Exploratory behavior is essential for efficient niche exploitation. South American weakly electric fish are receptive to the self-generated electric discharges (EODs) they use to probe their surroundings. Exploration requires both EOD emission and locomotor activity. Gymnotus omarorum is a nocturnal inhabitant of turbid waters. 1m2 territories are stablished under a very thick floating vegetation which interferes with natural light. Animals display a circadian rise in EODr that persists even in constant darkness, whether due to vegetation cover or laboratory free-running conditions. Exploratory behavior has been studied mainly through novelty responses in restrained animals and links between EODr modulations and locomotion remain scarce. Using remote sensing, we analyzed electric and locomotor behavior in unrestrained animals across three complimentary conditions: i) undisturbed populations in the wild, ii) semi-natural settings with individual multi-day recordings, iii) a controlled setup where novel stimuli is presented in a controlled fashion. This three-tier approach shows that: animals in the wild show nocturnal increases in EODr and locomotor activity, strong territorial fidelity and preference for low-light areas. In seminatural conditions exploration has a daily pattern shaped by environmental cues. Finally, a minimalistic behavioral set up allowed us to asses the minimal conditions needed to elicit exploration.