Electric Eel: A fish that has enough voltage to electrocute a man.
Hello, great steemians. Thanks for taking your precious time in reading, upvoting and commenting on my previous post. I sincerely appreciate.
Today, I will be talking on "Electric eel: A fish that has enough voltage to electrocute a man". How will you feel when you dip your hand inside a river and gets the shock of your life? Don't bother to think too far because that's an electric eel in action, lol.
[An electric eel, Authored: Scott Source: Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
Biology of an Electric eel
An electric eel is a fish that is capable of generating its own electricity from its body. It can produce more than 500 volts of electricity and this makes it dangerous to many moderate-sized creatures including humans. This spineless fish also has the ability to produce an electric shock capable of paralyzing a horse. It is a predator that usually lives in rivers but can also survive in swampy areas.
Also, isn't it funny to know that despite the eel-like appearance of this creature, It isn't really an eel but a species of knifefish and closely related to catfish. The 8 feet length fish is native to South America and its scientific name is Electrophorus electricus.
How does an electric eel generate electricity?
[A freehand drawing by me showing an Electric eel's organs with aligned electric cells (electrocytes). When the brain sends a signal, they polarize, thereby creating a positive and negative side, sort of like a battery]
An electric eel has three main electricity-producing organs which are composed of electrocytes. An electrocyte is a modified muscle or nerve cell that generates electricity in the electric organ of some certain fishes e.g Electric eel. Those electric producing organs are; the main organ, the hunter's organ and the Sach's organ. These organs make up four-fifths of the eel's body and give the electric eel the ability to generate two types of electric discharges which are the low voltage and high voltage. The main organ and the hunter's organ are those organs responsible for producing high voltage while the Sach's organ produces the low voltage.
The electric eel produces electricity just like the form of a battery that has two opposite poles; the positive and negative. But, for an eel, the two opposite poles are its head and its tail. So, basically, electric eel produces current by merely reversing the sides of the polarity of these cells which creates a rapid voltage difference.
In the cell of an electric eel, there are small structures called electrocytes. They are about 1/25-inch in thickness and can be compared to nerve cells. The organ in the electric eel that enables it to produce electric current is made up of 5,000-6,000 electrocytes and they are set up just like the cells in a battery.
Each electrocyte can only produce a small voltage of electricity compared to when they are all arranged in series as they are in the body of an electric eel. And in such a situation, one will experience a large jolt of electricity up to 650 volts and that is five times the voltage that comes out of a wall socket. Such a voltage is enough to kill a man.
However, as an electric eel is capable of producing high voltages, so also is capable of producing low voltages but just that such types of voltage production are meant for different purposes. The large voltage of electricity is produced when the electric eel wants to hunt or attack its prey while the low voltage is produced when the fish is moving about and communicating with its fellow eels.
In a series of laboratory experiments, neurobiologist Ken Catania and colleagues concluded by saying that an electric eel uses its electric attack both as a weapon to attack and hunt its prey and simultaneously also as a sensory system.
In the next post, I'll be discussing on how electric eels generate electricity without being getting shocked in the process and also on their biomimetic potentials.
Thanks for reading
References
How do electric eels generate a voltage
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I better run away from South America water, I don't want to be electricuted by one fish. I hope they wouldn't bring it here. This is a nice work @emperorhassy.👍👍
Hahahahaha....very funny, sir @steepup. The fish doesn't initiate attack first until it feels threatened. So, don't be afraid. Thanks, sir for the motivation. I sincerely appreciate.
what a great piece of information, how bad would it be if someone wants to take a bath in those rivers? hahaha I better shut up because karma will punish me
Lolzzz...... It can be very bad oh @johntkd.
Thanks for passing by.
Lolzzz...... Swimming in such a water can be very bad oh @johntkd.
Thanks for passing by.
I think so too! I'll keep an eye for it :)
Nice write up @emprorhassy.
I could smell the aroma of physics in your post. That free hand drawing is also wonderful.
Please how related is the electric eel and the one we call electric fish (ẹja ọ̀jíjí)
@mr-sakariyau, thanks sir I'm flattered.
You actually guessed right. I'm an engineering physicist.
Yes, the electric eel and the electric fish are related in the sense that an electric eel is just a type or an example of electric fish. We have other type of electric fish like electric catfishes, electric rays, Peter's elephantnose fish, and the black ghost knifefish.
Thanks for the clarification.
@mr-sakariyau. It's a pleasure.
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