Origin
Native to Central and Eastern Europe, the pattern (Misgurnus fossilis) is present throughout the Danube basin, in Romania it is found in the Danube and Delta, in all ponds, dead arms, lakes and ponds inside the country, except mountain waters.
It is also called the eel and is the only fish in the genus Electrophorus.
It is capable of generating electric shocks.
It is a prey animal that is found both in the fresh waters of lakes, and in the seas and oceans, in the Amazon and South America.
Food Printing
It scours the bottom of the pond all the time, from where it swallows mud, besides its favorite food, which consists of vegetation particles, organic detritus, worms, aquatic larvae, small crustaceans, snails, small mollusks, etc.
It usually feeds during the night, during the day being inactive, mostly buried in mud.
Held in the hand, a little clenched with fingers, it emits a characteristic sound due to the sudden removal of air from the intestine through the anus.
This sound (guitar) owes its name to the pattern.
Pattern Layout
The pattern has an elongated shape, the body is cylindrical about 2m and weighs 20 kg. It has a long mouth, in which very sharp teeth and 2 pairs of gills are hidden.
It is colored in green and yellow, combined with white, silver and black. Males have a darker color on the abdomen.
It has a length between 0.6 and 1.5 m in general, but a 3 m long pattern was found, and the heaviest weighs 34 kg, but the normal weight of this fish is lower. They have no scales.
The electrical pattern has a respiratory organ in the oral cavity. This causes the pattern to come to the surface of the water every 10 minutes to breathe. This way of breathing represents 80% of the exigenum breathed by this fish, the rest being taken from the water.
The pattern has three pairs of organs that produce electricity: the Hunter, the Shachs and the main organ. These organs make up 4/5 of his body and have the ability to generate two types of electrical discharges produced by the organs, low voltage and high voltage.
When it locates prey the brain sends a signal through the nervous system to the electrical cells and causing a sudden difference in voltage the current is generated. The pattern generates electrical pulses capable of producing a shock of over 500 volts and 1 Ampere (over 500W).
Such a shock can be deadly for an adult. Young models produce shocks of lower voltages, about 100V.when he feels threatened he can produce for an hour without showing any signs of fatigue.
Through the large intestine, strongly vascularized, absorbs atmospheric air and through the anus removes carbon dioxide.
Pattern Behavior
These fish have always been in great demand for animal collections, but catching them is difficult, the only solution usually used is to unload them continuously.
Pattern Reproduction
The pattern reproduction process begins when the two join together so that the sperm of the male come into contact with the eggs. Once the egg has been fertilized by the sperm it is released into the water.
Soon after the egg has been fertilized and is in contact with water it turns into the larva. Ocean currents carry the larvae until they remain at the bottom of the water. When the egg is broken, the pattern chicken emerges.
It breeds from March to august.
The female generally lays eggs in three portions, a total of 10,000 to 15,000 eggs.
