foai Posted June 18, 2004 Share Posted June 18, 2004 I was watching some lame show on Channel 7 last Saturday which was about "Australia's Deadly Animals" (or some similar title). The flavour of the programme was how there are many venomous or poisonous animals in Australia and discussed snakes and box jelly fish etc. The show took a strange turn when it started to discuss how there were even venomous catfish equipped with poisonous spines and cut to pictures of a. a Lima shovel nosed catfish; and b. a sailfin plecostomus. Apart from the fact that both fish are from South America neither are venomous. In fact it looked like the show's producers went to the St George Aquariums and took a few close ups of the fish! I thought it was amusing but my girlfriend couldn't see the humour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nornicle Posted June 18, 2004 Share Posted June 18, 2004 'that plec in my local river sure did scare the locals away...' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy Posted June 18, 2004 Share Posted June 18, 2004 CRIKEY!!! Look at that it's a Bristlenose Catfish. Better poke him with a stick! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter_Gun_Riff Posted June 18, 2004 Share Posted June 18, 2004 i didnt see it but i wouldnt of picked it up anyway maybe the pleco but not the SN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barca888 Posted June 18, 2004 Share Posted June 18, 2004 I read somewhere that the spine on the salmon tail catfish is poisonous. However my lfs laughed at this statement. Well when i got stabbed i didnt die or vomit or anything, just hurt me alot :\ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Morelia Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 I read somewhere that the spine on the salmon tail catfish is poisonous. However my lfs laughed at this statement. Well when i got stabbed i didnt die or vomit or anything, just hurt me alot :\ I don't really know if they're poisonous, but they bloody well hurt !!! I got jabbed good by a 40cm model i caught in SEQLD and they definitely have something in or on their spines that makes it hurt more than a little jab should. This was a different species to that commonly kept in aquaria though.... Same as Flathead spines... that same trip i caught a beauty 60cm Flattie on a lure, and he bit through the line just as i pulled him up into the shallows on the boat ramp, and when i dove on him to pin him down, i copped one of his gill plate spikes in my thumb and that HURT and it throbbed for at least 30 mins after and it bled heaps. The rotten thing flipped back into deep water and slowly swam off after all that !! (the fish, not my thumb.) (I was only gonna take a pic and let it go, at least my Dad witnessed it. One other thing.. My brother stepped on a Bullrout once (years ago) with no shoes on... and he tells me that it was terrible pain for several hours. I wonder how many people know there's poisonous spiny things in freshwater in rivers ? I wonder if those LFS people have actually been jabbed by a Salmontail ? Might'nt kill you, but it seems to have some sort of irritant and anti-coagulant. Andy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyce Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 I've heard the same thing with the bullrout. A big bikie stepped on one in the reeds of a lake and was crying like a baby from the pain for hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted June 20, 2004 Share Posted June 20, 2004 I also saw that show and picked up on that straight away. I had a good laugh though. Alot of catfish has a mild venom in their spines. I have been spiked by a few catfish including a large TSN and that HURT, almost as much as a bullrout but not quite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
23Skidoo Posted June 20, 2004 Share Posted June 20, 2004 Well as far as i know all catfish have spines (usually 3, dorsal and pelvic fins) and most of them are poisonous, even eel tails and salmon tails. Simily with flathead, there isn't so much a venom as an incredibly irritating mucous that is delivered by piercing the skin. So t doesn't come from a venom gland, it is secreted and is always present. Bullrouts howeve are the only fresh water member of the scorpion fish family, so they are related to lion fish, stone fish and other nasty salt water fishies. Heaps of fish have venomous spines, barbs and bits, even red and silver scat have a spine at the leading edge of the dorsal fin that is poisonous. Of eveerything discussed however the bullrout is by far the nastiest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swarvegorilla Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Ok has anyone here been jabbed by a Hoplo yet. Have been done by tandanus before a few times........ so it hurts but it's not the end of the world, unless of course you step hard and it goes deep. Anyway my 2 hoplo male catfish really go me now and I imagine it's only a matter of time before one does me in with a spine. So hot water and 'defensive' weapon aside, has anyone felt the sting yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Wombat Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 You guys should ask andy the admin about his run in with a catfish recently... Some of them can be really nasty! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swarvegorilla Posted June 24, 2004 Share Posted June 24, 2004 They are not scared hey!! The only thing we can keep with our big Jack is catfish. When they breed they just go nuts too. Hoplo's are really not liking me moving anything in the tank. Threw some more young female ones in though and that settled them down. for now...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAY TT Posted July 5, 2004 Share Posted July 5, 2004 I can tell you that S. lima doesn't stop hurting for about 2 hour's & it definatly had a sting to it ! By the way i caught him in my fish tank. J.T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Boy Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 There are very big catfish up here in North Queensland that look exactly like a salmon tailed catfish (the Australian mouthbrooding catfish) that live in the esturine rivers (salt and fresh waters mixing together) here. The vemon in these animals can cause extreme pain, I can assure everyone of that. Maybe the clowns that produced the show mixed up the photo`s. To show pleco photos nationally like that can`t help the hobby too much can it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViS Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Thanks Willy, I can certainly vouch for the venom contained in Estuary Catfish Spines..... The original spike and resulting venom hurt a hell of a lot more than the damage it left behind.... For those who missed it the first time: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Morelia Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 Is that from our Southern Eel-tailed-variety-Estuary-catfish or the northern Fork-tailed ones ? I've caught a few of the Eel-tailed ones in the Hawkesbury, and i'm sure that the smaller they are the spikier they are And those sharp spikey things on the outer edge of the Gill cover on Bass, and other perches kill too ! not venomous though Cheers, Andy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Boy Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 If that was from an esturine catfish, I can`t even image how much pain that would have caused. How did that happen? Do tell the story to it please. I don`t even let those bastards in the damn boat in case they get a spike into me. Looks like that one stuck it in, then flicked at the same time. I bet there were some choice words spoken at the time. Don`t get me wrong, catfish are my most favourite of all the fishes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swarvegorilla Posted July 24, 2004 Share Posted July 24, 2004 Nice to see people use venomous now. Eel tails are not poisonus, they are good to eat but there definitely venomous. Eel tails are usually salt water nasty fish. Aust and PNG have the only fresh water ones. Hoplo's are not getting any less aggro. they launch co-ordinated hits on my hand when i hold the net. Getting ready to breed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 are not poisonus ...... but there definitely venomous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Boy Posted July 25, 2004 Share Posted July 25, 2004 mmm, please explain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
23Skidoo Posted July 27, 2004 Share Posted July 27, 2004 Venomous: needs to be injected into the blood stream eg: snakes fangs, spider bites, catfish spikes, stingray spines. Poisonous: can pass through to blood stream, needs to be eaten or contact the skin. eg ciguetera bacteria, puffer fish (fugu), rhubarb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gianniz Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 when i was young (10 or so) my dad used to play a lot of tricks on me... well not a trick but lack of education would be more precise. I remember because my dad picked up a blue bottle and he didn't get stung so I copied and bamn, I cried and cried, my left arm was numbing and was hungry for KFC lol (oh this incident costed my dad 2 nintendo games! lol) next time it was a catfish, dad said no poison blablabla... so i kinda kicked one lightly with my shoes to put it back in the water... problem was barefeet lets just say it hurt and i still have a scare (its those ugly catfish that you catch heap from mooney mooney brooklyn!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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