Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You: Have you ever been bitten, stung, or poked by a member of your reef?

[blecki]

I have to hear the story about the palytoxins!

Not much too it unfortunately. I had some captain america palys on my frag rack. You can google them; they are pretty distinctive; all my results looked just like what I had.

They'd grown onto the rack so when I pulled the plug up they tore, unknown to me. I then placed them on a rock.

Sometime shortly afterward I scratched my eye.

Instant and incredible pain. I tried to flush my eye in the shower, didn't work. Went to the ER and got some drugs. By then damage was done; had a massive cornea ulcer. Day later when the specialist looked at it he said he'd "never seen anything like it. It's like your sclera melted."

Tossed those palys in the garbage.

These days I would recognize those specific palys as being 'enough like cf toxica' to avoid entirely. If I had to guess I think they are some morph of heliodiscus but obviously still toxic enough.

Made a full recovery. Got lucky, all the scar tissue is off to the side, so it didn't affect my vision.

But between it and the long spine urchin I can't tell you which hurt worse. That thing is banished to the QT pest tank and at this point it's so big I have no idea how to actually move it.

 

[1112-425XL]

Bluethroat Trigger thought my finger was food. I was rearranging something with a gloved hand and not paying attention to the opposite hand. A finger just broke the surface and boy did I jump. No damage, just startled the heck out of me.

 

[Janet Belanger]

My Black and White female clown latched on to my finger, I quickly pulled my hand out of the tank. Still attached the clown flew across the room, hit the wall and slid behind the couch. I recovered her in about 3 minutes and returned her to her tank as a B/W clown fish dust bunny.

Best story! And I'll bet she didn't learn her lesson. My black and white clown pair by far were more aggressive than my orange pair. My girl knew to bite me in the soft spot between my fingers or at the back of my arm to get the best reaction out of me.

 

[Janet Belanger]

I think we need a category for cleaner shrimp cleaning action!

Indeed, my blue neon goby "cleans" my arms and hands every time I'm in the tank. Sometimes it bites surprisingly hard, other times it just skates around my arm with little tickles. Makes me feel for my fish who regularly get harassed then "cleaned".

 

[Tahoe61]

Best story! And I'll bet she didn't learn her lesson. My black and white clown pair by far were more aggressive than my orange pair. My girl knew to bite me in the soft spot between my fingers or at the back of my arm to get the best reaction out of me.

No she never did calm down.
I ended up having to remove her any time I had to work on the display. She attacked the container everytime so removing her was easy.
She would take on the large bristle worms and end up with a face full of bristles.
Eventually I re-homed the pair successfully.

 

[sky414]

My longhorn cow fish does this biting/sucking thing, but I can barely feel it. The red spot blenny bites, and it hurts. I look for him before I put my hand in the tank...

 

[Reefvision]

Stung by rabbitfish

Same here after it jumped out of the tank and I just grabbed it and put it back in the tank- I won’t do that again as that was as nasty sting!

 

[Frenchy]

If you own a clownfish, odds are you've been bitten before. And if you haven't, well, let's say your time is coming. But our experiences with our clowns often overshadow the fact that there can be other feisty members of the reef. Whether it be territorial fish or a common defense mechanism of a coral or invert, reefing can have its painful moments. Emotionally and physically.

Have you ever been bitten, stung, or poked by a member of your reef?

Your clownfish every time you try to clean your tank:

Was stung by my foxface. I was hand feeding pellets and he got a little too excited. I could tell he felt bad. Similar to a bee sting.

 

[Barncat]

I've been stung by aiptasia (worst so far) and my rose bubbletip nems but so far my clowns - which I suspect to still be babies - have yet to attack. I'm hoping, perhaps vainly, that they'll stay sweeties but since they recently hosted a mint hammer coral I suspect the Hormones of Adulthood may be nigh. Hopefully I can get my upgrade tank going quickish so that I can stop touching the stalk of their hammer coral to yank hair algae off of it soon! If they bite me for touching their beloved hammer I won't blame them!

I'm relieved that my venomous striped fang blenny hasn't bitten me yet considering I keep picking her shell house up to pull hair algae off of it - while she's in it. But, maybe because she's captive bred she's less inclined to bite, having never felt the need to defend herself yet.

Haven't been stung by my hammer coral at all.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

The closest I’ve ever come to just stepping out in front of a speeding semi truck was the time I was moving rock in a tank with a big long-spine urchin and had one of the spines go under the nail of my ring finger almost all the way to the base.

I’ve been bitten/poked/stung by just about everything out there (including lionfish), but nothing comes close to that pain.

I also have a series of round scars that look like the Hawaiian Islands on the underneath side of my upper arm from a time I was leaning over the back of a tank scraping algae off the front panel and rested my arm a little too close to a 12” diameter frogspawn. That thing ravaged me.

that’s crazy - the frogspawn stung you that bad? Are there certain species that do this? I have touched one but never felt anything.

 

[Signalhead]

Stung by rabbitfish. Also the female clown will like to get close but never got close enough.

 

[Faurek]

Hate clowns, they will bite you everytime you put your hand in the aquarium. And they bite hard.

 

[rusty shackleford yes]

When I was adding my condy anemone to my aquarium, he made sure to grab onto my hand with every tentacle and wouldn’t let go until I put his foot on this rock. He then moved to this spot and hasn’t moved since. My hand was numb for days. (Btw the coral in the background is a rescue neon green toadstool leather I got for free at Petco)

 

[whoasked]

My maroon clown used to try and rip skin off. She was a nasty one. My starry blenny also doesn't like me near them for too long.

 

[rusty shackleford yes]

My maroon clown used to try and rip skin off. She was a nasty one. My starry blenny also doesn't like me near them for too long.

I’m going to get some clowns soon, should I be worried? lmaooo

 

[ajenwest4u]

My husband has been bit several times by a very large maroon clownfish. It actually drew blood.

 

[whoasked]

I’m going to get some clowns soon, should I be worried? lmaooo

Id stay away from maroons. They are notorious for being aggressive. Ocellarus are docile in comparison. My current clown is ocellarus and she is a dream.

 

[ErikVR]

Bitten and stung by almost everything in the tank Including a sting from my foxface when moving him from quarantine. He’s a big guy.

 

[jsmkmavity]

Maroon clowns bite all the time when i am working in the tank. Untill the females get over 3" its usually just annoying or startling. I have had a couple triggers that would bite but blue throat and niger would eat out of my hand

 

[Barncat]

I’m going to get some clowns soon, should I be worried? lmaooo

My ocellaris pair are sweethearts! (So far anyway, knock on wood.)