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[Shinagawa Aquarium: An Electric Eel, Created by Dick Thomas Johnson, Source: Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0Licensed]

In my last post, I introduced and gave an exposition on electric eel; a very strange fish that has enough voltage to electrocute a man. In that same post, I also gave some insight as to how it is capable of generating its own electricity from its body. From our secondary school days, we were taught that conductors are those materials that allow heat or electric current to flow through them easily e.g water, human, metals, damp air etc just to mention a few. We were also told that insulators are those materials that do not allow the easy passage of heat or electricity e.g wood, porcelain, plastic, paper, rubber etc.

[Power lines and insulators-This is a closer view of the top of a utility pole and power transmission insulators, Author:Walter Baxter, CC BY-SA 2.0 Licensed]

An electric eel falls under the categories of conductors. This is so because aside from the fact that the fish has the ability to produce its electric current, the same electric current too can pass through it easily. By so doing, it can also get electrocuted. But, alas! electric eels don't get electrocuted from the current they produce.

Reasons why Electric eel don't get shocked in the process of generating its own electricity

Since we have known that Electric eels are examples of conductors, we will know why they don't get electrocuted by their own electricity in a moment.
Just relax and follow me along as I shed more light on the reason why.

The question though is one of the most often repeated questions about electric eels. Truthfully, there isn't yet a confirmed reason but some assumptions. One of the close-to-accepting of those assumptions is that the time with which an electric eel discharge an electric current is very small. An electric eel charges up in 20 to 50 milliseconds and that's so little a time to have an electric effect on its body. More also, the amount of charge released by the eel is very small. so, by releasing such a little amount of current in such a little time won't have any severe effect on its body.

Secondly, most of the energy released by the eel is already dissolved into the water surrounding. So, it can't harm any of the fish's vital organs such as the heart and the nervous system.

Furthermore, In a Scientific American Journal, Angel Caputi, a senior scientist and head of the department of integrative and computational neuroscience at the Institute for Biological Research "Clement Estable" in Uruguay, explained that:

Although there are no facts that really explain why eels can shock other animals without shocking themselves in the process but however there is a possible explanation which is that the severity of an electric shock depends on the time and amount of current flowing through a particular body.

Meaning that for instance if an eel is generating a 100 milliampere of current for a duration of 20-50 milliseconds, the discharge will have little or no effect on its body and also a large part of the current is even dissipated into the water body through the skin of the body. What makes the electric shock severe on the prey is because the current entering into the body is much larger proportionally to that of the eel body that produced the charge.

In a nutshell, the current produced by an electric eel is very small. It's in fact between 100-200 milli ampere and also the time the discharging takes place is also very minute to cause any damage to themselves. So, an electric eel generating 100mA in 20ms will have little on no effect on its body. Even the only shocking effect it could have observed would have already been dissipated into the water through its skin. But the only reason why the discharge will be severe on a (small) prey inside the water is because though the current received by the prey is small, but the discharge within the (small) body of the prey will be greater by comparing the body to volume ratio. Taking for instance, a prey two times smaller in length than an eel is about eight times smaller in volume, so it will experience a greater current discharge within it as compared to the discharging eel itself since larger part of the current that could have affected the eel has already been dissipated through its skin into the water.

In another study, it was observed that an electric eel can get electrocuted and kill itself. This can only be possible if the eel bends its body such that the head touches the tail (which is very unlikely). The larger part of the electric eel is the tail. All its vital organs like the heart, which is very sensitive to electric shock are located on the anterior side of the tail. The muscles from the tail create electric potential and electric current in a conductor always flow in a straight line of higher potential to that of a lower potential. So, if the eel bends itself too much to such an extent that the electric current under high potential difference passes through some of its vital organ such as the heart, the eel will get a nasty shock and kill itself.

Lastly, the only way an electric eel can get electrocuted is either if it bends its body such that the head touches the tail while generating current (which I've explained in the post above) or if it were to shock an animal while holding it in its mouth (all which are very unlikely and never been heard of.

Can an Electric eel shock another electric eel

Since we have established that it is very unlikely for an electric eel to get electrocuted while trying to hunt its prey, what of shocking another electric eel?. At this juncture, we will discuss on the electrogenic and electroreceptive abilities of electric eels.

A fish is said to be electrogenic if it has the ability to generate electric fields or current while electroreception is the ability of a fish to detect electric fields or current. The Electric eel is a typical example of such fish that has both abilities.

Now, to answer the aforementioned question: No, an electric eel despite being a conductor can't shock another electric eel because it has both the ability to generate and detect electric current. So, it would have sensed an electric field from afar when another eel is coming so as to avoid or turn away from it.

The Bio-mimetic potentials of an electric eel

To use the principle of the electric eel to produce electricity, one needs to put into consideration that the eel would need to be generating electric current non-stop. But, a normal 8-foot electric eel can only generate a voltage of 660 V and a current of 1 A for 20 milliseconds and can only repeat it every 10 seconds apart about 6 times. So, that means an electric eel can't be used as a substitute supply of electricity yet until further researches are carried out on how the eel can be made to be generating a high voltage of electricity constantly without any interruption.

Aside from this lil setback, scientists have made a giant leap in using the knowledge of this current generating electric eel to produce artificial electrocytes that are made of human stem cells.

The artificial cells produced, which is capable of producing constant power can in turn be used to drive small implant devices.

Another field where this great technology is applicable is in the growing market of portable devices like watches and necklaces, which measure sports performance and fitness levels. With the idea of bio-mimetic, those devices can be made to measure the performance of the vital organs in our body.

Thanks for reading

References

8 shocking facts about electric eels

How electric eel kills

Can electric eel kill each other?

Why don't electric eels get shocked?

Why that electricity only has a use for the eel itself?

Electric Eel-Like Future Technology

Biomimetic potential of electric eels

What is Biomimetics?

The Electric fish