---
title: Marbled Electric Ray (Torpedo marmorata)
scientific_name: Torpedo marmorata
common_name: Marbled Electric Ray
taxon: Electric ray
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-01-11T08:05:48.011Z
updated: 2026-08-13T21:02:54.278Z
tags: Marbled Electric Ray, Torpedo marmorata, Electric ray, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/electric-ray/marbled-electric-ray
---

# Marbled Electric Ray (*Torpedo marmorata*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Electric ray (*Torpedinidae*)
- **Size:** up to 100 cm
- **Weight:** 3 Kg
- **Depth:** 2-370 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sand and seagrass, buried by day
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- round flat disc, marbled brown on cream, with a short thick tail
- two dorsal fins and a paddle-shaped tail fin, unlike a stingray
- no tail spine at all
- usually buried, with only the eyes and spiracles showing
- width up to 60 cm, length up to 100 cm

A round marbled disc lying buried in sand with two eyes on top, no barb on the tail, and a pair of organs behind the eyes that can deliver a shock of around 200 volts.

The organs are modified muscle. Thousands of flattened cells are stacked like the cells of a battery, each contributing a fraction of a volt, and the whole column fires at once when a nerve signal arrives. The ray uses it twice over: a heavy discharge to stun prey, which it then wraps in its disc and moves to its mouth, and a lighter one as defense.

A shock is not dangerous to a healthy adult, but it is entirely capable of knocking someone off their feet in shallow water, which is where the danger lies. The animal is buried, invisible, and does not move away - injuries are from standing on one.

This is also the fish that gave medicine its first electrical device. Roman physicians treated headache and gout by having patients stand on a live torpedo ray, and the effect was real enough that the practice ran for centuries. The word torpedo, for the numbness it produces, is older than the weapon.

## Also known as

- **English:** marbled electric ray, Marbled Torpedo Ray, Marble Electric Ray
- **Hebrew:** חשמלן משויש
- **French:** raie électrique, torpille, torpille marbrée
- **Italian:** Torpedine bruna, Torpédine Marmorata, torpedine marezzata
- **German:** Marmor-Zitterrochen, Marmelzitterrochen, Marmorzitterrochen
- **Spanish:** tembladera, Tremolina mármol, Vaca enrampadora
- **Greek:** Μαρμαρομουδιάστρα
- **Turkish:** çarpan torpil balığı, elektrikli vatoz, torpil baligi
- **Portuguese:** Tremelga-marmoreada
- **Dutch:** Gemarmerde sidderrog
- **Swedish:** marmorerad darrocka, Marmorerad
- **Polish:** Dretwa pstra, drętwa pstra
- **Czech:** parejnok elektrický
- **Ukrainian:** Звичайний електричний скат, Скат електричний звичайний
- **Russian:** Разноцветный электрический скат
- **BRE:** pesket, tredanel
- **CA:** vaca comuna, vaca tremolosa
- **CYM:** Morgathod Trydan Brith, morgath drydan fraith
- **DA:** Elektrisk Rokke, Marmoreret elrokke
- **EU:** ikaraio arrunt
- **FI:** Marmorisähkörausku
- **LT:** marmurinė torpeda
- **MLT:** Haddiela komuni, Haddiela tax-xokk, Haddiela
- **NNO:** flekka el-rokke
- **NO:** flekket el-rokke
- **SL:** električni morski skat, navadni električni skat
- **SQI:** Peshk elektrik i mermerte, peshk elektrik i mermertë

## Scientific synonyms

- *Narcacion marmoratus* (Risso, 1810)
- *Narcobatus marmoratus* (Risso, 1810)
- *Torpedo (Torpedo) marmorata* Risso, 1810
- *Torpedo diversicolor* Davy, 1834
- *Torpedo galvani* Risso, 1810
- *Torpedo immaculata* Rafinesque, 1810
- *Torpedo picta* Lowe, 1843
- *Torpedo punctata* Rafinesque, 1810
- *Torpedo trepidans* Valenciennes, 1843
- *Torpedo vulgaris* Fleming, 1828

## Range

Benin, Kenya, Mediterranean Sea - Eastern Basin, North Atlantic Ocean

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/electric-ray/marbled-electric-ray)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*