I've heared that electric eels are biology more related to knifefish than to eels. if so, is it count as a knifefish?
Electric eel?
- Thread starter Three Trees
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knives, moramids, e-eels, and e-cats are all capable of producing electricity. I can see simailarities between the head-shape of an e-eel and my carapo knife. only SW and highly BW have true eels.
Hey all, I am new to this forum and was going through old threads of interest and thought I would add to something I bet most of you will find interesting! I actually recently posted the same on a different forum.
Yes, Electric eels and catfish are related to the knifefish (Gymnotids and others), such as the black ghost fish, although eels much more so evolutionarily. There electric organs are myogenic cells that work very much the same as an battery by establishing a voltage (electrochemical) gradient. The electric organ discharge, or EOD, of a single cell is quite small, just a few millivolts. BUT, when you line enough of them in series like the a long, full grown eels with 1000s of them...WHAMMM lots of voltage, maxing out around 600 Volts!!!
What most people don't know is that the knifefish are constantly discharging EODs at their own personal and species-specific frequency used for location, communication, mating, and not so much defense. If you really want to have some fun with them, rig up a voltmeter connected to an amplifier and speaker and place the leads in the water (around the fish, best using a cheesecloth around the fish or benign way of quarantine) and "hear" your fish talking to you!
If that doesn't tickle your fancy enough, put another knife fish (same species or different). Even better (and much cooler in my opinion) transmit the same frequency your fish is emitting into its water...and watch it outsmart you with an "anti-jamming" mechanism. It will increase or decrease its frequency. Then switch to that frequency, and he'll change again until a certain point then go back the other way to avoid getting jammed!
Yeah, these are some pretty **** amazing and cool fish besides their beauty, that some owners might not even know about to really appreciate them!
Ok, lecture is over for today! No homework assignment. Sorry for the lengthy post!!!
Yes, Electric eels and catfish are related to the knifefish (Gymnotids and others), such as the black ghost fish, although eels much more so evolutionarily. There electric organs are myogenic cells that work very much the same as an battery by establishing a voltage (electrochemical) gradient. The electric organ discharge, or EOD, of a single cell is quite small, just a few millivolts. BUT, when you line enough of them in series like the a long, full grown eels with 1000s of them...WHAMMM lots of voltage, maxing out around 600 Volts!!!
What most people don't know is that the knifefish are constantly discharging EODs at their own personal and species-specific frequency used for location, communication, mating, and not so much defense. If you really want to have some fun with them, rig up a voltmeter connected to an amplifier and speaker and place the leads in the water (around the fish, best using a cheesecloth around the fish or benign way of quarantine) and "hear" your fish talking to you!
If that doesn't tickle your fancy enough, put another knife fish (same species or different). Even better (and much cooler in my opinion) transmit the same frequency your fish is emitting into its water...and watch it outsmart you with an "anti-jamming" mechanism. It will increase or decrease its frequency. Then switch to that frequency, and he'll change again until a certain point then go back the other way to avoid getting jammed!
Yeah, these are some pretty **** amazing and cool fish besides their beauty, that some owners might not even know about to really appreciate them!
Ok, lecture is over for today! No homework assignment. Sorry for the lengthy post!!!
