Electric Eels

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Animal Themes
Fish
Freshwater

Electric Eels

Electric Eels
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 4 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	8.45

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		capacity, cylindrical, dorsal, repeated, shocks, volts, electric, discharge, continuous, lifetime, entire, biome, electrify, running, portable, predator
	content words:		South America

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Spanish: Las Anguilas Eléctricas

Electric Eels

¹     Electric eels, measuring up to 9 feet long and dwelling in slow-moving rivers of South America, bear a name that is destined to cause confusion. That is because electric eels are not really eels! Instead, they are close relatives of knifefish.

²     So, why are electric eels not true eels, given that both animals have long, cylindrical bodies and continuous fins running along their undersides? Here are some of the reasons:

³

True eels (such as conger eels and moray eels) have dorsal fins on their backs, whereas electric eels do not.
True eels spend part or all of their life in oceans, whereas electric eels are lifetime members of the freshwater biome.
True eels have teeth, whereas electric eels do not.