Are most inverts safe to pick up with your hands?

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saltcreep1025

Aquarium Advice FINatic
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So I just got a job working at my LFS which brings all kinds of new questions with it. Are most of the smaller inverts safe to pick up with your hands? I'm thinking along the lines of emerald, porcelain, and pom pom crabs. I certainly wouldnt try to snatch a pistol shrimp with my hands, but other than that is there anything I should watch out for? I also learned that foxface rabbitfish are venomous. Had no idea. Anything else like that I need to be careful around?
 
saltcreep1025 said:
The whole point in starting this thread was so that I can be sure...
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Urchins are fine just don't squeeze them, anemones are iffy but I've never been bothered by condys or bubble tips but did get a pretty gods sting from a carpet nem so I wear powder less nitrile gloves if its any anemone other than the ones in my personal tank, crabs just be careful of being pinched, bristleworms DO NOT touch, rays I don't touch, sharks it depends how long we've had it and where it came from also depends on species, I've had very few injuries from inverts. Mainly just common sense will dictate. If it brutally kills other animals then I generally wouldn't touch it but there are so many species of inverts and even fish and corals that in no way could someone tell you individually which ones are safe and which aren't. I can tell you that very very few are lethal to humans. Like the foxface and lion, the sting hurts pretty bad but its far from life threatening.
 
saltcreep1025 said:
Thanks Tkey! Crabwise, are there any that are particularly pinchy?
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All of them have the ability but the only crab I've ever been pinched by was a large emerald and a Sally light foot. But that was one time by each and I've picked up tons by hand without problems. Just matters what mood they are in
 
Different people have different sensitivity. When diving, I never was bothered by anything but fire coral, while my wife got stung by everything. I work without gloves in my system, it hasn't caused me any problems, but be careful if you have any sores or open cuts. Don't touch your eyes. Always wash your hands afterwards and be really careful you don't have lotion or soap on your hands.

I don't handle crabs...ugh...they look like spiders.
 
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Gregcoyote said:
Different people have different sensitivity. When diving, I never was bothered by anything but fire coral, while my wife got stung by everything. I work without gloves in my system, it hasn't caused me any problems, but be careful if you have any sores or open cuts. Don't touch your eyes. Always wash your hands afterwards and be really careful you don't have lotion or soap on your hands.

I don't handle crabs...ugh...they look like spiders.
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Just use a net with everything. Not so much for your safety as much as the safety of the animal you are selling. If an invert gets hurt while being caught that is stress that could have been avoided and can cause death. For the most part, not much SHOULD bother you. In terms of getting stung and things, it is like a bee sting. For me, I barely notice. For some people, they die.
 
I've had a pistol shrimp hit me, not pinch but hit!!! It hurt like a bi***!
I was gonna take out a gbta, it fell in the back, I reached for it blindly,,,, felt a pain and herd him click at the same time!!! Little bum
I got pinched by him before but it didn't hurt as much as the punch!!! :)
 
ivan_dalmatia said:
I've had a pistol shrimp hit me, not pinch but hit!!! It hurt like a bi***!
I was gonna take out a gbta, it fell in the back, I reached for it blindly,,,, felt a pain and herd him click at the same time!!! Little bum
I got pinched by him before but it didn't hurt as much as the punch!!! :)
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That's funny. My Condy stung me once. Got my attention fast
 
My coral banded shrimp pinched me so hard I started bleeding. Got rid of her because she was doing the same to other fish in my tank!
 
Sniperhank said:
Just use a net with everything. Not so much for your safety as much as the safety of the animal you are selling.
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I have to disagree with you there... I'f i can gently scoop something up with my hands and gently place it in the bag I think It would be much less stressful than catching it with a net.
 
saltcreep1025 said:
I have to disagree with you there... I'f i can gently scoop something up with my hands and gently place it in the bag I think It would be much less stressful than catching it with a net.
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+1000 i try to hand scoop any inverts if possible and 9 times out of 10 they don't put up much struggle at all since 90% are hand fed to begin with. stick a net in the tank and the stats flip to 9 times out of 10 the animal freaks out. Only ones that give me problems regularly are the sally lightfoot crabs. They don't like being handled at all. But they have only pinched me once and it wasn't all that painful.
 
Gregcoyote said:
Hands are gentler than nets. Hands don't catch up on scales. But I'm not catching any rabbit fish that way soon. ;-)
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Lions, triggers and ......... Rabbits????? OH MY????? Wait thats not right. :lol:
Its fairly easy to know what to NOT touch in fish though. Tangs, rabbit fish, triggers, some puffers, etc. etc.
 
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