Why does fish use bioelectricity?

What is the function of bioelectric organs in fish?

In more than 200 fish species, the bioelectric organ is involved in self-defense or hunting. The torpedo, or electric ray, and the electric eel have especially powerful electric organs, which they apparently use to immobilize or kill prey.

Do fish have electric organs?

Various fishes, both marine and freshwater, have developed special organs that are capable of generating substantial electric discharges, while others have tissues that can sense feeble electric fields in water. In more than 200 fish species, the bioelectric organ is involved in self-defense or hunting.

What is the function of electrocytes in fish?

Electrocytes, electroplaques or electroplaxes are cells used by electric eels, rays, and other fish for electrogenesis. In some species they are cigar-shaped; in others, they are flat disk-like cells. Electric eels have several thousand of these cells stacked, each producing 0.15 V.

What fish have electric organs that can kill their prey?

The torpedo, or electric ray, and the electric eel have especially powerful electric organs, which they apparently use to immobilize or kill prey. Electric organs appear to have arisen independently in several fishes. They are modifications of the axial musculature of the tail, as in…

What is the function of electrocyte?

Electric organ is composed thousand of flat disc-like cells called electrocytes stacked one above the other each producing 0.15V electric discharge. Function of electrocytes is similar to muscle cells, by pumping sodium and potassium ions out of the cell via transport proteins by expense of energy.

What is the function of the electric organ?

In biology, the electric organ is an organ common to all electric fish used for the purposes of creating an electric field. The electric organ is derived from modified nerve or muscle tissue.

What is the function of electrical organs in fish?

Electrical organs are advanced and specialized structures that enable the carrier to generate, store, and release electricity. Only fish has the ability to generate this electricity in the animal kingdom. About 250 species of cartilaginous and bony fish can generate this electricity.

How do fish use electroreception?

Fish use electroreception to detect the electrical fields produced by other fish, but they also need a way to navigate to the source of the electric field. The use of electroreception to locate the source of the electric field is known as electroreception.

How do weakly electric fish detect each other?

Weakly electric fish use their ampullary receptors and tuberous receptors to detect the weakly electric fields produced by other fish, as well as for possible predator avoidance.

What is passive electrolocation in fish?

Passive electrolocation in fish. Passive electrolocation is a process where certain species of fish or aquatic amphibians can detect electric fields using specialized electroreceptors to detect and to locate the source of an external electric field in its environment creating the electric field.

How do electric fish generate electricity?

Electric fish generate discharge from electric organs located near the tail region. Electric organs are mostly derived from muscle cells (myogenic); except in one gymnotiform family, which has electric organs derived from neurons (neurogenic organs).

Which fish have an electric organ?

Cartilaginous fish, especially electric rays ( Narcine timlei, N. brunea, Narke diptergia) and skates ( Raja) have well-developed electric organs.

How does electrofishing work in lakes?

The water is shocked by an electric current which temporarily paralyzes the fish, allowing them to be counted. However, electrofishing should not be performed without at least one experienced personnel and should not be performed in public lakes or rivers without prior confirmation from a local authority.

How do Electrolocating fish navigate?

Electrolocating fish use this ability to detect prey, locate other fish, avoid predators, and perhaps to navigate by the Earth’s magnetic field.

What is passive electrolocation?

Passive electrolocation contrasts with active electrolocation, in which the animal emits its own weak self generated electric field and detects nearby objects by detecting the distortion of its produced electric field.

Are there any fish with active electrolocation?

Active electrolocation has evolved independently in both African Mormyriform and south American Gymnotiform weakly electric fish that comprise hundreds of species (Bennett, 1971). Active electroreception requires specialized electroreceptors called tuberous receptors.

How do fish use electro-orientation?

Since the fishes are able to generate the fields they detect, this is a form of active electro-orientation. Some species of skates and rays also have electricity-producing organs.

What is a weakly electric fish used for?

Weakly electric fish generate a discharge that is typically less than one volt. These are too weak to stun prey and instead are used for navigation, object detection (electrolocation) and communication with other electric fish (electrocommunication).

How do electric fish communicate in the ocean?

When two such electric fish meet in the ocean using the same frequency, each fish will then shift the frequency of its discharge so that they are transmitting on different frequencies. Doing so prevents their electroreception faculties from becoming jammed.

What is the electroreception ability of a shark?

Other members of the elasmobranch fish family — rays and skates — also share this trait, but sharks’ electroreception abilities are the most finely tuned. Electroreception simply means the ability to detect electrical currents.

How do Amazonian catfish use electroreceptors?

Amazonian catfish have been captured and found to have stomachs full of weakly electric fish tails, suggesting that they use their electroreceptive sense to hunt and prey upon active electroreceptors.

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.

What is electroreception in sharks?

The finned predators of the high seas are equipped with a special sense called electroreception that allows them to home in on prey with deadly accuracy. Other members of the elasmobranch fish family — rays and skates — also share this trait, but sharks’ electroreception abilities are the most finely tuned.

What is the origin of electric organs in fish?

Origin of Electric Organs in Different Fish: In skates (Raja), Electrophorus electricus and Mormyrids (Gymnarchus and Mormyrus) etc., the tail muscles of fish are transformed to form electric organs.