general info on electric eels

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webby06_2007

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 26, 2007
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sudbury'suffolk
hi everyone im just going to ask everyone about there general knowlage on electric eels has anyone ever keep 1 and what are the like as u hear all the storys about people getting shocked by them when doing water changes all infomation would be very good and pics if anyone has one cheers

webby
 
Yes you can get a shocks from an electric eel or electric catfish. Eels can get BIG and need filtration and escape-proofing to suit. I recently recorded a feeding session at a Japanese public aquarium I went to recently. The tank is wired up for sound and voltage meter (over 600 Volts) and it was a popular and educational display. Young kids just love carnage! The attendent pops in a weather loach and tells everyone the eel is virtually blind and relies on its lateral line to detect and hunt down prey. As most people know, the electric eel is quite soft and vunerable so electricity is a good method to hunt and kill prey quickly, A thrashing victim full of spines would do terrible damage to an eels soft mouth and breathing system otherwise.

I resized the video from 84 Mb to 20Mb with Virtual dub (which I am new to) and XVid codec so I am unsure if ithe audio is in sync or its actually visible to others.

I have kept electric catfish before which may be better suited for home aquaria than a large strong & dangerous eel. The catfish would hunt down small fish in a similar fashion and sometimes shock them strongly enough to "cook" them.

 
dude thats awesome!
 
very cool fish and vid.it would have been better if he caught he fish.also he way too large for that tank.
 
Oh he caught it! I have plenty of other video footage but just didnt want to show endless amounts of video and video editing is all a bit new to me right now. I think they chose loaches because lthey are tougher - faster -　smarter than feeder fish and the loach tried hiding up in the water column and burrowing too.

I will enclose a composite photo from some other videos and pics I took. Sorry about the quality ... but I left it large enough to zoom into the lateral line receptors for those interested.

E-Eel.jpg
 
now thats got my attention
it looks great
 
That was so cool. What surprised me was the air bubble when he shocked the loach. Where did that come from?
 
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