What is the name of electricity fish?

Is there a fish that can sense electricity?

Black Ghost Knifefish. Thus, it is among the few animals that can both produce and sense electricity. The fish uses its electrogenic and electrosensing capabilities to locate insect larvae, the primary food. The fish generates electric signals called electric organ discharges (EOD’s) using the electric organ.

What are the two groups of weakly electric fish?

There are two phylogenetically independent orders of weakly electric fishes: the Gymnotiformes of South America and the Mormyriformes of Africa. These clades evolved independently within two distantly related groups, the ostariophysans and osteoglossomorphs, respectively.

How does a fish generate an electric field?

Weakly electric fish generate weak electric fields from an electric organ in their tails. They sense their own electric organ discharges (EODs) and those of other fish with specialized sensory receptors called electroreceptors.

What are strongly electric fish?

Strongly electric fish are fish with an electric organ discharge that is powerful enough to stun prey or be used for defense. Typical examples are the electric eel, the electric catfishes, and electric rays.

Which animal can sense electricity?

Thus, it is among the few animals that can both produce and sense electricity. The fish uses its electrogenic and electrosensing capabilities to locate insect larvae, its primary food.

What is the electric organ response of a weakly electric fish?

The electric organ response of a weakly electric fish (Marcusenius brachyistius) to discharge patterns of another electric fish. Am. ZooL, 10, 68. Valone, J. A. (1970). Electrical emissions in Gymnotus carapo and their relation to social behavior.

How are electric currents produced in fish?

The electric currents produced by some species of fishes, such as the Numbfish and torpedo rays are generated in cells called electrocytes. When an electrocyte is stimulated, a movement of ions (electrically charged atoms) across the cell membrane results in an electric discharge.

Can fish generate their own electric fields?

Some fishes can also generate their own electrical fields. These fishes have both ampullae type receptors and tuberous type receptors. The tuberous receptors are most sensitive to the electric organ discharge of the fish itself, which is important for object detection.

Why do fish have high voltage and low current?

Strongly electric marine fish give low voltage, high current electric discharges. In salt water, a small voltage can drive a large current limited by the internal resistance of the electric organ. Hence, the electric organ consists of many electrocytes in parallel. Freshwater fish have high voltage, low current discharges.

What are some examples of strong electric fish?

Strongly electric fish. Strongly electric fish are fish with an electric organ discharge that is powerful enough to stun prey or be used for defense. Typical examples are the electric eel, the electric catfishes, and electric rays. The amplitude of the signal can range from 10 to 600 volts with a current of up to 1 ampere,…

Why do fish use electric fields to detect prey?

This is important in ecological niches where the animal cannot depend on vision: for example in caves, in murky water and at night. Many fish use electric fields to detect buried prey. Some shark embryos and pups “freeze” when they detect the characteristic electric signal of their predators.

How do fish hide their electric signals?

The amplitude of their EODs isn’t as high as some pulse-emitting electric fish, but their wave pattern does allow their electric signals to hide from detection, as most predatory fish can sense DC impulses (like the predatory electric eel and electric catfish), as opposed to AC current. What do the fish use their electric powers for?

What is an electrocyte in a fish?

Electrocytes are modified cells either of muscle (in most cases) or neural origin. These cells generate the eel’s electric punch. The number of electrocytes in a column and the number of columns dictate how much electricity the fish can produce.

What are the receptors for electric discharge in fish?

Reception of the Electric Organ Discharge: The Electroreceptors Weakly electric fish possess two classes of electroreceptors–ampullary and tuberous receptors. These receptors are distributed over the fish’s body, al- though they are most dense near the head and are inner- vated by the lateral line nerves.

Do electric fish produce electricity?

Electric fish can either emit an electric organ discharge (EOD), in pulses, or in a wave-like (sinusoidal) manner. Furthermore, they can either produce DC, direct current (monophasic) or AC, alternating current (biphasic).

How does a fish find its food?

The fish uses its electrogenic and electrosensing capabilities to locate insect larvae, its primary food. The fish generates electric signals called electric organ discharges (EOD’s) using the electric organ. The EOD’s are picked up by the electrosensing receptors present on the body of the fish.

How do electric fish produce electricity?

Electric fish produce their electrical fields from a specialized structure called an electric organ. This is made up of modified muscle or nerve cells, which became specialized for producing bioelectric fields stronger than those that normal nerves or muscles produce.

What kind of fish can generate electricity?

Two groups of marine fish, the electric rays (Torpediniformes: Narcinidae and Torpedinidae) and the stargazers (Perciformes: Uranoscopidae), are capable of generating strong electric pulses.

What are some examples of electric fish?

Two of the best-known and most-studied examples are Peters’s elephantnose fish ( Gnathonemus petersii) and the black ghost knifefish ( Apteronotus albifrons ). The males of the nocturnal Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus, a toothless knifefish native to the Amazon basin, give off big, long electric hums to attract a mate.

How do fish sense electric fields?

When fish use their electroreceptive sense to detect the electric fields, it is different from other senses such as vision, auditory, and vibration senses. This is due to the fact that stimuli such as light and sound travel in vectors that are associated from the propagation of the wave, and the velocity vector points to the source of the signal.