Electric eel
Scientific name: Electrophorus electricus (Linnaeus, 1766)
Overview
Electrophorus electricus is the best-known species of electric eel. It is a South American electric fish. Until the discovery of two additional species in 2019, the genus was classified as the monotypic, with this species the only one in the genus. Despite the name, it is not an eel, but rather a knifefish. It is considered as a freshwater teleost which contains an electrogenic tissue that produces electric discharges.
From the Wikipedia article “Electrophorus electricus”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Conservation status
Least concern on the IUCN Red List, as recorded on Wikidata, citing The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2.
Common names
Names in other languages (10)
- Arabic
- أنقليس رعاد
- Chinese
- 電鰻
- French
- Anguille électrique
- German
- Zitteraal
- Japanese
- デンキウナギ
- Persian
- مارماهی الکتریکی
- Portuguese
- Poraquê
- Russian
- Электрический угорь
- Spanish
- Anguila, Anguilla, Anguilla electrica, Pez elétrico
- Turkish
- Elektrikli yılan balığı
Sources
-
Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: FishBase.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — conservation status, names in other languages. Q201235, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “Electrophorus electricus”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — Steven G. Johnson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026