Is this catfish venomous to humans?

[ravel9]

Hi everyone,
I'm from Israel and recently caught a catfish in the Mediterranean Sea that I think is a Striped eel catfish (Plotosus lineatus) - check out the photos below. To be honest, I'm no fish expert, so it was probably silly of me to catch one without knowing its name. The thing is, it stung my finger, which swelled up and turned red right after. It didn't hurt too much, though. After 2.5 hours, almost everything went back to normal. I looked it up online and found out that this fish has "highly venomous serrate spine of the first dorsal and each of the pectoral fins" that can be "dangerous, and even fatal in rare cases" (http/www.fishbase.org/summary/Plotosus-lineatus.html). But nothing serious happened to me, just a swollen finger. Is this fish really that venomous, or am I just immune to it? Maybe I got the ID wrong?
Thanks for your help!
Good day.

[onyzza]

I'm going to move this over to the marine fish section for now, since it's from the Mediterranean Sea. Hopefully, someone with more knowledge on marine fish can help with the ID soon.

[vyno9]

I've always had a healthy respect for catfish - they're known to pack a punch, and the pain they inflict often seems disproportionate to the size of the wound.
You might have just been lucky and only got a glancing blow from the catfish's spine.
Even though the pain wasn't severe, I'd still keep a close eye on the site where the spine went in - many sea creatures have some pretty nasty bacteria on their spines that can cause infections in people who cross them.

[zena4]

You might be like that snake handler I saw on a documentary, the one who's resistant to venom. Congrats, you're apparently immune to the Striped eel catfish sting.

Edit: take my word for it, or don't, I'm probably just crazy.

[sly_lash]

I think there's a common misconception about catfish venom. It's not actually the spines that contain venom, but rather they're used to puncture the skin and introduce venom. According to some articles I read, the venom is only really deadly when ingested by another fish.

I found a couple of interesting articles that explain this in more detail. One from Live Science mentions that over 1,000 species of catfish are venomous, but it's the venom itself that's the problem, not the spines. Another article from a blog about Australian fish talks about the venomous cobbler catfish and how its spines are used to deliver the venom.

It's possible that ravel9's experience with the striped eel catfish was less severe because the venom wasn't fully delivered, or maybe the fish just didn't inject enough venom. Either way, it's still interesting to learn more about how these fish defend themselves.

[finsup]

I'm starting to think the venom thing might be overhyped, you're still standing after all.

[wingbeat]

I'd appreciate it if you didn't revive such an old thread, it's not very helpful.