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 & 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