Ever been attacked or hurt by your critters?

[PB_Smith]

I was just thinking of the times I have been injured by a tank inhabitant over the years;
I have been:
stung by a medium red volitan lionfish, felt like being injected with molten lead
bit by a small/medium snowflake eel, bled like crazy
bit by a large Oscar, minor scratches and a little bleeding
bit by a needlenose gar, shredded fingertip, thankfully the gar was only about 4" long
thanks to my lame coworker I got stung over the majority of my inner forearm by a large and very healthy carpet anemone, had a rash for a week
scratched, cut, stabbed by numerous little fish spines

but the two that really stand out are;
getting tagged/stabbed by the cheek spines of venomous saltwater catfish, made me extremely ill for days, worse than the lion sting.
and getting very aggressively attacked by a large, 8"+, Naso tang, opened me right up. Luckily didn't need stitches as it wasn't too deep, but about 2.5" long gash. got the obligatory shot in the butt of penicillin and all that.

to this day I will admit that I am a little skiddish when it comes to putting my hand into a tank with tangs.



So what battle wounds have you acquired in your quest to keep our finned friends?

 

[ImACoolguy]

And to think I liked lionfish and snowflake eels.... Lol definitely something to remember.

I can't say my fish have actually bit me yet but I have to watch my pictus because he can make your hand swell if you touch him. It's their natural defense system.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS

 

[PB_Smith]

And to think I liked lionfish and snowflake eels.... Lol definitely something to remember.

I can't say my fish have actually bit me yet but I have to watch my pictus because he can make your hand swell if you touch him. It's their natural defense system.


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS

Oh yeah, I've been tagged by numerous pictus cats as well.
Happened so frequently I forgot...LOL

and yes, it does hurt like a mother..

 

[cgthebeast]

Barbed by a 6in+ feather fin cat. My fault as I should of been more careful in the transferring it from tank to tank.

Then my cleaner shrimp attached my hand. No gash or anything, just scared the crap out of me.


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[IllusionX]

OP honestly need a pair of these...

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3728+3766+25864&pcatid=25864

 

[PB_Smith]

OP honestly need a pair of these...

Atlas Nitrile Gloves: Aquarium Maintenance Products

True, but the majority of those incidents happened 30+ years ago when I was operating a LFS, and I don't remember gloves like that being around...LOL

 

[sinibotia]

My 125 gallon tank for my discus research was donated to the university and came with two huge oscars.

These oscars ended up in the 55 gallon I was originally using for this project.

I may have stuck my finger in the oscar tank and let them bite me to see what would happen.

It was not pleasant.

....I might still do it again

 

[PB_Smith]

The funniest thing I have seen was one night at a lfs store I hung out at eons ago after closing one kid who worked there thought it was time to feed the about 30"+ Lanceolatus Grouper they had.
this what they look like;

Full grown they can be 10' long and weigh over a ton.
anywho....




He took a large feeder goldfish and held it in the tank.


I wish they had cell phone cameras back then because the look on his face whenever the grouper swallowed his entire hand half way up his forearm was priceless.
I guess he didn't realize just how much vacuum those big boys generate when they strike, or just how big their mouths are...LOL

 

[Mebbid]

I was thinking of this yesterday when I was fishing my snowflake eel out of my sump...

I tapped him to keep him from going into my baffles and he lunged at my fingers. He is only as big around as a pencil right now but he is going to get larger barring some unfortunate event. He could do a lot of damage to a hand when he gets full grown.. enough that I am considering making a chain mail glove to work in my tank with just in case.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Not scary or painful, but my clown just chased my hand around and nipped me the entire time I was doing my wc/maintenance . Seems she's become a lot more aggressive since she's started hosting the nem


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[Nils]

My GBR takes potshots at my finger sometimes........

 

[Finntastic]

I was just thinking of the times I have been injured by a tank inhabitant over the years;
I have been:
stung by a medium red volitan lionfish, felt like being injected with molten lead
bit by a small/medium snowflake eel, bled like crazy
bit by a large Oscar, minor scratches and a little bleeding
bit by a needlenose gar, shredded fingertip, thankfully the gar was only about 4" long
thanks to my lame coworker I got stung over the majority of my inner forearm by a large and very healthy carpet anemone, had a rash for a week
scratched, cut, stabbed by numerous little fish spines

but the two that really stand out are;
getting tagged/stabbed by the cheek spines of venomous saltwater catfish, made me extremely ill for days, worse than the lion sting.
and getting very aggressively attacked by a large, 8"+, Naso tang, opened me right up. Luckily didn't need stitches as it wasn't too deep, but about 2.5" long gash. got the obligatory shot in the butt of penicillin and all that.

to this day I will admit that I am a little skiddish when it comes to putting my hand into a tank with tangs.



So what battle wounds have you acquired in your quest to keep our finned friends?

Jeez man underwater animals hate you. Jk

 

[Finntastic]

I got attacked by a snowflake eel who missed mostly but I had a scratch on my pinkie. I've had various goldfish bite me. I had one of my cichlids go for a lose piece of skin on my finger and rip the skin from my fingernail. I've had bluegill spines barb me several times when I kept them. And had my cleaner shrimp pinch me and my sea urchin wouldn't get off my hand and start "grazing" on my hand, It hurt a lot and the urchin wouldn't get off for like 5 minutes and I've had another sea urchin get stuck in my hand. There is probably more that i can't remember.

 

[Delapool]

Only really FW crayfish. Sometimes a case of who was grabbing who except they were more painful

 

[ImACoolguy]

Only really FW crayfish. Sometimes a case of who was grabbing who except they were more painful

I forgot about this lol I'm very careful where I put my hands in that tank!


Caleb

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[TMRC Exotics]

I have one of those friends who every fish keeper hates... you know, the low attention span, curious, finger banging the glass kind of friend. Well he was checking out my Oscar who was about 7 inches at the time. He held his finger about two inches above the water, next thing I know the Oscar is out of the water latched on his finger. It let go and dropped back in but left a nice cut. The same friend has been stung by an anemone I had, barbed pretty bad by a catfish, bitten by two of my snakes and had a gecko latch on his finger for 15 minutes. And after all of this he will still reach right up to things index finger extended... :/

 

[PB_Smith]

I have one of those friends who every fish keeper hates... you know, the low attention span, curious, finger banging the glass kind of friend. Well he was checking out my Oscar who was about 7 inches at the time. He held his finger about two inches above the water, next thing I know the Oscar is out of the water latched on his finger. It let go and dropped back in but left a nice cut. The same friend has been stung by an anemone I had, barbed pretty bad by a catfish, bitten by two of my snakes and had a gecko latch on his finger for 15 minutes. And after all of this he will still reach right up to things index finger extended... :/

LOL, I at least have incurred all my injuries while cleaning, catching, and acclimating, generally doing stuff that is normal in tank/LFS maintenance.

 

[ImACoolguy]

I have one of those friends who every fish keeper hates... you know, the low attention span, curious, finger banging the glass kind of friend. Well he was checking out my Oscar who was about 7 inches at the time. He held his finger about two inches above the water, next thing I know the Oscar is out of the water latched on his finger. It let go and dropped back in but left a nice cut. The same friend has been stung by an anemone I had, barbed pretty bad by a catfish, bitten by two of my snakes and had a gecko latch on his finger for 15 minutes. And after all of this he will still reach right up to things index finger extended... :/

Sounds like you need a master lock on those lids lol


Caleb

Sent via TARDIS

 

[PB_Smith]

funny thing is, when I had a baby nurse shark, I could feed it by hand and it never once tried to eat me!


no, it is just all the little buggers that are out to get me.

 

[shellyx]

Wow! Mine is nothing compared to you guy's.
I use to always feed my elephant nose by hand, but when he got bigger he would always grab my fingertips and take the skin off. So I decided to stop feeding him that way.

55 gallon elephant nose tank.
30 gallon vampire shrimp, green lace shrimp and snails.