An electric fish is any fish that can generate electric fields. Most electric fish are also electroreceptive, meaning that they can sense electric fields. The only exception is the stargazer family (Uranoscopidae). Electric fish, although a small minority of all fishes, include both oceanic and freshwater species, and both cartilaginous and bony fishes.
Electric fish produce their electrical fields from an electric organ. This is made up of electrocytes, modified muscle or nerve cells, specialized for producing strong electric fields, used to locate prey, for defence against predators, and for signalling, such as in courtship. Electric organ discharges are two types, pulse and wave, and vary both by species and by function.
Electric fish have evolved many specialised behaviours. The predatory African sharptooth catfish eavesdrops on its weakly electric mormyrid prey to locate it when hunting, driving the prey fish to develop electric signals that are harder to detect. Bluntnose knifefishes produce an electric discharge pattern similar to the electrolocation pattern of the dangerous electric eel, probably a form of Batesian mimicry to dissuade predators. Glass knifefish that are using similar frequencies move their frequencies up or down in a jamming avoidance response; African knifefish have convergently evolved a nearly identical mechanism.
An electricfish is any fish that can generate electric fields. Most electricfish are also electroreceptive, meaning that they can sense electric fields...
The electric eels are a genus, Electrophorus, of neotropical freshwater fish from South America in the family Gymnotidae. They are known for their ability...
generate electric fields. Both are used to locate prey; stronger electric discharges are used in a few groups of fishes (most famously the electric eel, which...
A fish (pl.: fish or fishes) is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits...
The electric rays are a group of rays, flattened cartilaginous fish with enlarged pectoral fins, composing the order Torpediniformes /tɔːrˈpɛdɪnɪfɔːrmiːz/...
mostly nocturnal fish are capable of producing electric fields to detect prey, for navigation, communication, and, in the case of the electric eel (Electrophorus...
shocks from electricfish. Ancient Egyptian texts dating from 2750 BCE described them as the "protectors" of all other fish. Electricfish were again reported...
other fish, incapacitating their prey with electric discharges, but others are generalist bottom foragers, feeding on things like invertebrates, fish eggs...
Eeltail catfish Elasmobranch Electric catfish Electric eel Electric knifefish Electric ray Elephant fish Elephantnose fish Elver Ember parrotfish Emerald...
fish for those with large aquariums, minimum 100 gallons. Black ghost knifefish are nocturnal. They are a weakly electricfish which use an electric organ...
stability. They have a role in the perception of self and nonself electric fields in electricfish. They also underlie the phenomenon of tickling. A motor signal...
Fish was apprehended on December 13, 1934, and put on trial for the kidnapping and murder of Grace Budd. He was convicted and executed by electric chair...
The electric yellow cichlid is a popular freshwater aquarium fish. It is a naturally occurring variant of Labidochromis caeruleus endemic to the central...
Oily fish are fish species with oil (fats) in soft tissues and in the coelomic cavity around the gut. Their fillets may contain up to 30% oil, although...
Fish gills are organs that allow fish to breathe underwater. Most fish exchange gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide using gills that are protected under...
Batoidea is a superorder of cartilaginous fishes, commonly known as rays. They and their close relatives, the sharks, comprise the subclass Elasmobranchii...
weakly electricfish. It occurs when two electricfish with wave discharges meet – if their discharge frequencies are very similar, each fish shifts its...
Fish farming or pisciculture involves commercial breeding of fish, most often for food, in fish tanks or artificial enclosures such as fish ponds. It...
many small fish use their pectoral fins for swimming as well as for steering and dynamic lift. Fish in the order Gymnotiformes possess electric organs along...
weak electric fields to help them detect prey. Convergence of weakly electricfishes Gymnotiform electrolocation waveform A gymnotiform electricfish of...
Juvenile fishFish go through various life stages between fertilization and adulthood. The life of fish start as spawned eggs which hatch into immotile...
deliver electric shocks as well as venom. It is a delicacy in some cultures (cooking destroys the venom), and can be found for sale in some fish markets...
fish, sport fish or quarry refer to popular fish species pursued by recreational fishers (typically anglers), and can be freshwater or saltwater fish...
(more properly freshwater elephantfish), are a superfamily of weakly electricfish in the order Osteoglossiformes native to Africa. It is by far the largest...
Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging...
Fish anatomy is the study of the form or morphology of fish. It can be contrasted with fish physiology, which is the study of how the component parts...