A friendly warning thread for the newbies- post your reef-related injuries here :-)

  • Thread starter Thread starter tnyr5
  • Start date Start date
  • Tagged users None

tnyr5

Tony
View Badges
Joined
Sep 15, 2010
Messages
944
Reaction score
2,472
Location
mount carmel pa
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thought this would make a fun thread. I'll start -
IMAG0350.jpg

this is what happens when a mini carpet anemone sticks to your arm while you're working in your tank. Swelled up like a bee sting & felt like a hot water burn. This pic is two minutes after it happened.

So lets see all your war wounds!
 
I've been stung by bristleworms, soooo many times it's not even funny. Probably 30+ times now I've pulled my hand out of the tank, and seen a row of fuzzy bristles stuck in my fingers. I've been stung so many times, I've even got a technique to removing the dang rows of bristles.

No pics though, I'm not leaving the bristles in any longer than I need to.
 
Bristle worm stings, infections in cuts from bacteria within our tanks, cuts that should have gotten stiches during over-eager razor blade fragging, mild electrical shock, burns from MH reflectors. The list goes on and on... but then again, I'm pretty accident prone.
 
Oh man... Watch out for them zoas squirting at ur eyes! Been to the emergency room
Twice. But they just laugh and told me rinse my eyes out with cold water and get some over the counter pink eye Drops from cvs. Goes away after 4-5 days. But def very uncomfortable!
 
+1^ i was dremeling a rock full of palys and well it jerked and caught one of the palys and squirted my whole face! :(
Mouth tasted like metal and the next week+ was miserable! (Go figure its the week we went on vacation!)
 
I got stabbed buy a black urchen once was like a wasp sting on steroids and lasted a week and a half !

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
 
Can't really say I have ever really gotten got. Do clown fish bites count?? used to hand feed my mantis it was freindly compared to those clowns...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I just got done recovering from a huge bristle worm sting. The worm was 4" long and I got almost every spine through the top of my middle finger where the skin is thinner. OMG it was the worst first getting the spines out then my middle finger swelling up with under the skin blisters everywhere. This happened 2 weeks ago any my middle finger now has very rough skin and lost some nerves also. My middle finger is now the least sensitive to touch out of both hands. When I pinch the top of it, it doesn't hurt compared to my other fingers.

Oh you must be wondering how it happened? Well we had a whole basket of mini carpet nems, I was using my hand to scrap them off the basket and relocate them, next thing I know my hand emerges with a thousand bristle worm spines. :cry:

Usually no biggie though if you get the spines on the face of the hand since the skin is thicker there. Areas with thinner skin though OUCH!! I.E. like the picture in post 1, underarm is the worst also!
 
Last edited:
I wasn't working IN my tank, but on it.

Cliffs Notes of story: Was prying something with a razor sharp knife, said to myself "This isn't a good idea, but I almost have this done". Sure enough, pried what I needed off, knife slid into my thumb, blood squirting everywhere. Ended up with 5 stitches, four on the outside, one on the inside (stitched an artery or something).

I can't find the pics from the emergency room/after, but it wasn't pretty.

Edit: Found the pic from the emergency room. Warning, very graphic! http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6050/6248545433_f448058062_z.jpg
 
Last edited:
Never had a brush with death yet , but I've heard of apst fatal poisoning from zoa fragging. Got to be careful if not using gloves when fragging. I'm young but i have heard of some going to hospitals with bad symptoms.
 
I have a friend who was stung by a lionfish. Most terrible pain he has ever endured and a long recovery after the trip to the emergency room. You must seek medical attention if stung and print out the information on the toxin and keep it handy to take with you since they probably won't know what to do.
 
I get the bristle worm bristles quite often but it has never swelled...also I have had ATLEAST 6 sea urchin spines break off in one of my hands with no reaction....knock on wood....Im hoping it stays this way.

I've gotten dizzy from certain coral fragging though....mainly softies.
 
I was stung by many things, here's a list.

Bristleworm - Cleaning the sand bed from some cyano with my bare hands. Dug my index finger way deep into the sand and it lands on a 6" bristleworm.
The pain was not as bad, but a few mins later it started to ache. Luckily I had a bucket of vinegar nearby, so I soaked my hand in the bucket of vinegar for 3-5 mins to dissolve the bristles.
After I took my hand out of the vinegar bath, it was burning from the bath.

Carpet - Bought one online, I was excited to pull it out for acclimation, dug my hand it to check its foot. Next thing you know it expands from the tips and stings the bottom side of my wrist (soft and thinner skin)
It felt like a bunch of needles going through your skin. Freaked me out as I looked at my wrist it was red and swollen. Didn't think much of it at first, woke up the next day to realize there was a huge purple cluster of bumpy stings.
Took 2-3 months for my wrist to fully recover.

Ritteri - Was rearranging my rocks because the nem kept splitting, so I moved it, only to realize that there was a clone on the opposite side. It stung the bottom part of my forearm.
It was a weird burning sensation, burning under water feeling... Looked like a bunch of rashes, it wasn't as bad as the carpet, but took about 1 month to fully heal. It's not even noticeable anymore.

Zoa - While fragging, I had some zoa juice squirt my eyes, luckily I wear contacts, so it damaged my contacts.
When I removed my contacts that night, I inspected the lens, there was a bunch of micro sized brown and white chunks clustering up on it. I made nothing of it, but glad it wasn't on my eye.
What ever it was, it tends to solidify in your eye and cause excruciating pain.
 
I ad to do an emergency replumbing on my tank at 2am one night. I decided to use a chef knife to cut the vynyl tubing. I folded the tubing in half and proceeded to cut the bend towards my hand. The knife cut through the tubing fasted than I expected and then through my finger. Right to the bone. No blood at first, then lots of it. I didn't get and blood on the floor though so the other half was happy. She was not happy about having to get out of bed and take me to the ER. The guy checking me in made the "oh bleep" face when he poked the cut that i had gotten to close up with lots of pressure during the drive. He poked it and blood started pouring out again. The crazy looks from the nurses and doctor made the situation awkward when trying to explain why I was doing what I did. Five stitches later i was on my way home. They didn't give me a finger splint so I busted the stitches within a few days. Was a long 3 week healing process.

FYI, have tool has a purpose.
 
How about three in one go.
Was rearranging some rocks in my tank when without noticing I touched the rock where my RBTA and maroon clown pair were. my 8year old female marron clown charges at my hand and bites really hard, by reflex pulled my hand really fast where my longspine urchine was, ended up with most of his longspines from one side stuck in my hand, another reflex throughs my hand out of the tank and onto a boiling MH glass cover. not sure which one was the worst of the three... Worth mentionning that after that I noticed she had eggs on the rock.

Another one while scaping my 150G didn't have my T5s installed yet so turned on the 250W MH to see the rocks I was scaping. took me a couple of days to reach I scape I liked and ended up with a MH Burn...That might be the cause why I hate scaping even more than plumbing.

Image006.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thought this would make a fun thread. I'll start -
IMAG0350.jpg

this is what happens when a mini carpet anemone sticks to your arm while you're working in your tank. Swelled up like a bee sting & felt like a hot water burn. This pic is two minutes after it happened.

So lets see all your war wounds!

Ha! Great thread! And ouch! That looks painful. Thankfully David takes enough war wounds for the both of us! ;)
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
Back
Top