# Eel

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eel/100807>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 29, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eel/100807 "2002-03-29T19:54:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@tty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tty)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eel/100807/1 "2002-03-29T19:54:52Z")

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Why doesn’t the electricity of an electric eel kill itself?

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**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eel/100807/2 "2002-03-29T22:30:27Z")

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As I recall, electric eels have a thick layer of fat which acts as an insulator. They put out low level shocks and high level shocks. The high level shocks pack quite a whollop - somewhere around 600 volts I think. Even with their own built in insulation, I do believe that they get shocked a bit from this higher level zap.