Okay, I know the title is long and crazy, but we do have a special edition this month. We are listing all three electric eels species: Electrophorus electricus, Electrophorus voltai, and Electrophorus varii.
Before we begin, I would like to point out that this is the last of our sea creature segment, but it's also our first special edition article. Electric eels! We are listing all three species of electric eel, and I think that is the perfect way to end this segment. Now who's ready for the eels?
Electrophorus electricus
An electric eel! Wow, right? Actually, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but an electric eel is a knifefish and is more closely related to things like carp and catfish than it is to eels! Anyway, I'm going to skip over the physical description of an E. electricus, just because you can see a lot of what it looks like just from the image above. On to the electricity! So the electric eel has three main electric organs: the main organ, the Hunter's organ, and the Sachs' organ. Together, these three organs can produce both strong and weak electric charges which can be put to many different uses. For example, an electric eel might use its charges for hunting, but it could also use them for communication. Anyway, back to the organs. Well, the main organ and most of the Hunter's organ are used for the strong electrical charges, but the Sachs' organ and the remainder of the Hunter's organ are used for weaker ones. Until recently, this fish was the only known animal in its genus. Also, electric eels actually resurface every so often to get air. They don't use gills! One last thing, this is kind of the one electric eel you need to base all of your information on. What I mean is that all electric eels have most things in common, though there may be some little differences, so just remember that the next two both are a lot like this one.
Electrophorus voltai
This newly discovered species of electric eel is much like E. electricus, only I'd say that this one is much cooler. Why? Well, this specific electric eel electric eels can produce shocks of 860 volts, which gives it the title of the strongest known living source of electricity. Just let that sink in. It may not seem like a big deal, but this was kind of a major breakthrough. Plus, this is some top-notch trivia that is sure to amaze your friends!
Electrophorus varii
Sadly, E. electricus and E. volati are hogging the spotlight, and so I do not have many interesting facts about this one. Basically all I know is that this was named after a man called Richard Vari, and it swims through murky waters. Thanks, Smithsonian! (If you couldn't tell, that was sarcasm.) Still, Smithsonian provided a cool video, and if you want to see it, click here. Now, I'm going to talk about how the two newly discovered species (E. voltai and E. varii) were found. It all started with David de Santana, a "fish detective" who has been interested in sea creatures for his whole life. He took a liking to knifefish, and since he couldn't find much information about them, he went off to find them. His friend, Richard Vari aided him in his research, and in the end, he discovered these species of electric eel.
Thanks for reading this article, and I know you learned something here today.
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