GROSS! What grosses you out the most in this hobby?

[adobo]

After having 15+ dead mice in the back of my truck in 100 degree day. There is nothing that smells worse than that.

I mean, geez. How did you wind up with that many mice in the back of your truck - dead or alive?

 

[Hugh Mann]

Maybe it's because I am a custodian at an elementary school and am used to horrific sights/smells, but I have yet to encounter something that truly grosses me out.

I like bristle worms, I have a few but they are still wee fellows.

Brittle stars are awesome, was excited when I got one as a hitchhiker.

Skimmate, once you've cleaned a toilet 4 kids used without flushing, it's not so bad.

Dead snails, see above.

Those tongue parasites are fascinating in a horrible way, same with bobbits.

 

[Phycodurus]

1. Worms........Bristle worms in aquarium plumbing.

lol ... that vid reminds of a campy 1976 horror movie called “squirm” about killer worms. ;Hilarious ;Wideyed

 

[Tonyreeffish]

That bristle worm vid was frustrating to watch. The whole time I wanted to yell at the dude to stop messing around with a screw driver and get some pliers or something to yank them out. And the fact they were just dropping into the sump made me want to put a bucket under to catch them.

The only thing that ever grossed me out was getting a mouth of detritus after having to restart the siphon mid cleaning. My mind started flashing with thoughts of every nasty decomposing thing that could be mixed up in it.

And the smell of dead snails is pretty horrid as well.

 

[725196]

Not one dang thing.

I seeded my tank with bristle worms.
I use my hands to clean the skimmer cup.
fish poop is free fish food.
etc.

Only thing I don’t like is when you go in a LFS and I overhear then giving bad BAD advice to make a sale. When that happens it’s the last time I shop there.

 

[glb]

The smell of dead snails

 

[Isabel’s Hobby]

True story, many years ago...

I had a tank with a hang on overflow. As with most of these devices, it slowly builds up air at the top of the U tube, and will eventually quit flowing. I stuck a bit of airline into the U tube, left it hanging into the sump. Every once in a while, I'd grab the end of the airline, and suck the air out of the U tube.

Sucked a bristle worm into my mouth.

Yeah, it was as bad as you're thinking.

Did that hurt other then just being absolutely nasty

 

[Formidableone14]

Skimmate and pod food. YACK

 

[Greybeard]

Did that hurt other then just being absolutely nasty

Yes, it hurt... Lip swelled up. I thought maybe alcohol would help...

... so I drank most of a fifth of Cap'n Morgan

 

[av8soulfly]

bristleworms
skimmer cups
fluke worms

 

[Tom Davey]

I have had some pretty smelly Skimmer cleanouts.

 

[KaidenC]

Cleaning the skimmer with my finger

 

[Arringar]

As expensive as this hobby is, it is nothing compared to others. So, don't feel so bad.

That’s the truth! This isn’t even my most expensive hobby. lol

Try deep sky astrophotography with high end equipment, then come back and complain about expense. lol

 

[tnyr5]

The humans. *shudder*

 

[JPergamo]

When i forget to dump the rest of my thawed out frozen food into the system and it sits overnight in a cup with water....

 

[S2G]

That bristleworm video is pretty crazy.

Cleaning the gunk out of the skimmer neck. It looks like a pate. Really not bad on a cracker

 

[Firthy13]

bristleworms
skimmer cups
fluke worms

Wow, that poor butterfly, one hell of an infestation. did he make it?

 

[Mike N]

Opening up a box of live rock shipped in damp towels/newspaper..... ;Vomit;Vomit

 

[ppatches24]

When u are scammed on sites you trust and people steal money from you. That's the most disgusting thing to me.

 

[vabben]

Up until yesterday, I thought smelling a snail to check to see if it is dead was the worst. FedEx messed up an overnight delivery of some torch corals, took two days to arrive. When I opened up the bag to inspect how bad it was, the smell had me rushing to the bathroom dry heaving.