Marbled Electric Ray

• It can generate electric discharges of up to 200 volts.
• Its electric organs are already working before it is born.
• It hunts by wrapping its pectoral fins around prey before stunning it.
• It discharges up to 200 volts, at a frequency of up to 600 hertz, to stun prey or defend itself.
• Its electric organs work even before birth: the electric cells begin to form when the embryo weighs barely a gram, and newborns can use the discharge to capture prey.
• It hunts by ambush at night, and by day lies buried with only its eyes and spiracles above the sand.
• It hunts not by sight but by electricity: it detects and stuns its prey without needing to see it.
• It withstands very low levels of dissolved oxygen, which is why it turns up even in tidal pools.
• Its discharges were used in ancient medicine to treat pain; the genus name comes from the Latin torpere, to numb.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - cartilaginous skeleton (chondrichthyan fish)

Habitat and environment

Sandy, rocky and seagrass bottoms of the eastern Atlantic, from northern Britain to South Africa, the Mediterranean included

Birth weight

Born live (ovoviviparous), 10-14 cm long

Size at birth

10-14 cm in total length at birth, its electric organs already working

Sexual maturity

Male: ~5 years (21-29 cm) | Female: ~12 years (31-39 cm)

Gestation / incubation

A breeding cycle of roughly 2 years in the female (9-12 months of gestation after mating)

Litter / clutch size

3 to 32 young per litter, varying with the female's size

Sources consulted: AnAge; Save Our Seas Foundation; FishBase; Discover Fishes; Springer; Grokipedia; All Fishes