Do Pleco's have poisonous fins?

[Rafini]

My brother worked in an LFS for 7 years and I was telling him about my current stocking earlier and he mentioned in passing that plecostomus species have venom in their pectoral fins. he said its not seriously dangerous venom but it is there and causes discomfort if you get stabbed or sliced.

I had absolutely no idea this even existed, is it a myth or is it actually true? I know a lot of catfish do posess venom in their fins so I just wanted to know as I have a 17"-18" common pleco that I will be moving at some point in the future and wanted to know if hes dangerous or not.

Rafini

 

[Rome]

Common pleco does not.


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[cichlidfish]

Common plecos are not. I've picked up plecos before and was never hurt at all. Even an 18" one I had.


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[in2cichlids]

no poison with plecos. It doesn't feel good because of the spines. It is just like grabbing those sandburs and picking them out of your shoe having one of those spines stick you

 

[Linus_Cello]

If I remember one of the presenters correctly, Jeremy Wright, from the 2010 Catfish Convention, gave a presentation on poisonous catfish, and he said that plecos do not have venomous spines. Surprisingly, corys do have venom, but it's very low amounts. This is what I could find with a quick google search:

http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/7453
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091217-venomous-catfish-toxic-poisonous/

 

[Dullamite]

That's funny, I never would have thought corys had any kind of venom.

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[Rafini]

wow so thats really interesting, does anybody know if other species of pleco have it? because there are several species of plecos that are considered "common plecos"
I think mine is Pterygoplichthys pardalis

 

[Rome]

Doesn't matter the species.

no poison with plecos. It doesn't feel good because of the spines. It is just like grabbing those sandburs and picking them out of your shoe having one of those spines stick you

Plecos have sharp fins, that's it.


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