An electric fish is a fish that can generate electric field]s. It is said to be electrogenic; a fish that has the ability to detect electric fields is said to be electroreceptive. Most fish that are electrogenic are also electroreceptive. Electric fish species can be found both in the sea and in freshwater rivers of South America and Africa. Many fishes such as sharks, skates, rays and catfish can detect electric fields, and are thus electroreceptive, but as they cannot generate an electric field they are not classified as electric fish. Most common bony fish (teleosts), including most fish that kept in aquaria or caught for food, are neither electrogenic nor electroreceptive. In physics, an electric field or E-field is an effect produced by an electric charge (or a time-varying magnetic field) that exerts a force on charged objects in the field. ... Orders Carcharhiniformes Heterodontiformes Hexanchiformes Lamniformes Orectolobiformes Pristiophoriformes Squaliformes Squatiniformes Sharks are a group (superorder Selachimorpha) of fish, with a full cartilaginous skeleton, a streamlined body plan, with normally 5, but up to 7 (depending on species) gill slits along the side of, or beginning slightly behind, the head (in some... Genera See text. ... Orders Rajiformes- common rays and skates Myliobatiformes - eagle rays, manta rays Pristiformes - sawfishes Torpediniformes - electric rays Rays are a 400 species group (superorder Rajomorphii or Batoidea) of cartilaginous fishes divided into seven families. ... Families Akysidae Amblycipitidae Amphiliidae Ariidae Aspredinidae Astroblepidae Auchenipteridae Bagridae Callichthyidae Cetopsidae Chacidae Clariidae Claroteidae Cranoglanididae Diplomystidae Doradidae Hypophthalmidae Ictaluridae Lacantuniidae Loricariidae Malapteruridae Mochokidae Nematogenyidae Pangasiidae Parakysidae Pimelodidae Plotosidae Schilbeidae Scoloplacidae Siluridae Sisoridae Trichomycteridae Catfish (order Siluriformes) are a diverse group of fish. ... Orders See text The Actinopterygii are the ray-finned fish. ... For other uses, see Aquarium (disambiguation). ...

Strongly and weakly electric fish

Electric fish produce their electric fields from a specialized structure called an electric organ. This is made up of modified muscle or nerve cells, which became specialized for producing electric fields. Typically this organ is located in the tail of the electric fish. The electrcial output of the organ is called the electric organ discharge (EOD). A top-down view of skeletal muscle Muscle is the contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. ... Nerves (yellow) Nerves redirects here. ...

Fish that have an EOD that is powerful enough to stun their prey are called strongly electric fish. The amplitude of the signal can range from 10 to 500 volts with a current of up to 1 Amp. Typical examples are the Electric eel (Electrophorus electricus), not actually an eel but a Knifefish, Electric catfish (Malapterurus electricus, M. minjiriya, M. microstoma), and electric rays (Torpedo mamorata, T. californica). Josephson junction array chip developed by NIST as a standard volt. ... AMP is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below: AMP, the capitalised letter version of Amp, In biology, the nucleotide adenosine monophosphate As a flavour enhancer, the nucleotide adenosine monophosphate AngryMutantPenguin, a famous fan of The Elder Scrolls In computing, the MPEG-2, Layer 3 (MP3) audio... Binomial name Electrophorus electricus Linnaeus, 1766 The electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) is a species of fish. ... The knifefishes (also knife fishes, notopterids or featherbacks) are ray-finned fish that are elongated in shape and whose fins run the length of the body, with the resulting appearance of a knife. ... Species Malapterurus electricus Malapterurus minjiriya Malapterurus microstoma Electric catfish (family Malapteruridae) is the common name of several species of freshwater catfish with the ability to produce an electric shock of up to 350 volts. ... Families Narcinidae Torpedinidae hi Electric rays (order Torpediniformes) are fish that have a rounded body and a pair of organs capable of producing an electric discharge, which is used to stun or kill prey. ...

By contrast weakly electric fish generate a discharge that is typically less than one volt in amplitude. These are too weak to stun prey, but are used for navigation, object detection (electrolocation) and communication with other electric fish (electrocommunication). Some of the best known and most studied examples are Peter's Elephantnose Fish (Gnathonemus petersi) and the Black Ghost Knifefish (Apteronotus albifrons). Binomial name Gnathonemus petersi Günther (1862) Peters Elephantnose Fish Gnathonemus petersi, (also known as the Elephantnose fish, long-nosed Elephantfish, Peters Elephantnose, Ubangi Mormyrid) is a member of the genus Mormyridae commonly known as Mormyrids. Living in Africa, Mormyrids are known as weakly electric fish and use... Binomial name Apteronotus albifrons (Linnaeus, 1766) The Black Ghost Knifefish (Apteronotus albifrons) is a tropical fish belonging to the ghost knifefish family (Apteronotidae). ...

The EOD waveform takes two general forms depending on the species. In some species the waveform is continuous and almost sinusoidal (for example Apteronotus, Eigenmannia and Gymnarchus) and these are said to have a wave-type EOD. In other species, the EOD waveform consists of brief pulses separated by longer gaps (for example Gnathonemus, Gymnotus, Raja) and these are said to have a pulse-type EOD. In trigonometry, an ideal sine wave is a waveform whose graph is identical to the generalized sine function y = Asin[ω(x − α)] + C, where A is the amplitude, ω is the angular frequency (2π/P where P is the wavelength), α is the phase shift, and C is the... Genera  Electrophorus  Gymnotus The naked-back knifefishes are a family (Gymnotidae) of knifefishes that do not have a dorsal fin. ...

Table of electric fish

This is a table of all known electric fish species within fresh water. In salt water there is only one order, the Torpediniformes (electric rays), inside the chondrichthyes that shows species generating even strong electric pulses (genus Torpedo spp., which counts 22 known species). Families Narcinidae Torpedinidae If you came here looking for information about a fictional energy weapon, see raygun. ... Orders See text. ... In taxonomy, a subspecies is the taxon immediately subordinate to a species. ...

References

• Bullock TH, Heiligenberg W (eds) (1986) Electroreception. Wiley, 722 pp.
• Heiligenberg W (1991) Neural nets in electric fish. MIT Press, 179 pp.
• Moller P (1995) Electric Fishes: History and Behavior. Chapman & Hall, 583 pp.

External links

• Electric Fish, Mark E. Nelson, Beckman Institute Neuroscience Program,

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Accessed 11/2006, [1] Learning & Labor The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also known as UIUC and the U of I (the officially preferred abbreviation), is the largest campus in the University of Illinois system. ...