Most people eat and depend on fish or fish products for their food and economic livelihood.
There are more than 30,000 different species that ply Earth’s oceans and bodies of freshwater. While we adore the beauty of many fish species in aquariums. Some fishes however have terrifying aspects and can be dangerous to humans. A select few of these may attack human beings, while others might deliver a dose of poison when handled carelessly or not properly prepared for consumption.
In this article, we’ve compiled some of the world’s most dangerous fish.
8.) Candiru
Where to find them: Brazil
The candiru fish of Brazil is a scaleless and parasitic catfish found in the Amazon River region. It is translucent and eellike, and it grows to a length of an inch. They feed on blood and are commonly found in the gill cavities of other fishes.
Why it’s dangerous?
It attacks humans and has been known to enter the urethras of bathers and swimming animals. Once in the passage, it erects the short spines on its gill covers and may thereby cause inflammation, and hemorrhage.
7.) Moray Eel
Where to find them: Western Atlantic Ocean, from New Jersey to Bermuda, and the northern Gulf of Mexico southward to Brazil.
They live in shallow water among reefs and rocks and hide in crevices. Their skin is thick, smooth, and scaleless.
Why it’s dangerous?
Their mouth is wide and their jaws are equipped with strong, sharp teeth, which enable them to seize and hold their prey (chiefly other fishes) but also to inflict serious wounds on their enemies, including humans. They are apt to attack humans only when disturbed, but then they can be quite vicious.
Moray eels are usually vividly marked or colored.
6.) Tigerfish
Where to find them: Congo and Western Africa River Systems
In African freshwaters, Tigerfishes are admired game fishes.
They are marked, depending on the species, with one or several dark, lengthwise stripes and are swift, voracious, salmon-shaped carnivores with daggerlike teeth that protrude when the mouth is closed. It also has sharp spines on its gill covers, which can wound a careless handler.
5.) Stonefish
Where to find them: Tropical seas in Indo-Pacific.
Stonefish are venomous marine fish found in shallow waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific. They are sluggish, bottom-dwelling fish that live among rocks or coral and in mud flats and estuaries. Thickset fish with large heads and mouths, small eyes, and bumpy skins covered with wartlike lumps and, sometimes, fleshy flaps, rest on the bottom, unmoving, blending almost exactly with their surroundings in form and color.
Why it’s dangerous?
They are dangerous to fish. Difficult to see, they can, when stepped on, inject quantities of venom through grooves in their dorsal-fin spines. Wounds produced by these fish are intensely painful and sometimes fatal.
4.) Electric Eel
Where to find them: Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America
Despite its name, it is not a true eel but is related to the characin fish, which includes piranhas and neon tetras. The electric eel is one of the principal aquatic predators of the whitewater-flooded forest known as Varzea. The electric eel is a sluggish creature that prefers slow-moving fresh water, where it surfaces every few minutes to gulp air.
Why it’s dangerous?
The tail region contains the electric organs, which are derived from muscle tissue enervated by spinal nerves, and discharges 300–650 volts—a charge powerful enough to jolt humans. These organs may also be used to help the creature navigate and to communicate with other electric eels.
3.) Piranha
Where to find them: South American Rivers and Lakes
Piranha, is a razor-toothed carnivorous fish of South American rivers and lakes, with a somewhat exaggerated reputation for ferocity. In movies such as Piranha (1978), the piranha has been depicted as a ravenous indiscriminate killer
The most infamous is the red-bellied piranha with the strongest jaws and sharpest teeth hunt in groups that can number more than 100. Several groups can converge in a feeding frenzy if a large animal is attacked. Although piranhas are attracted to the smell of blood, most species scavenge more than they kill.
2.) Great White Sharks
Where to find them: Found mostly on coastal shores in South Africa, Australia, the United States, and Japan.
The white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), which is also called the great white shark or white pointer, maybe a fish that needs no introduction because it is one of the most powerful and potentially dangerous predatory sharks in the world.
Why it’s dangerous?
In the areas where they are most common, white sharks are responsible for numerous unprovoked and sometimes fatal, attacks on swimmers, divers, surfers, kayakers, and even small boats. A white shark tends to inflict a single bite on its human victim and then retreat.
1.) Red Lionfish
Where to find them: South Pacific Reefs and Tropical Waters across the world.
Lionfishes (Pterois) make up any of several species of showy Indo-Pacific fishes of the scorpion fish family. They are noted for their venomous fin spines, which are capable of producing painful, though rarely fatal, puncture wounds.
The fishes have enlarged pectoral fins and elongated dorsal fin spines, and each species bears a particular pattern of bold, zebralike stripes. When disturbed, the fish spread and display their fins and, if further pressed, will present and attack with the dorsal spines.
