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Despite the name, the electric eel is a type of knifefish. The Gymnotiformes / dʒ ɪ m ˈ n ɒ t ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / are an order of teleost bony fishes commonly known as Neotropical knifefish or South American knifefish. They have long bodies and swim using undulations of their elongated anal fin.
Knifefish may refer to several knife-shaped fishes: The Neotropical or weakly electric knifefishes, order Gymnotiformes, containing five families: Family Gymnotidae (banded knifefishes and the electric eel) Family Rhamphichthyidae (sand knifefishes) Family Hypopomidae (bluntnose knifefishes) Family Sternopygidae (glass and rat-tail knifefishes)
Like the other gymnotiforms, gymnotids have classic knifefish bodies. The body is long and eel-like, the dorsal fin and pelvic fins are absent, and the anal fin is extremely long and used for movement.
[5] [9] Like other Neotropical knifefish, they often lose their tail due to attacks by predators or aggressive encounters with conspecifics, but they are able to regenerate it. [14] The largest Gymnotus are up to 100 cm (3.3 ft) in total length. [5] [9] Most species reach less than one-third that size and the smallest only around 10 cm (4 in) long.
Common names of fish can refer to a single species; to an entire group of species, such as a genus or family; or to multiple unrelated species or groups. Ambiguous common names are accompanied by their possible meanings. Scientific names for individual species and higher taxa are included in parentheses.
The ghost knifefishes are a family, Apteronotidae, of ray-finned fishes in the order Gymnotiformes.These fish are native to Panama and South America. [1] They inhabit a wide range of freshwater habitats, but more than half the species in the family are found deep in rivers (typically deeper than 5 m or 16 ft) where there is little or no light.
Sand knifefish are freshwater electric fish of the family Rhamphichthyidae, from freshwater habitats in South America. [1] Just like most part of the members of the Gymnotiformes group, they also have elongated and compressed bodies and electric organs. The long anal fin actually extends from before the pectoral fins to the tip of the tail.
Glass knifefishes are fishes in the family Sternopygidae in the order Gymnotiformes.Species are also known as rattail knifefishes. [1]These fishes inhabit freshwater streams and rivers in Panama and South America. [1]