Hello Everyone:
     Whew!  It's been quite a while.  I hope to change that in 2015 as my schedule will be different and freeing up a few quality writing hours.  Anyway, I saw a post today on FB that brought back memories from my childhood.  Someone had posted some pics of a rather large eel in an aquarium and I recognized it right away as an Electric Eel (Electrophus electricus), a large, electric producing, eel that comes from South America where it lives in floodplain regions of the Amazon River.  Though the name says eel they are actually related to the Knifefish which have elongated bodies with a very long, wavy ventral fin used in locomotion.
   Watching the video of this guy's rather large (3'+) Electric Eel swimming in a large tank it brought back images from when I first started building an interest in the natural world around us, particularly in reptiles, amphibians, and strange fish.  There was a place in Pinellas County called the Tarpon Zoo, located right on U.S. 19 in Tarpon Springs.  It was really a neat place that was built like a zoo only every animal in the place was for sale.  They had all kinds of animals though their main revenue came from the primates they supplied to zoos and research facilities.
     Anyway, when one walked through the doors of the main building there were cages built into the walls to either side.  The main attraction, though, was a relatively large round, indoor garden style pond that contained maybe 6-8 incredibly huge eel-like animals.  These large, dark-colored eels as big around as a man's arm and in excess of 4-5 feet in length were huge, Electric Eels!  I'd heard about them, and had even seen a video of them electrocuting a Caiman in a muddy floodplain, but this was my first time seeing them up close...and personal!  To say I was fascinated by these giants of the freshwater fish world would be an understatement.  No matter how many times I went to the "zoo" I always spent at least a few minutes watching the large eels.  I never asked if they were for sale but in over 5 years of going there it always looked like the same eels in the pond.
     Quite often, while waiting for them to pack the few animals we bought from them (mostly baby iguanas and turtles) we would sit on the concrete wall of the pond to wait.  the eels would make their way over to where we were sitting and just kind of perch there, staring at us from under the water, their pitted faces only inches away.  I know now that they were waiting for us to feed them.  They really were rather personable.
     So that is the story of how I was introduced to one of Mother Nature's more interesting characters; The Electric Eel of South America.
                   
                 Take Care Everyone, and, as always...Have a Great Day!!!
                                     The "Creature"