Venomous or dangerous
Fish with venom, toxins or a dangerous bite. 12 fish on EveryFish so far.
A small number of fish can harm people. Some inject venom through spines, such as the stonefish, lionfish and stingrays. Some are poisonous to eat, such as pufferfish, or carry toxins from their food, as in ciguatera. A few can bite or shock, such as large sharks, piranhas and the electric eel. Most of these dangers come from handling, stepping on or eating a fish, not from attacks.
Venom and poison
The reef stonefish, which looks like a weedy rock, is the most venomous fish known; stepping on its spines is extremely painful and can be dangerous. Lionfish, scorpionfish, stingrays, weevers and some catfish, including the singhi of South Asia, also sting. Pufferfish carry tetrodotoxin, a nerve poison with no antidote, which is why fugu in Japan may only be prepared by licensed chefs. Ciguatera poisoning comes from eating large reef fish that have built up algal toxins.
Bites and shocks
Shark attacks are rare and widely feared. The International Shark Attack File usually records a few dozen unprovoked bites a year worldwide, with a small number fatal; the great white, tiger and bull sharks account for most serious cases. Piranhas seldom attack people, and most bites happen when fish are trapped in drying pools or handled. The electric eel of South America can deliver a shock of several hundred volts, enough to stun a person.
Famous venomous or dangerous fish
Still to be written: Synanceia verrucosa, Red lionfish, Takifugu rubripes, Bull shark, Tiger shark, Heteropneustes fossilis.
Further reading
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Great white shark: Sharkdiver.com, Public domain, source
- Electric eel: Steven G. Johnson, CC BY-SA 3.0, source