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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about electric eels. These fish can be found swimming in the waterways of northern South America throughout both the Orinoco and Amazon river basins. Some electric eels prefer muddy water with slow to no currents, others may enjoy fast moving streams with rocky bottoms; it just depends on the species. As of 2019, it’s been suggested that there isn’t just one electric eel species but three! Because there’s still more to learn about this possibility, this episode will focus on electric eels in general. In fact, it can be really difficult to tell electric eel species apart just by looking at them, hence them not being classified as separate species for so long!

These fish are commonly known as eels, but they aren’t really eels. Instead of being cousins with morays, electric eels are more closely related to catfish and carp. Electric eels are found in freshwater and generally live toward the bottom of the water column, though they don’t always stay there which we’ll discuss a little later in the video. These fish are believed to spawn in the dry season when waterways may be disjointed or even nearly dried up. The females produce an average of 1,500 eggs in a nest built by the males. This nest is made of foamy saliva, kind of like the bubbly nests made by betta fish! The male electric eel will take care of the nest until the wet season begins. When the rains come and the waters begin to flow, the eggs will hatch, and the young eels will disperse. When the rainy season gives way to the dry season, streams will begin to dry, potentially cutting young electric eels off from main waterways, but this isn’t much of an issue! Again like betta fish, electric eels can breathe air. In fact, while electric eels do have gills, they do most of their breathing by popping up to the surface of the water, taking a gulp of air, and quickly swimming back down to the sediment.

Electric eels can produce quite the shock, hence their charged name! An electric eel can produce enough electricity to knock a horse off its feet, though for a long time scientists believe that. We’ll come back to this soon. Electric eels use their shock power for two reasons: defense and hunting. While hunting, electric eels may release a series of short, not so powerful charges to stun a prey item and then, like a mata mata, the electric eel will suck in the prey item vacuum cleaner style. Young electric eels eat invertebrates while adults eat fish, small mammals, as well as reptiles and amphibians. Electric eels release a charge all at once from cells inside their bodies that act sort of like batteries. It’s believed an electric eel’s thick, slimy skin protects them from their own shock. It may also be that the charge passes so quickly through the fish’s body that it doesn’t affect the electric eel. At the end of the day, though, it’s not fully known why electric eels don’t shock themselves!

When it comes to shocking predators, an electric eel will leap out of the water and deliver a strong charge. For a long time, scientists didn’t believe a fellow scientist’s observation of this phenomenon on horses, but now it’s known to be absolutely true! If an electric eel shocks in water, the shock can be absorbed and dispersed by the surrounding water, but in the air the shock can be more concentrated on an attacking predator. And considering electric eels can produce more than 800 volts of electricity, that would literally be quite the shock.

Electric eels can reach six to eight feet (1.8 - 2.4 meters) in length - that’s longer than most people are tall, mind you! And while it’s not known how long electric eels live in the wild, they are known to live at least a decade or two in captivity.

For more facts on electric eels, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.