Do fish get affected by electricity?

[jim27]

I had an electrical accident a few days ago. I was putting in a new pump for my skimmer and when I turned it on it sprayed water everywhere. Well I turned off the power switch and fixed the problem then I turned it on again 2 minutes later I put my hand back in the tank to move a powerhead and right when my hand got in the water I got shocked so I turned off the power and dried everything. What really confused me is that when I looked in the tank the fish and shark were acting normal like nothing was happening.

 

[nacl-h2o]

A single accident like that would hurt you more than the fish. But constant exposure to significant stray voltage is supposed to be bad for fish.

 

[fshhub]

yes, it does affect the fish, in fact this is how many government and research groups conduct tests on fish, they use electricity to shock them and bring them to the surface of the water in an area where they want to study affects on the enviroment(like near nuclear plants or chemical plants), the electricity shocks them, just like us and stuns or paralyzes them long enough to be netted, now a constant current or unregulated current could and probably would pose a threat to the fish

 

[jim27]

Well, when my fish were geting shocked they didn't float to the top. I couldn't tell anything was happening until I touched the water.

 

[nacl-h2o]

Don't get me wrong in that instance you were probably shocked more that your fish. The thing that saved your fish was the tank made of glass an insolator and you. You were the path to ground the electricity took. Your body has resistance reducing the current passing though the water. If another path to ground had come available through a better conductor say a through another device with a ground or neutral exposed or worse yet a water spill or leak that got to an outlet or the floor or any of a dozen other possibilities. Your fish would be toast.
Safty first electrical problems can kill you and your inhabitants so allways fix problems ASAP and always use GFCI outlets around your tank that little breaker poping can save your life.