What is your WORST sting/accident that caused physical damage from the hobby?

[Rmckoy]

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.

Years ago there was posts on either here or Facebook claiming the proteins in pee neutralized the venom hahaha ….

Back to your post .
Education is the most important .

here in Canada . I am worried if something terrible were to ever happen . No doctors know anything about marine life as were many hours away from saltwater , never mind a reef .
my wife carry’s a epipen around with her for 8 months of the year as she’s allergic to bees .
What would happen if she’s feeding foxface and we’re to get poked by him ?

 

[MnFish1]

Years ago there was posts on either here or Facebook claiming the proteins in pee neutralized the venom hahaha ….

Back to your post .
Education is the most important .

here in Canada . I am worried if something terrible were to ever happen . No doctors know anything about marine life as were many hours away from saltwater , never mind a reef .
my wife carry’s a epipen around with her for 8 months of the year as she’s allergic to bees .
What would happen if she’s feeding foxface and we’re to get poked by him ?

We're in the same 'boat'. In fact one famous case of vibrio happened at a local hospital (from a reef tank). The patient brought in an internet article. Most infectious disease specialists are going to be well familiar with vibrio and mycobacterium marinium. When I went in the infectious specialist said 'going to treat you for vibrio. but be aware 99 percent of infections you get in your tank are going to be staph or strep. (The cultures were strep)

 

[Sean Clark]

This is yet another reason why I stay out of the ocean.

 

[Rmckoy]

This is yet another reason why I stay out of the ocean.

Not being the strongest swimmer is my #1

number 2 would Be getting stung by something or bitten .

 

[Rmckoy]

This is yet another reason why I stay out of the ocean.

Being attacked by a partially naked mermaid doesn’t sound like a bad idea though .

 

[Sean Clark]

Being attacked by a partially naked mermaid doesn’t sound like a bad idea though .

Until she comes looking for a new place to swim.

 

[Rmckoy]

Until she comes looking for a new place to swim.

Wonder if my 230 gal is enough ?

 

[Rmckoy]

Until she comes looking for a new place to swim.

My wife will gladly throw in a few flakes per day

 

[MaxTremors]

I’ve had several, been bit by a moray (wasn’t too bad considering), stung by a hell fire anemone (that took forever, like months, to heal), and an undulated trigger took a marble sized chunk of flesh out of the back of my hand (still have a nearly perfectly round scar from it, actually doesn’t look that different than the scar from the hell fire).

 

[Sean Clark]

Wonder if my 230 gal is enough ?

I think that is between you and the wife.

 

[i cant think]

No anti venom, except in Australia.

This is why I don’t own or dream to own Lions, if I get stung there is no chance a hospital over here will have an anti venom for a lionfish sting on hand at all times (I mean come on, who would think people are going to need a Lionfish venom antidote if you don’t have a Warm climate with lions all around the shore).
Actually, this is also why I fear the day I have any serious injury. I mean how awkward would it be to say something like “I got stung by a foxface” or something like that to someone who had 0 idea on the reefing hobby.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Actually, this is also why I fear the day I have any serious injury. I mean how awkward would it be to say something like “I got stung by a foxface” or something like that to someone who had 0 idea on the reefing hobby.

That’s my exact thoughts with palytoxin, like if I call the emergency room and tell them “I got poisoned by a zoa coral” and they’ll be like “a WHAT?!”

 

[i cant think]

That’s my exact thoughts with palytoxin, like if I call the emergency room and tell them “I got poisoned by a zoa coral” and they’ll be like “a WHAT?!”

Yes! I avoid Zoas for that same reason, I refuse to go through the explanation time whilst I have a possible case of palytoxin being in my blood stream.

 

[BryanJ]

My worst accident was getting a fox face out of a bag he cut my hand open with his dorsal fin.

 

[i cant think]

My worst accident was getting a fox face out of a bag he cut my hand open with his dorsal fin.

The question is, how did it go down when talking to the ER?

 

[Blumy]

Palytoxin melted my cornea and burned a hole to my inner eye. Yep, that’s inner eye fluid leaking out. Had an emergency cornea transplant to save the eye. Used all the precautions bit somehow I got some on my hand and at some point rubbed my eye. Stripped the tank bare and went SPS. I’ll never have softies again.

 

[Sean Clark]

Palytoxin melted my cornea and burned a hole to my inner eye. Yep, that’s inner eye fluid leaking out. Had an emergency cornea transplant to save the eye. Used all the precautions bit somehow I got some on my hand and at some point rubbed my eye. Stripped the tank bare and went SPS. I’ll never have softies again.

You win... not that this was a competition.

 

[i cant think]

Palytoxin melted my cornea and burned a hole to my inner eye. Yep, that’s inner eye fluid leaking out. Had an emergency cornea transplant to save the eye. Used all the precautions bit somehow I got some on my hand and at some point rubbed my eye. Stripped the tank bare and went SPS. I’ll never have softies again.

Oh man… That looks like stuff from a horror film!

 

[Blumy]

Oh man… That looks like stuff from a horror film!

Failed to mention, the pain was excruciating. Your cornea covers all the nerves on your eye. Once exposed to air… like being on fire. It all happened in about 5 hours from the incident. They did save they eye but my vision meets legally blind out of it. Will get another surgery to replace the transplant with an artificial when I’m more confident in the technology. Too high an infection risk at the moment but they’re doing some crazy stuff with stem cells, collagen and mRNA.

 

[i cant think]

Failed to mention, the pain was excruciating. Your cornea covers all the nerves on your eye. Once exposed to air… like being on fire. It all happened in about 5 hours from the incident. They did save they eye but my vision meets legally blind out of it. Will get another surgery to replace the transplant with an artificial when I’m more confident in the technology. Too high an infection risk at the moment but they’re doing some crazy stuff with stem cells, collagen and mRNA.

Out of all the horror stories I’ve heard and witnessed, this has got to be the worst! I cant even begin to imagine the pain, think I’ll avoid Zoas and Palys even more now.