Lighting Up the Tree

Posted by Shari Horowitz in Tropical Fish Hobbyist Blog on December 21, 2012 at 6:45 am

Electric eel. Photograph by Klaus Paysan.

Are you looking for a way to light your Christmas tree without increasing your electric bill? Well if you happen to have an electric eel on hand, you can follow the lead of the Living Planet Aquarium in Utah and rig up the lights to the eel’s tank. Every December the eel is the source of electricity for a dazzling Christmas light show.

”We took the voltage produced by the eel via stainless steel electrodes and used it to power a sequencer,” said Terry Smith, Project Manager at Cache Valley Electric. “The sequencer takes the voltage the eel produces and operates circuitry that flashes the lights, fast or slow, based on the level of voltage he puts out, ” said Smith. Each time the eel moves, the lights on the 5ft tall tree flash intermittently using 4 strands of holiday lights.”

You can check out the eel’s holiday display in action below.