FishBase | Search | All Living Things


Electrophorus electricus (Linnaeus, 1766)
ELECTRIC EEL
Life   Vertebrata   Fish   Gymnotidae   Electrophorus


Click on map for details about points.

IDnature guide

Links

    We parsed the following live from the Web into this page. Such content is managed by its original site and not cached on Discover Life. Please send feedback and corrections directly to the source. See original regarding copyrights and terms of use.
  • FishBase

go to Discover Life's Facebook group

Following modified from FishBase
   Top | See original

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?genusname=Electrophorus&speciesname=electricus ---> http://192.134.151.83/Summary/speciesSummary.php?genusname=Electrophorus&speciesname=electricus
http://192.134.151.83/Summary/speciesSummary.php?genusname=Electrophorus&speciesname=electricus ---> https://fishbase.mnhn.fr/Summary/speciesSummary.php?genusname=Electrophorus&speciesname=electricus
https://fishbase.mnhn.fr/Summary/speciesSummary.php?genusname=Electrophorus&speciesname=electricus ---> https://fishbase.mnhn.fr/summary/Electrophorus-electricus.html
Electrophorus electricus, Electric eel : fisheries, aquarium
You can sponsor this page

Common name (e.g. trout)

Genus + Species (e.g. Gadus morhua)

Electrophorus electricus ( Linnaeus , 1766 )

Electric eel Upload your photos  and  videos
Pictures | Google image Image of Electrophorus electricus (Electric eel) Electrophorus electricus
Picture by Holm, E.

Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes( genus , species ) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS | Cloffa

Teleostei (teleosts) > Gymnotiformes (Knifefishes) > Gymnotidae (Naked-back knifefishes) > Electrophorinae
Etymology: Electrophorus: Greek, elektron = amber + Greek,pherein = to carry (Ref. 45335 ) .
More on author: Linnaeus .

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Freshwater; benthopelagic. Tropical; 23°C - 28°C (Ref. 1672 )

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Point map | Introductions | Faunafri

South America: restricted to the Guiana Shield.

Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: L m   ?   range ? - ? cm
Max length : 250 cm SL male/unsexed; (Ref. 27188 ); max. published weight: 20.0 kg (Ref. 27188 )

Short description Morphology | Morphometrics

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Dorsal soft rays (total): 0. This species is distinguished by the following characters: ventral outline of head U-shaped, widest at terminus of branchial opening and lateral-line pores 88-101 (vs. ovoid, widest anterior to branchial opening, 112-146 in E. voltai ); differs from E. varii with skull depressed, cleithrum lies between vertebrae 5 and 6 (vs. (vs. skull deep with cleithrum lying between vertebrae 1 and 2), pectoral-fin rays 32-38 (vs. 20-28) and lateral-line pores 88-101 (vs. 124-186). Low-voltage (Sachs’ organ) electric organ discharges or EODs and high-voltage (main/Hunter’s organ) with head-positive monophasic waveform. Low voltage EOD 2.03-2.19 ms duration; high-voltage EOD 480 V at 760mm TL (Ref. 120918 ).

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Prefer muddy bottoms and calm waters; frequently found in coastal plains, swamps and creeks but is also found inland where a favorable biotope exist. Juveniles feed on invertebrates, adults feed on fish and small mammals (Ref. 12225 ), first-born larvae prey on other eggs and embryos coming from late spawning batches (Ref. 40645 ). The electric organ of this species consists of flattened electrocytes, numbering to about hundreds of thousands, connected in series (Ref. 10840; 10011 ). Generates two type of electric organ discharges (EODs) from different electric organs which are of myogenic derivation: 1) low-voltage EODs (about 10 V) emitted by the Sach's organ at rates of up to 25 Hz, and 2) high-voltage EODs (about 50-fold) emitted by the main and Hunter's organs at peak rates of up to several hundred Hz. Low-voltage EOD has been associated with electro location whereas high-voltage EOD has been noted during predatory attacks (Ref. 10011 ). An EOD of 500 V was recorded from a 1 m specimen (Ref. 10530 ), making it a potentially dangerous species. Incorporation of this species in fish-based house security systems has been suggested (see Ref. 9506). Also possesses high-frequency sensitive tuberous receptors patchily distributed over the body that seems useful for hunting other gymnotiforms (Ref. 10583 ). A nocturnal species; captive specimens showed higher low-voltage EOD activity during the night compared to daytime (Ref. 10011 ). This cycle seems to be free-running (internally controlled) (Ref. 10829 ). Probably a fractional spawner; fecundity count was17,000 eggs (Ref. 10630 ). An obligatory air breather (Ref. 10011 ) and can withstand poorly oxygenated water (Ref. 26457 ). Used in experimental studies.

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

Males construct foam nests and guard the growing larvae until mid-January when the first seasonal rains flood the breeding area, causing the about 10 cm long young eels to disperse (Ref. 40645 ). Males outnumber females (3:1) and are considerably larger than females (Ref. 40645 ). There are three successive batches of eggs deposited in a spawning period. Not all eels with fully developed gonads (in Goiapi drainnage) participated in the annual spawning activity suggesting that mating success depends in part on finding suitable breeding sites (Ref. 40645 ).

Main reference Upload your references | References | Coordinator : Campos-da-Paz, Ricardo | Collaborators

de Santana, C.D., W.G.R. Crampton, C.B. Dillman, R.G. Frederico, M.H. Sabaj, R. Covain, J. Ready, J. Zuanon, R.R. de Oliveira, R.N. Mendes-Júnior, D.A. Bastos, T.F. Teixeira, J. Mol, W. Ohara, N.C. de Castro, L.A. Peixoto et al. , 2019. Unexpected species diversity in electric eels with a description of the strongest living bioelectricity generator. Nature Communications (2019)10:4000. [+authors; Nagamachi, C.; Sousa, L.; Montag, L.F.A.; Ribeiro, F.; Waddell, J.C.; Piorsky, N.M.; Vari, R.P.; Wosiacki, W.B. ] (Ref. 120918 )

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435 )

  Least Concern (LC)  ; Date assessed: 12 August 2020

CITES

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361 )

Not Evaluated

Threat to humans

Other





Human uses

Fisheries: commercial; aquarium: public aquariums FAO - Publication: search | FishSource |

More information

Countries
FAO areas
Ecosystems
Occurrences
Introductions
Stocks
Ecology
Diet
Food items
Food consumption
Ration
Common names
Synonyms
Metabolism
Predators
Ecotoxicology
Reproduction
Maturity
Spawning
Spawning aggregation
Fecundity
Eggs
Egg development
Age/Size
Growth
Length-weight
Length-length
Length-frequencies
Morphometrics
Morphology
Larvae
Larval dynamics
Recruitment
Abundance
BRUVS
References
Aquaculture
Aquaculture profile
Strains
Genetics
Electrophoreses
Heritability
Diseases
Processing
Nutrients
Mass conversion
Collaborators
Pictures
Stamps, Coins Misc.
Sounds
Ciguatera
Speed
Swim. type
Gill area
Otoliths
Brains
Vision

Tools

Bio-Quiz | E-book | Field guide | Length-frequency wizard | Life-history tool | Point map | Classification Tree | Catch-MSY |

Special reports

Check for Aquarium maintenance | Check for Species Fact Sheets | Check for Aquaculture Fact Sheets

Download XML

Summary page | Point data | Common names | Photos

Internet sources

AFORO (otoliths) | Aquatic Commons | BHL | Cloffa | BOLDSystems | Websites from users | Check FishWatcher | CISTI | Catalog of Fishes : genus , species | DiscoverLife | ECOTOX | FAO - Publication: search | Faunafri | Fishipedia | Fishtrace | GenBank: genome , nucleotide | GloBI | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | IGFA World Record | MitoFish | Otolith Atlas of Taiwan Fishes | Public aquariums | PubMed | Reef Life Survey | Socotra Atlas | Tree of Life | Wikipedia: Go , Search | World Records Freshwater Fishing | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Phylogenetic diversity index (Ref. 82804 ):  PD 50 = 1.0000   [Uniqueness, from 0.5 = low to 2.0 = high]. Bayesian length-weight: a=0.00389 (0.00180 - 0.00842), b=3.12 (2.94 - 3.30), in cm total length, based on all LWR estimates for this body shape (Ref. 93245 ). Trophic level (Ref. 69278 ):  3.9   ±0.52 se; based on food items. Resilience (Ref. 120179 ):  Medium, minimum population doubling time 1.4 - 4.4 years (tm=3; tmax=6 (captive); Fec=17,000). Fishing Vulnerability (Ref. 59153 ):  Very high vulnerability (90 of 100). Price category (Ref. 80766 ):   Unknown .

Comments & Corrections
Back to Search Random Species Back to Top
Accessed through: Not available FishBase mirror site : localhost Page last modified by : mrius-barile - 20 July 2016
Fatal error : Uncaught ArgumentCountError: Too few arguments to function checkEcotox(), 1 passed in /var/www/html/summary/speciessummary.php on line 2304 and exactly 3 expected in /var/www/html/includes/speciessummary.lib.php:2579 Stack trace: #0 /var/www/html/summary/speciessummary.php(2304): checkEcotox() #1 {main} thrown in /var/www/html/includes/speciessummary.lib.php on line 2579

Updated: 2024-03-28 17:42:08 gmt
FishBase | Search | All Living Things | Top
© Designed by The Polistes Corporation