Yipes! I’m an about to be new reefer, and I plan on wearing gloves every time I stick my hands into the tank. Long gloves if I’m going to reach all the way in. I thought everyone did this? Why not? Do some of you just not bother? Or is it something you intend to do but got lazy over time?
What is your WORST sting/accident that caused physical damage from the hobby?
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Viva'sReef
Valuable Member
Huge Clown Tang tail whipped me on the side of my finger with its scalpel. That was something like 15 years ago. Bled like crazy and hurt for days. Still have the scar.
I used to have swollen fingers all the time from my last tank. The bristle worm population was crazy and any maintenence with hands in the tank would leave me with fuzzy fingers. I suppose gloves would have been smart but I was not....
I used to have swollen fingers all the time from my last tank. The bristle worm population was crazy and any maintenence with hands in the tank would leave me with fuzzy fingers. I suppose gloves would have been smart but I was not....
Karen00
2500 Club Member
I come from years and years of peaceful freshwater tanks so I never had it drilled into my head that some creatures in the water are dangerous. Fast forward to now and I setup my first saltwater tank (that is also peaceful) and I started with dry rock so, to the best of my knowledge, I have no dangerous creatures in my tank. This makes me a bit complacent because I still go in with no gloves even after knowing of these dangers. I also keep forgetting there is the possibility of hitchhikers evading my dipping protocol that get into my tank and could nail me one day without me knowing they are in there. Added to that I also have a tiny scorpionfish in my tank. He himself is peaceful and only uses the venom in his dorsal fin as defense but that doesn't mean to say I couldn't get stung if I accidentally brushed up against him. After knowing all that I still don't wear gloves. I have no doubt that one day I will be posting a thread with all the reasons to wear gloves after I get stung by something. It's kind of crazy!
Sometimes it is laziness as in, just need to fix this quick in here. Sometimes they will not work due to depth of the tank (my arms do not even reach, so gloves do not work to cover whole arm). Sometimes just stupidity.
When I work with my live rock, I almost always throw on some gloves. After the fire worm incident, I do remember.
The bearded fireworm, Hermodice carunculata, is a type of marine bristleworm.Bristleworms and fireworms are definitely not the same on the pain scale. They're called fireworms for a reason. I had some years ago on fresh imported live rock, and regularly snorkel with fireworms in St Kitts. They're a whole other level of pain from a bristleworm. See this pic of an actual fireworm.
On that note, Millepora fire coral also sucks for most people, but I've never been bothered by it. On a recent snorkeling trip my friend got knocked into a stand by a wave and his arms and legs were covered in rashes for about a week. The reefs in St Kitts can be pretty brutal. There are urchins everywhere here.
Giant colony of Millepora fire coral
Average reef floor in St Kitts littered with urchins
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- Wikipedia
- Higher classification: Hermodice
- Scientific name: Hermodice carunculata
- Class: Polychaete
- Phylum: Annelid
- Family: Amphinomidae
- Order: Eunicida
Yes, but in the hobby bristleworm is the name used to describe the harmless scavengers, vs fireworm would be used to describe exactly that, the bearded fireworm, which eats coral and is NOT a harmless scavenger, and also hurts a lot more when touched.The bearded fireworm, Hermodice carunculata, is a type of marine bristleworm.
Wikipedia- Higher classification: Hermodice
- Scientific name: Hermodice carunculata
- Class: Polychaete
- Phylum: Annelid
- Family: Amphinomidae
- Order: Eunicida
To be proper we should all technically refer to them by their latin names, but most will never do that. Heck, most people don't even use the latin names for their fish.
All fireworms are technically bristleworms, but not all bristleworms are fireworms. Its basically the whole square vs rectangle debate from kindergarten but with worms that hurt you
been there. Lionfish inflict a nasty pain for almost 12hrs. No anti venom, except in Australia. The soaking in hot water made it more painful for me. Weird right?got stuck by a lionfish.
called poison control to see what, if anything, i needed to do.
poison control operator: soak your hand in as hot of water as you can, without burning yourself
possible respiratory or cardiac arrest.
pain may be so severe you may need to go to the er for pain meds (back in the eighties when getting pain med scripts was stupid easy)
after the phone call....
my room mate, in his late twenties and high since he was twelve years old, tells me i'm in pain and we need to go to the er and get that script.
my girlfriend, who later became ex #2, stayed up all night watching/waiting for me to goin to cardiac/respiratory arrest.
the hot water did the trick.
also.... been bitten by tank inhabitants during feeding.
and bristley wormed.
sp1187
bird flu antidote
years after I got stuck I was at a lfs. someone called in and asked what should they do, as they had been stuck by their lionfish.
the clown behind the counter told them to go to the local liquor store and buy a twelve of their fav beer and start drinking to dull the pain.
Tankkeepers
Valuable Member
4 days ago rearranging and cleaning small area in back was not thinking about the bristleworms stired it up by hand rather then the turkey baster I usually use
every finger part of my hand and wrists were covered in hairs much better now but that first day was bad my viens up my arm burned and inched and my whole body was hot
A fingers not to bad a hand not so fun opps
every finger part of my hand and wrists were covered in hairs much better now but that first day was bad my viens up my arm burned and inched and my whole body was hot
A fingers not to bad a hand not so fun opps
If been in the hobby for 11 years and never had an issue until 3 weeks ago. I was upgrading to a 500 litre tank, when I've transfered all the live rock and corals, I ended up with a tiny cut on my thumb, yep I wasn't wearing any gloves. 4 days later I had to go to hospital as an infection had started to spread causing swelling around my thumb. Another 2 days later and still in hospital I had to go into theatre where they made a 3 inch cut down my thumb to wash the infection out. Im now on antibiotic for 3 months or until micro biology can say exactly what the infection was warning these photos may make some feel light headed
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Karen00
2500 Club Member
OMG!! And they can't tell what caused it even with today's knowledge and technology?! That is truly scary and I hope you are recovering well!! Did it only affect your hand or did you start to suffer other symptoms like your heart, headache, etc.? Very scary!!
No injuries yet as im a newb but i was setting up my Tunze 9012 in my DT and while adjusting the back magnet; pieces came off and feel to the bottom of the tank. Without thinking I reached down to grab and my Foxface took off like a bat out of hell. I could feel his spines graze right across my hand.
Yeah im scared to put my hand in anytime now
Yeah im scared to put my hand in anytime now
michael_cb_125
Active Member
I have had millions of bristle worms release their bristles into my hands. I am fortunate that I cannot feel them, but my wife sure does. I have inadvertently lit her up by touching her with my hands that were covered in bristles that I was unaware of.
I have been hit four times by fire worms, they cause me moderate irritation.
I have been stuck by a Mombasa lion, reminded me of a European hornet sting.
The most painful thing that I have ever experienced was a spine from a squirrel fish.
While it was on a boat fishing, it is a common aquarium fish. I got the first dorsal spine in my index finger. Immediately I felt horrible pain, I developed a red line up to my elbow. 6 hours later when getting back to the dock, my finger was the size of a bratwurst, and I was running fever. It took me 4 days to fully recover.
My bloodiest injury was in a fish shop. I was helping the owner feed a tesselata eel. dang fish missed the shrimp and got my hand. Talking about a bloody mess, the shop looked like a murder scene.
~Michaela
I have been hit four times by fire worms, they cause me moderate irritation.
I have been stuck by a Mombasa lion, reminded me of a European hornet sting.
The most painful thing that I have ever experienced was a spine from a squirrel fish.
While it was on a boat fishing, it is a common aquarium fish. I got the first dorsal spine in my index finger. Immediately I felt horrible pain, I developed a red line up to my elbow. 6 hours later when getting back to the dock, my finger was the size of a bratwurst, and I was running fever. It took me 4 days to fully recover.
My bloodiest injury was in a fish shop. I was helping the owner feed a tesselata eel. dang fish missed the shrimp and got my hand. Talking about a bloody mess, the shop looked like a murder scene.
~Michaela
Rmckoy
7500 Club Member
Same tank but many differed incidents .
1) ritteri anemone roughly 23” across but it was always at the top of the glass .
every time I would reach in to feed , move frags it would sting my arm between my elbow and armpit .
the last time is when I reached In to place a few new frags . I didn’t feel anything at the time but less than 1 hour later I had blisters forming in my arm . Itchy and sore to touch .
2) foxface ……..
I bought a 6” foxface from someone online as it was supposedly out growing their tank .
went to their house caught it and put it in a bucket .
When I got home I opened the bucket and reached in with a net to scoop him out .
it jumped and stabbed me 4 times on the side of my right hand . ( the meaty part beside your pinky finger )
instantly felt a throbbing burning pain shooting up my arm .
a few hours later my right hand was numb ,
The left side of my face was tingling , sinuses were plugged
This lasted for 4-5 days .
1) ritteri anemone roughly 23” across but it was always at the top of the glass .
every time I would reach in to feed , move frags it would sting my arm between my elbow and armpit .
the last time is when I reached In to place a few new frags . I didn’t feel anything at the time but less than 1 hour later I had blisters forming in my arm . Itchy and sore to touch .
2) foxface ……..
I bought a 6” foxface from someone online as it was supposedly out growing their tank .
went to their house caught it and put it in a bucket .
When I got home I opened the bucket and reached in with a net to scoop him out .
it jumped and stabbed me 4 times on the side of my right hand . ( the meaty part beside your pinky finger )
instantly felt a throbbing burning pain shooting up my arm .
a few hours later my right hand was numb ,
The left side of my face was tingling , sinuses were plugged
This lasted for 4-5 days .
OP
OP
SauceyReef
Valuable Member
I would love to wear gloves but have trouble as it is grabbing items with my shaky fingers. Fragging is near impossible without gloves sometimes, I couldn't imagine with gloves. I will ALWAYS wear goggles when fragging or taking out corals.
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Have been to the ER 2x for IV antibiotics/cellulitis - followed by a couple weeks of oral. the first time - I had about a 1/8 inch scratch on my wrist - in 2 hours my arm was swollen (from a rock). The second time - I had my hands in the tank - and I (without realizing it) - rubbed my upper arm between my lid - and the edge of the tank. Woke up in the middle of the night with a red swollen arm. ER.
ARCkeeper
Active Member
It's one thing for hobbyists to get injured - we have some idea what we're getting ourselves into. It's something else entirely to put someone in that position unprepared. My adult daughter worked in a podiatrist's office, and the clinic kept a reef tank in the waiting room. They had a service that handled most of the maintenance of the tank, but because my daughter had some exposure to fish keeping through my tanks, she did some of the daily care such as feeding.
One day she saw one of the clownfish in distress. she tried to net it, but it wedged itself into the rockwork. While trying to get to the clown, she startled the foxface which spined her. She had no prior knowledge that any of the fish in the tank were venomous.
She called me, in tears from the pain, asking what she should do. None of the three doctors in the clinic had any idea. I knew that heat denatures lionfish venom, so I told her to try keeping her hand in water as hot as she could tolerate. She called me back a few minutes later to say the the hot water was helping, and she didn't end up with any lasting issues. She refused to do anything else with the tank until the aquarium service removed the foxface.
One day she saw one of the clownfish in distress. she tried to net it, but it wedged itself into the rockwork. While trying to get to the clown, she startled the foxface which spined her. She had no prior knowledge that any of the fish in the tank were venomous.
She called me, in tears from the pain, asking what she should do. None of the three doctors in the clinic had any idea. I knew that heat denatures lionfish venom, so I told her to try keeping her hand in water as hot as she could tolerate. She called me back a few minutes later to say the the hot water was helping, and she didn't end up with any lasting issues. She refused to do anything else with the tank until the aquarium service removed the foxface.
Years ago a large carpet wrapped around my hand. My hand was numb for several days.
Stung by a worm.....
Stung by a worm.....
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I had a variety of bruises, cuts and and swollen eye after wife found out what my FISH STUFF cost..
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