
Abas
Gymnarchidae
Gymnarchus niloticus – the aba, aba aba or frankfish – is an electric fish, living at the bottoms of rivers and lakes. It is the only species in the genus Gymnarchus and the family Gymnarchidae, within the order Osteoglossiformes. It is a long slender fish with no pelvic or anal fins, and a tail fin shaped like a rat's tail. It swims using its elongated dorsal fin, allowing it to keep its body straight while it moves. This in turn enables it to produce a steady but weak electric field, which it uses to locate its prey. It is large for a river fish; adults can reach 1.6 m (5.2 ft) in length and 19 kg (42 lb) in weight.
In 1950, Hans Lissmann noticed that the fish could swim equally well forwards or backwards, clearly relying on a sense other than vision. He demonstrated that it could locate prey by electroreception, making it the first fish known to have this ability.
1 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 1 known species
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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Every page naming Gymnarchidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 85799.
