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Eel Imobilize Prey

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Electric eels are capable of generating powerful shocks that can immobilize prey. Discharges emitted from volleys into the environment can cause prey in hiding to experience involuntary muscle twitching causing it to be revealed to the eel. The revelation of hidden prey allows the eel to continue its attack and go into predatory strike mode. This study (Catania, 2014) sets out to show that the powerful shocks produced by eels activate motor neurons in their prey causing muscle contractions in the prey to be temporarily halted and the eel to be able to control their target through high-frequency volleys.

An eel was placed in a naturalistic experimental environment with other fish and the fishes’ response to high-voltage pulses was observed. If there was a strong enough discharge, the fish was unable to move on its on accord and was captured by the eel. A pitched fish was placed behind an agar barrier, which received the same discharge as the eel directed toward earthworms placed in the same environment. In order to determine if the discharges induced the muscle movement by initiating action potentials or by activating the motor neurons in the fish, two fishes were pitched; one of the fish was injected with an AcH antagonist and the other was injected with a placebo. To test doublet and triplet discharges …show more content…

A sharp rise in fish tension occurred after the pitched fish received a strong pulse. When the eel was separated from the fish by an agar barrier, the eel was still able to detect the fish movements and attack accordingly. When the two pitched fishes were compared, the results suggested that the motor neurons were activated to cause muscle movement. In response to the artificial movements of the fish in the plastic bags, the eels only followed a doublet if there was confirmation that there was actual movement from the fish, so it could release the full strength

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