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I felt one of them prick my arm while I was re-arranging their decor; resulting in a red welt which itched like crazy for three days or so.

Home medical encyclopaedias don't have much to say about Synodontis stabs, so I decided to treat it with a paste of water and sodium bicarbonate, daubed on regularly. That actually helped quite a lot.

I was wondering if anybody else has had a reaction like this with synos. I assume in this case it was a pectoral fin stab, because the filamentosus dorsal fin ends in a pennant.

In my time i've been unfortunate to be pricked by a vast array of cats. Some synos included. If i can remember accurately most synos weren't too bad but i did get the itch, swelling & reddening you describe - at least it wasn't a H.fossilis!

Richard B

For future reference, and I must point out that I do not know if this is true of catfish poison specifically:
many, perhaps most, poisons of aquatic organisms is sensitive to heat, so immersing the stung limb in as hot water as you can stand often brings very fast relief.
Might we worth testing if you should get stung again.

My only other significant catfish injury was a bit of a freak accident. I accidentally startled a Colombian shark, and it jumped from the tank over my shoulder. Its dorsal spine went through my shirt into my back.

This caused pain of the red-hot poker variety, and I would not advise anybody to try to re-create the circumstances.

The worst incident i have had when fishkeeping was when i kept some British aquatic insects many many years ago & got bitten by a saucer bug (Ilyocoris cimicoides). It hurt soooo much i thought about cutting off my hand!!! (I didn't but it would've hurt less i'm sure - a severe stabbing, throbbing pain that was unbearable - pond keepers beware!)

good thread here!!

I have been stung by pictus catfish and my arm swelled and I couldn't move my arm from the elbow to fingers for an entire day, it was worse than a bee sting! My common pl*co also stabbed me a few times on my arm and hand, went numb and couldn't move it...2 days later it was better. Now I'm much more careful!

there was a story once somewhere about a man who was killed by a catfish, went into shock because it sliced him pretty good. don't know if it's true or not...but always something to wonder about...

, mentioned above, is said to have caused a fatality.

same goes for ; there are documented fatalities there too.

The worst i had was my largest S. eupterus was rearranging some bogwood and accidently startled it cause i didnt see it underneath/behind the piece i reached for and ended up with its pectoral spine through the bit of webbing skin between my thumb and forefinger, that was insanly painfull for hours, and red and sore for a week or so.

I don't believe that synos are venomous (i.e., the spine doesn't actually inject any poison). But whenever you get poked by a catfish spine, the wound generally gets infected with slime from the fin so you end up with a painful injury and it feels like you have been poisoned.

I agree they don't sting like a bee. I think maybe it's an allergic reaction. The same thing happens to me if I get stabbed by a cactus spine.