The worst bite ever experienced in our hobby?

[vlangel]

I was reading about the venonmous blenny bite and it reminded me of the worst bite I experienced. I was working at a LFS and helping a teenage boy choose an eel. I don't remember what kind of eel it was but it was not a snowflake or banded that only have the front fangs. This eel had 3 rows of razor teeth and when I (foolishly I might add) tried to swish him out of his den, he crunch down on my ring finger! The 180g tank instantly turned red. I closed my hand in a fist and calmly walked to the office to survey the damages. There were 3 ragged cuts down my finger and one to the bone. It was almost quitting time so I washed it out good, slathered it with neosporin and used band aids to butterfly it shut. My husband was very sick at the time and on antibiotics thru a pic line and he needed a treatment when I got home so I never did go to the ER. Anyway it healed up fine with barely a scar! So that's my bite story. O yeah, my teenage customer decided that eel was not for him!!!

 

[Mtnbikedan01]

All that and no sale, oh well at least I'm sure it was a life lesson learned. I had a similar sitiation with a dog faced puffer with the same result no sale.

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

Well, I bought a new fire shrimp and decided to do a water change. It jumped on my finger and started cleaning it. I didn't know it would do that and I freaked and yanked my hand out. I cut it on a rock and the rock fell over. I was so mad at that little shrimp!!

 

[PlumCrazy]

wrasse... Red Coris to be exact. Ordered a shipment from Hawaii... it was an 1800g volume tank, its a 2100g tank with over 2000lb of live rock. Anyway, long story short we did a wholesale order which came to our estimate to be about 4 boxes of fish, because we were ordering tangs, butterflies and wrasses, but none larger than a ML (or about 3.5" to a wholesaler). We only paid for the small sizes... but when i went to get the boxes there were 9. 1 box was compiled of 2 fish, a 10" Naso with 4" streamers and a 13" red coris wrasse (inside of 8 bags) that couldn't shut his mouth because his 3 fangs (2 on top 1 on bottom in-between the top 2) were protruding almost 0.5" out of his mouth.

fast forward... basically i acclimated him (so big that in a 5g bucket he was taking up 3/4 of the side walls and was facing his tail and had no room to swim or move) to the water, and when i went to put in, my dumb idea was "he's stuck so ill pour him into a net, stick him in." The tank sits behind a bar and the top of the tank is 9' off the ground with no bar or table or stool to set things on (i am on a ladder when cleaning/introducing fish). I poured him into the net, he bit right through into the bucket i had below the net. Next attempt was to scoop him from behind or under and cradle him in a "sling" and hold his body so he won't flop.... this is where he decided he was slipperier than i could hold, the net wasn't strong enough and in my confined space on a ladder he pushed himself out of the net and bit my arm on the bicep. left 3 holes in my arm, bled for quite some time and any movement from that arm felt like someone touching me with a brander under the skin.

That painful week recovery was more painful than when i got stung by a lion fish to put in perspective. :-/

 

[Mtnbikedan01]

Well, I bought a new fire shrimp and decided to do a water change. It jumped on my finger and started cleaning it. I didn't know it would do that and I freaked and yanked my hand out. I cut it on a rock and the rock fell over. I was so mad at that little shrimp!!

I'm sorry but that's funny

 

[Eienna]

My worst bite so far has been from a green spotted puffer. I think he's about 2.5". No real damage, just a hard pinch painful enough that I yanked my hand out of the water and almost knocked the top off XD

 

[albrittonsteven]

i got spinded by a larg lion fish when i was cleaning the tank that was a painful experience

 

[fishroomlady]

I had some sort of eel like catfish in a freshwater tank I kept for years. He somehow stung me and it was sooo painful and it was like some sort of toxin because it just kept intensifying and I couldn't make the pain stop. Oops....I guess it's not a bite story lol

 

[albrittonsteven]

The Lion fish ached for 4 hours and massive headaches

 

[Longnose Hawkfish]

I'm sorry but that's funny

Haha ya it's funny!! The shrimp died two weeks later.

 

[82engineer]

Wasn't a
bite but a sting. I was working at one of the LFS and we had gotten in a trade in off a regular old river rock that had an ugly brown anemone on it that looked like a fat tube anemone with no tube and fatter, shorter tentacles. We had it for a bout a month or so and had been feeding it but had never come in contact with it. I was cleaning the tank one day and moved the rock to scrub the front glass and didn't see the nem and brushed the back of my hand against it on accident. Instant pain like I was burned! Took my hand out and you could see where the nematocysts had gotten me as the skin was red already. So I washed my hand real good and put on some antibiotic cream and covered it. Over the next month and a half my skin was oozing and blistered and generally disgusting. I still have marks on my hand to this day that are discolored from it.

 

[billwill]

I've got a long spine urchin. I've got poked with 4-5 spines at once, and it is tremendously painful. Hurts all the way to the joint and for several days.

 

[FL_Reefer]

I've got a long spine urchin. I've got poked with 4-5 spines at once, and it is tremendously painful. Hurts all the way to the joint and for several days.

I feel your pain. As a kid we used to go scalloping every season and I once jumped in the water feet first and low and behold landed on a urchin! Well my day was over before it even started, lol. Ended up in the hospital to get about 30 or so spines pulled/dug out of my foot. Really sucked.

 

[vlangel]

The Lion fish ached for 4 hours and massive headaches

All the years I worked at the LFS and I never got spined by a lionfish, a rabbitfish or foxface. In the store's 1000g tank there were some huge lionfish! I hear if you do get it from a lion, submerge the area in as hot water as you can stand and that will nuetralize the venom until you can get medical help.

 

[NanaReefer]

Clown fish bit me. Scared me so bad I smacked my hand into my lights, that took 4 stitches to close. Fish found a new home No longer like clown fish.

 

[vlangel]

Clown fish bit me. Scared me so bad I smacked my hand into my lights, that took 4 stitches to close. Fish found a new home No longer like clown fish.

Yes Nana, I had a big old hormonal female clownfish that would bite you every time you put your hand in the tank. I would scrub the glass with one hand and fend her off with a fish net in the other! When I downsized, I kept her baby but she's gone.

 

[Mike J.]

Our nine year old Maroon Clown bit my wife on the side of her finger and took a little chunk out. She bled like crazy. That was over a year ago and she still has a scar. Didn't realize a Maroon bite could be that bad. She doesn't reach in that tank any more.

 

[buzzword]

Not a fish bite but had my 3+ inch Bullseye Pistol shrimp get me and snap my finger. Nice 1/2 inch laceration to my finger. Never saw him coming. Lerned my lesson to keep a sharp eye on him when my hand is in the tank. Powerful snap on those buggers I can attest too.

 

[GrizFyrFyter]

I've been tagged by a black long spine. It hurt but the long spines aren't poison, the tiny ones are.

I'm fearing the day I get nailed by my 4" mantis shrimp

 

[Palting]

Not with the tank, but got stung snorkeling and free diving. Got a spine of a Diadema setosum embedded deep into my thumb. This was on a reef island in the middle of the ocean, no hospital or ER worth anything for several days sailing. Got the spine out with a dagger, countered the toxin with urine. Worked!

With the tank, bite was from a trigger. Was feeding him frozen silversides. Left my hand in the water too long, and he thought my finger was another tasty morsel. He bit down hard enough that I almost pulled him out of water when I yanked my hand out. Here's a photo of the finger. Nice double puncture mark from his fangs.