[News] Poisonous Catfish Described

[Moontanman]

Poisonous Catfish Described

ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2009) — In contrast to the exhaustive research into venom produced by snakes and spiders, venomous fish have been neglected and remain something of a mystery. Now, a study of 158 catfish species, published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, has catalogued the presence of venom glands and investigated their biological effects.

 

Poisonous catfish described

[lemit]

When I was growing up, on those rare occasions when we were able to catch a catfish instead of the usual bluegill, we were taught to be very careful because the fins could "sting" us. I always thought it was just sepsis. Anybody who's ever caught a mudcat out of one of the tiny algae-filled farm ponds like I grew up with would think the same thing. But this makes more sense.

 

Thanks.

 

--lemit

[Moontanman]

Some catfish are worse than others, a few are dangerous, for some reason the smaller ones seem to be the worst. If you've never had a madtom or small bullhead give you a direct hit it's a difficult thing to describe. It hurts like no other sting I've ever had. Madtoms are particularly bad, it makes your whole body tense up and the pain seems to be everywhere for several minutes. A very deep pain, nothing like a bee sting or spider bite.

[lemit]

Thankfully, I never had that experience. Being the baby of the family, I was protected from a lot of things. I don't remember if my older brothers ever got stung.

 

If I read the news report correctly--I sometimes read only alternating lines--there had never been a disciplined study of poisonous catfish before. Why? Some rivers in Missouri have so many channel cats you'd think somebody would have been killed by multiple stings.

 

--lemit

[maikeru]

I did not know this... Still won't stop me from eating them. :hihi:

[Moontanman]

Fortunately no known North American catfish has a truly dangerous sting, they have to be handled pretty roughly for you to get stung and big ones have less of a sting than small ones. Usually a big catfish will have worn it's spines down to the point where they cannot sting. One the really small species are really bad, madtoms got their nick name from the fierce pain of their stings. Small bullheads are pretty bad too. I love to eat catfish and i have no intent to stop either :phones: