History Main / PsychoElectricEel

* In a ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' humor story ([[ComicBook/SpiderMan "What if the Spider had been bitten by a radioactive human?"]], in ''What If?'' #8), Electro's FunnyAnimal counterpart is an electric eel.

* One level in ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'' allows you to finish off enemies by throwing them into an aquarium full of electric eels.

* In ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 Mortal Kombat Trilogy]]'', Raiden -- the God of Thunder in the game's universe - transforms into an electric eel as his Animality.

[[folder:Anime and Manga ]]

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[[folder:Comic Books ]]

* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}} and the Picaros'' has a fairly accurate depiction of a gymnotus. Captain Haddock, on being informed some can deliver a shock powerful enough to kill a horse, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint says it's a good thing he isn't a horse.]]
* In a ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' humor story ([[ComicBook/SpiderMan "What if the Spider had been bitten by a radioactive human?"]], in ''What If'' #8), Electro's FunnyAnimal counterpart was an electric eel.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: In #111 Wonder Woman is able to defeat her killer robot duplicate by kicking it towards the giant electric eels near Paradise Island which zap and short out the robot.
* Comicbook/XMen / Comicbook/NewWarriors enemy Bandit has powers that are often compared to an electric eel by other characters...[[AvertedTrope meaning they're a lot less impressive]] than [[ShockAndAwe Surge, Electro or Storm's]]. He needed skin contact to electrocute others until he made special weapons to work around his limitations.

* A big aggressive one inhabits the cavern where the ''Nautilus'' is hidden in ''[[Literature/JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth Journey 2: The Mysterious Island]]''. Hank re-charges the submarine's long-dead batteries by sticking the zap-happy creature with a wire-trailing harpoon.

* In ''Film/MaryShelleysFrankenstein'' by Kenneth Branagh, Victor Frankenstein used electric eels to jump-start his monster.

* ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'': Done with an electric ray (if there was one work that would avert SmallTaxonomyPools, this is it) that shocks Conseil out of his ThirdPersonPerson and {{Stoic}} demeanor. In revenge, he eats it for dinner (but as noted by the professor, solely out of vengeance, because it wasn't even that good).
* In ''Literature/WingsOfFire'', Queen Coral keeps a prison with electric eels inside the water and streams of water floating from the top of the prison so flying won't help you. Their shocks are noted to be enough to kill a dragon, though they are portrayed as being able to run out of electricity and not being able to emit it constantly. Also [[JustifiedTrope justified]] given ''everything'' is larger and more powerful in the ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' universe to be more dragon-sized.

[[folder:Live Action TV ]]
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Girl Who Died" had a Viking village that farmed electric eels, with a constant lightning effect over the top of their tank. Since they didn't use the eels as weapons until the Doctor thought of it, we were never told ''why'' they farmed electric eels (perhaps for medical purposes, like the Greeks used torpedo fish?) or indeed how electric eels [[MisplacedWildlife even arrived in Viking lands]].
* ''Series/TheFutureIsWild'' has the Lurkfish, a descendant of modern electric eels... that is three meters long, and capable of outright ''killing'' octopuses at considerable range.

* Eleking from ''Series/UltraSeven'', a {{Kaiju}} resembling a giant bipedal mix of an electric eel with antenna and an eyeless newt, was inspired by this trope. Asides from having the ability to spit electric energy disks from its "mouth", its ridiculously long tail was effective at coiling around the hero and shocking them. Eleking is also one of the most popular monsters in the series, and has reappeared in many sequel shows.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide:'' One strip helpfully demonstrates places not to keep your pet electric eel, ie, in a fishbowl perched on the edge of your tub while you are taking a bath.

* Electric catfish are actually the power source of Thunder Tower in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}''. The Pigmasks were originally able to get them to provide electricity by scaring or surprising them, but, in time, diminishing returns set in as they became harder to frighten.
* In ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat3 Mortal Kombat Trilogy]]'', Raiden - the God of Thunder in the game's universe - transforms into an electric eel as his Animality.

* ''VideoGame/{{The Punisher|THQ}}'' game on UsefulNotes/{{P|layStation2}}S2 and PC both averts and subverts this trope in quite a hilarious way. During one level you can 'interrogate' an enemy mook by threatening to dunk him in an Electric Eel's tank. While the aquarium's (automated) PA system goes into scientific detail about the Eel - pointing out that it's actually a fish, for example - when you dunk the mook, he's electrified to death in a very dramatic manner.
* Some {{Roguelike}}s have electric eels which do electricity damage. Possibly the worst example is ''[[http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/ Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup]]''. Although toned down in later versions at one point they were capable of flinging lightning bolts across the screen for massive damage then diving underwater when you got close, making them among the most annoying enemies in the game.

* Electro (reimagined as an anthropomorphic electric eel) in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManUnlimited''.

First off, electric "eels" are actually not eels at all. They are a species of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnotiformes knifefish]], a group of freshwater fish closely related to [[TheCatfish catfish]], many of whom are electrogenic; they are able to generate electric fields which aid them in hunting for food. There are actually a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_fish surprising number]] of electrogenic fish, but [[SmallTaxonomyPools don't expect them to show up in fiction]].

In fiction, these fish will be [[LightningCanDoAnything ridiculously overpowered]]. Furthermore, thanks to the [[CallASmeerpARabbit confusing name]], writers tend to think actual Eels--a different group of fish entirely--have electric powers[[labelnote:*]]How much so varies by a culture's familiarity with such animals: in places like Japan, where actual eels are often eaten, media will usually show them accurately.[[/labelnote]] (this has led to the asinine belief that eel-skin wallets erase credit cards, when "eel" leather is ''also'' made from an entirely different fish[[note]]Hagfish, to be exact — not even a true fish, much less a true eel, they're from a family of animals that existed in Earth's oceans before fish evolved[[/note]]). Worse yet, eels may even be confused with snakes, and may be venomous to compound the electricity (real eels aren't venomous, but moray eel bites can be infected by septic bacteria in their mouth). Furthermore, whenever a MadScientist needs to give his monster some extra oomph, he'll give it electric eel powers. Often results in XRaySparks when they attack someone in a cartoon.

* The electric eel is, naturally, one of the fish that can be caught in ''VideoGame/TheAmazonTrail''. It is completely inedible and has to be released when caught, or else it will retaliate with an electric shock ("OWWW!").

** Sevarius got "shocked to death" when Goliath kicks him into the tank containing said eels and he grabs onto one. Given that he survived the encounter with no ill effects and that it was all part of the overseeing {{plan}} means he and Xanatos probably knew that his little pets were mostly harmless [[FridgeBrilliance and was counting on Goliath and Derek to assume they're lethal to the touch.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'' has the Electra-Eels in the [[DownTheDrain Terra Tubes]] level. They're one of the few enemies that won't kill you in {{one hit|Kill}}, but will [[ClassicVideoGameScrewYous push you]] into something that does.

* Adolf Reinhardt from ''Manga/TerraFormars'' has an electric eel base.

* The Zapfish from ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' are electric catfish that are used to power Inkopolis. The Octarians kidnapping the Great Zapfish, a giant Zapfish that provides most of the city's power, kicks off the plot of both games' single-player modes (not counting the ''[[VideoGame/Splatoon2 Octo Expansion]]'').