They're found in rivers
in the Amazon rainforest.
And instead of biting
or stinging their prey,
these creatures release
up to 600 volts of electricity.
This is the electric eel.
What would happen if you encountered one?
How about a pool full of them?
If you're hoping to jump into
a pool full of electric eels,
you might not have a chance to get into the water.
That's because if the eels
see you standing outside the pool,
they might jump out and shock you.
That's right.
When electric eels see a threat,
they're able to jump up and zap you.
This packs an
even greater punch
than they would have while in the water.
So you'll have to be careful
before you jump into our pool.
But what happens if you were
able to dive right in?
It's safe to say that
something like this would be
incredibly dangerous.
Although electric eels don't hunt humans
and aren't something we should be afraid of
in our daily lives, they will
definitely shock you if they think you're a threat,
or something they could eat.
For now, let's go easy on you,
and give you a single electric eel
in an average size swimming pool.
As you soon as you enter the water,
the fish will let out an electric discharge.
It does this by
using the three electric organs
within its body.
These organs contain
electrolytes and the eel uses them
to navigate and communicate
as well as shock it's prey.
The first electric shock
is used to locate you.
This could affect you in a few ways.
If it were a smaller electric eel,
its shock would definitely sting,
and could give you some muscle spasms.
The eel would hope
that you would make some splashes
which would help it to find you.
Once that happens,
and the eel spots you,
it will release a second electric shock.
If the shock were to come from a full-sized adult,
it would be equal to 600 volts of electricity.
Now this shock itself might not kill you,
but it would lead to some serious consequences.
At first,
you'll experience some loss of muscle control.
That's because our muscles
are stimulated by electricity.
If you got too much of it,
you'd lose some major functions in your body.
If that isn't bad enough,
you'd also have some incredibly painful muscle contractions.
All this would cause you to pass out.
And oh, remember that we're in a pool?
If you've passed out, you'll drown,
and then it would take just 60 seconds
for you to die.
But if you did somehow manage to
get out before then,
you could possibly survive.
Though with shocks like this,
you'd still experience the effects
months, if not years, later.
They could include burns, scars, and
even more muscle spasms.
So that was just one electric eel,
and it was pretty deadly.
But what if we put 100 electric eels in a pool?
Well, it would mean instant death
as soon as you jumped in.
That's because electric eels
don't play well with each other.
If you were to put just two together in a small aquarium,
they would constantly be slapping one another
and releasing electric shocks.
So if we decided to put 100 electric eels
in an average-sized swimming pool,
the water would be filled with a constant barrage of fish slaps
and thousands of volts of electricity.
Yeah, good luck jumping into this one!
So jumping into a pool full of electric eels
is practically an instant death sentence,
but can the same be said about
jumping into a pool full of sharks?
Well, we'll leave the story for another WHAT IF.