - they belong to the order Gymnotiformes and are a species of knifefish. They use their strong electrical discharges for stunning prey and in defense. The charge that these fish can generate is not trivial – one source indicated that it can be as strong as 600 volts. These animals generate their charge by way of specialized disk-shaped cells called electrocytes. Thousands of electrocytes form three electric organs within the fish. The electrocytes store power like a battery. When the electric eel needs to shock something (like a potential predator or a prey item) each electrocyte can discharge its electrical charge at the same time. A quote from an article covering a researcher studying the electrical discharge of these fish (link in comments), “'It’s impressive that a little eel could deliver that much electricity,' Catania said in a statement. These shocks were nearly ten times as powerful as a taser, and electric eels can get much larger in size with even more powerful shocks that can be lethal to animals.” Like other knifefishes, electric eels can produce much more mild currents and can generate an electric field to navigate and locate prey items. These fishes also grow to considerable size. Large individuals exceed 2 meters (over 6 feet) and can weigh in at nearly 50 pounds. This is a juvenile photographed in Amazonian Peru, October 2018.
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