Why electric eels don't use electricity. Electric fish. An electric eel lit up the lights on the Christmas tree.
The electric eel is the most dangerous fish among all electric fish. In terms of the number of human casualties, it is even ahead of the legendary piranha. This eel (by the way, it has nothing to do with ordinary eels) is capable of emitting powerful electric charge. If you take a young eel in your hands, you feel a slight tingling sensation, and this, given the fact that the babies are only a few days old and are only 2-3 cm in size. It is easy to imagine what sensations you will get if you touch a two-meter eel. A person in such close contact receives a shock of 600 V and can die from it. The electric eel sends powerful force waves up to 150 times a day. But the strangest thing is that, despite such weapons, the eel feeds mainly on small fish.To kill a fish, the electric eel only needs to shudder and release a current. The victim dies instantly. The eel grabs it from the bottom, always from the head, and then, sinking to the bottom, digests the prey for several minutes.
live electric eels in shallow rivers South America, are found in large numbers in the waters of the Amazon. In those places where the eel lives, there is often a great lack of oxygen. Therefore, the electric eel has developed a behavioral feature. Eels stay under water for about 2 hours, and then swim to the surface and breathe there for 10 minutes, whereas ordinary fish only need to surface for a few seconds.
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Electric eels - large fish: average length adult individuals are 1-1.5 m, weighing up to 40 kg. The body is elongated, slightly flattened laterally. The skin is bare and not covered with scales. The fins are very developed, with their help the electric eel is able to easily move in all directions. Adult electric eels are brown in color, with the undersides of the head and throat being bright orange. The coloring of young individuals is paler.
The most interesting thing about the structure of electric eels is its electrical organs, which occupy more than 2/3 of the body length. The positive pole of this “battery” lies in the front of the eel’s body, and the negative pole lies in the back. The highest discharge voltage, according to observations in aquariums, can reach 650 V, but usually it is less, and in fish one meter long it does not exceed 350 V. This power is enough to light 5 light bulbs. The main electrical organs are used by the eel to protect itself from enemies and to paralyze prey. There is another additional electrical organ, but the field produced by it plays the role of a locator: with the help of interference arising within this field, the eel receives information about obstacles on the way or the approach of potential prey. The frequency of these location discharges is very small and practically imperceptible to humans.
The discharge itself, which is produced by electric eels, is not fatal to humans, but it is still very dangerous. If you get an electric shock while underwater, you can easily lose consciousness.
The electric eel is aggressive. Can attack without warning, even if there is no threat to him. If something living comes within the range of its force field, the eel will not hide or swim away. It is better for the person himself to swim to the side if an electric eel appears on the way. You should not swim to this fish at a distance of less than 3 meters; this is precisely the main radius of action of the meter-long eel’s field.
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Length: up to 3 meters Weight: up to 40 kg Habitat: shallow rivers of South America, found in large numbers in the waters of the Amazon. |
Among the few representatives of the animal world there are owners amazing ability generate and store electricity. One of them is the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus).
This amazing fish lives in small rivers in northern South America, as well as in the lower and middle regions of the Amazon basin. Although the electric eel lives in water like a fish, its body structure allows it to breathe atmospheric air. He receives each portion of air, rising upward, approximately once every 15 minutes. Simply put, he can drown if he fails to surface in time. This ability to breathe air allows the eel to leave water bodies for several hours.
But the most amazing quality of this fish is still considered its ability to generate electricity. Since water is an excellent conductor, it is noteworthy that the eel itself does not suffer from electrical discharges. How does this happen?
The eel has unique organs that resemble battery banks in structure. They occupy about 40% of his body. Each current-producing cell contains a small amount of negatively charged ions inside itself, and the ions outside the cell are positively charged.
Naturally, such an electrical potential is negligible. But when the number of such cells is from 6 to 10 thousand in one chain, the voltage can reach 500 volts! There are about 700 such parallel-connected chains on each side of the eel’s body. Their total discharge is approximately 1 ampere!
Such a shock of electricity can knock down a horse, paralyze for several hours, and even kill a person, but does not harm the eel itself. This is due to the fact that two small membranes provide the opportunity for discharge. The eel's skin has insulating properties, and the electrical cells are connected only to each other, and are isolated from other parts of the body.
Electricity serves several functions for the eel. This is both protection and a means of hunting, and is also used for navigation. The eel is not capable for a long time stably generate electricity. Each time the discharges become weaker. It will take several hours to restore them to full capacity.
Resourceful local residents Eel is considered a delicacy. But catching eels is deadly! Fishermen have noticed that cows “tolerate” the protection of electric fish, so they are used to forcibly “discharge water batteries.” The horned “invaders” are driven into the river, and the eels, defending the territory, attack the aliens. When the cows stop mooing and rushing about in fear, they are driven ashore. Then the angry but harmless eels are caught with nets.
Electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) are the most dangerous of all electric fish existing in nature. If we take into account human casualties, they are ahead of even piranhas. These creatures can deliver powerful, repeated electrical shocks that can cause cardiac 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; its long anal fin helps it swim well.
IN 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.
The top color of the eel is dark green or grayish. The abdomen of an electric fish with yellowish or orange tint. Young eels are olive-brown in color with yellow spots.
In the front part there are all the vital organs, which occupy only 20% of the entire body, the rest is a solid electrical organ, which consists of thousands of 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 sensation. When the baby grows to 40 mm, the power will increase greatly.
Electric organs
The positive charge of the eel is in the front part of the body, the negative charge, respectively, in the back. In addition, the fish has an additional electrical 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 ensures that even the smallest discharge of an electric eel is powerful, since the charge is summed up. Eventually, it becomes so powerful that it can cause the death of anyone who encounters it.
Thanks to its electrical organs, the eel finds its prey like a radar. Apart from this, they are also used to communicate with each other. Especially during the breeding season, when the male makes loud, frequent calls and the female responds with longer calls.
When the eel is in a calm position and resting, no electricity comes from it, but when it conducts active image life, then an electric field is formed around.
Natural habitats
Electric eels are often found in Guiana, but are mainly found in the wild in the South American region in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. Amazing creatures They love warm waters and prefer fresh, muddy bodies of water. Best places for electric fish these are bays, flats, swamps and floodplains.
Lifestyle
Electric eels remain incompletely studied to this day. For example, their life expectancy is wildlife never installed. At aquarium maintenance a female can live from 10 to 22 years, a male can live under the same conditions from 10 to 15 years.
As mentioned earlier, the hallmark of eels is their 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 is designed in such a way that fish need to regularly swim to the surface of the reservoir and inhale air. Thanks to this feature, eels can stay out of the reservoir for several hours.
The vision of fish is similar to giant snakes, they cannot boast, and are active mostly at night.
Electric eels are carnivorous and cannot be called vegetarians. Their diet includes fish, small birds, and amphibians. Sometimes these monsters of ponds can bite a small mammal. So they can safely be classified as predators.
Reproduction
Amazing details about these unusual creatures not all are listed yet. Electric eels multiply very in an interesting way. The male, using his saliva, builds a nest in which the female lays eggs. It’s simply amazing that from just one such clutch, about seventeen thousand small electric eels are born.
Newborn babies immediately eat the eggs that their mother lays after her firstborn. Electric eel babies remain close to their parent until they develop orientation organs.
What to use to catch an electric eel?
The eel, although electric, is still considered a fish, which means that it can be caught like any other when going fishing. But everything is not so simple - these creatures are deadly, so fishermen 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, local residents have come up with a simple way to catch these dangerous fish. If you ask what you use to catch eels using the method invented by the aborigines, the answer will be very unusual - they catch them on cows! The thing is that cows are needed to take on the first powerful discharges of electricity. Fishermen noticed that cows, unlike all other living creatures, very easily endure electric shocks from snake-like fish, so livestock is simply driven into a river with eels and wait until the cows stop mooing and thrashing 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 emit current for a long time; each subsequent discharge is weaker than the previous one. In order to restore the power of the blows, the fish will need time. This is such unconventional fishing, but the catch is very unusual!
People learned about electric fish quite a long time ago: 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.
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.
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.
The electric eel has special bodies, 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. Because he has poor eyesight, he uses them as radar to navigate and search for prey.
Electric eels can be huge 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.
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 reliable protection, therefore, 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.
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.
Zoologist Kenneth Catania from Vanderbilt University (USA), observing electric eels that lived in a specially equipped aquarium, noticed that fish can discharge their battery by 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; finally, the third method is a relatively long salvo of high-voltage and high-frequency discharges.
When an eel attacks, it sends many volts to the prey. high frequency(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; 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.
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 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.
Ecology of life: Fish of the species electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) is the only representative of the genus of electric eels (Electrophorus). It is found 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 weight - 20 kg. The electric eel feeds on fish, amphibians, and, if you're lucky, birds or small mammals.
The fish species electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) is the only representative of the genus of electric eels (Electrophorus). It is found 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 weight - 20 kg. The electric eel feeds on fish, amphibians, and, if you're lucky, birds or small mammals. Scientists have been studying the electric eel for tens (if not hundreds) of years, but only now some structural features 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 type tissue of the oral cavity, riddled with blood vessels. To breathe, the eel needs to swim to the surface every 15 minutes. It cannot take oxygen from water, since it lives in very muddy and shallow bodies of water, where there is very little oxygen. But, of course, the main one distinguishing feature electric eel - these are its electrical organs.
Electric eel (Source: youtube)
They play the role of not only a weapon for stunning or killing its victims, on which the eel feeds. The discharge generated by the electrical organs of the fish can be weak, up to 10 V. The eel generates such discharges for electrolocation. The fact is that fish have special “electroreceptors” that allow them to detect distortions in the electric field caused by its own body.
Electrolocation helps the eel find its way into muddy water and find hidden victims. The eel can give a strong discharge of electricity, and at this time the 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.
It's interesting that the ranks different strengths The eel generates using three types of electrical organs. They occupy approximately 4/5 of the length of the fish. High voltage is produced by the Hunter and Men organs, and small currents for navigation and communication purposes are generated by the Sachs organ. Main body and Hunter's organ are located in the lower part of the eel's body, Sachs' 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 species.
How does an electric eel generate electricity?
Eels of this species, like a number of other “electrified” fish, reproduce electricity in the same way as nerves and muscles in the bodies of other animals, only for this they use electrocytes - specialized cells. The task is performed using the enzyme Na-K-ATPase (by the way, the same enzyme is very important for mollusks of the genus Nautilus (lat. Nautilus)).
Thanks to the enzyme, an ion pump is formed that pumps sodium ions out of the cell and pumps in potassium ions. Potassium is removed from cells thanks 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, and negatively charged ones accumulate outside. An electrical gradient arises.
The resulting potential difference reaches 70 mV. In the membrane of the same cell of the eel's electrical organ 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 such pumps. Usually these channels are closed, but if necessary they open.
If this happens, the chemical potential gradient causes sodium ions to flow back into the cells. Happening overall change voltage from -70 to +60 mV, and the cell gives a discharge of 130 mV. The process duration is only 1 ms. Electric cells interconnect nerve fibers, the connection is serial. Electrocytes form peculiar columns that are 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 can reach 2A.
Electrocytes (electric cells) of an eel under a microscope
After the discharge, the ion pump operates again, and the eel's electrical organs are charged. According to some scientists, there are 7 types of ion channels in the membrane of electrocytic cells. The placement of these channels and the alternation of channel types affects the rate of electricity production.
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Electric battery low
According to research by Kenneth Catania from Vanderbilt University (USA), the eel can use three types of discharge from its electrical 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 lasting several milliseconds. This method is used by eels when hunting hidden and hidden prey. As soon as 2-3 high voltage shocks are given, the muscles of the hidden victim begin to contract, and the eel can easily detect potential food.
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The third method is a series of high-voltage, high-frequency discharges. The eel uses the third method when hunting, producing up to 400 pulses per second. This method paralyzes almost any small to medium-sized animal (even humans) at a distance of up to 3 meters.
Who else is capable of generating electric current?
About 250 species of fish are capable of this. For most, electricity is just a means of navigation, as, for example, in the case of the Nile elephant (Gnathonemus petersii).
But few fish are capable of generating an electric discharge of sensitive force. This electric ramps(a number of species), electric catfish and some others.
Electric catfish (