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Ecology at its wisest

There are electric fish in the Amazon which eat only the tails of other electric fish - which can regenerate their tails.

Talk about sustainable!
ShadowWorker · 61-69, F
Wow... cool!
I love your ..off the cuff subjects you share. 😊
reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M
are you saying that it feels on nothing but its own species? because that is impossible.
@reflectingmonkey Why so? It works for humans.
reflectingmonkey · 51-55, M
@Mamapolo2016 the ecosystem is not a closed system, the energy of the sun is what runs everything. every calorie spent by any life form on earth comes from the sun( with the exception of very rare species that live off geo-thermal energy) . lets say all humans were to eat nothing but humans. one human would need to eat at least 4 humans a year to survive, that's 300 humans in a lifetime. each of those humans also need to eat 4 humans a year until they were eaten. its just not possible. an outside source of energy is required for life to exist. at the bottom of the foodchain are things that use sun energy to create carbohydrates.
@reflectingmonkey I haven't been able to verify it. I read it in a book called Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, The River of Doubt by Candice Millard.

And there's a poem...

Ode to the Electric Fish that Eat Only the Tails of Other Electric Fish,
BY THOMAS LUX

which regenerate their tails
and also eat only the tails of other electric eels,
presumably smaller, who, in turn, eat ...
Without consulting an ichthyologist—eels
are fish—I defer to biology’s genius.
I know little of their numbers
and habitat, other than they are river dwellers.
Guess which river. I have only a note,
a note taken in reading
or fever—I can’t tell, from my handwriting, which. All
I know is it seems
sensible, sustainable: no fish dies,
nobody ever gets so hungry he bites off more
than a tail; the sting, the trauma
keeps the bitten fish lean and alert.
The need to hide while regrowing a tail teaches guile.
They’ll eat smaller tails for a while.
These eels, these eels themselves are odes!

 
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