Fish also have a thunderous sound

The elephantfish species not only has an elongated jaw that looks like an elephant's hose, but they also generate electricity. The modified muscle cells near their tails can release electrical impulses into the water.

The fish uses electric fields to detect surrounding objects, which is a useful technique in the dark environment of the African rivers where they reside. They also use these electrical pulses (varying in intensity, frequency and duration) to communicate with each other. A new study says they use electric fields to find partners of the same species .

The whale fish uses electric fields to detect surrounding objects, which is a very useful technique in the dark environment of the African rivers where they reside.They also use this electric field to find a mate.(Photo: Frank Kirschbaum)

In the laboratory at the University of Potsdam, Germany, Philine GD Feulner and colleagues put their Campylomormyrus compressirostris whale fish in ready-to-lay eggs in contact with different electrical impulses created by the computer. At one end of the tank, electrical impulses mimic the male of the same species, and at the other end the pulses mimic a species that is quite close to it and lives together in an environment. The electrical impulse generated by relatives is nearly 100 times longer than the other species, resulting in the female avoiding the electrical impulse.

Feulner and his team believe that children's preference for certain electrical signals is probably the factor that makes the two species of elephantfish separate. Besides, other factors may have caused the initial separation, the priority of choosing the next evolutionary electric pulse is probably due to the large price paid if mating is wrong. The study is published in detail in Biology Letters.