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Has anyone been stung by their corals?


Hammerstone

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Depends on the persons sensitivity. I personally don't get irritated from it. But I've touched one of my torch corals before with a tiny paper -cut on my finger and it HURT. Also, when I had a condy anemone, I felt a little bit touching their tentacles, but it wasn't painful at all. Just a weird sensation.

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I did when I had a nasty scrape on my hand. Brushed a BTA and about fell on the floor. I've seen people either get scraped or stung and end up with some nasty infections as well.

In general, I'd say coral are the least likely to actually sting a human unless your skin is already damaged. Anemones are far more likely, gigantea and haddoni carpets can be nasty, even if they don't painful sting, they're so sticky it's scary. Rock flowers can be super sticky. Condi's, riterri, are fairly aggressive. BTA's and LTA's are probably close to the bottom followed by maxi minis.

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I don't think most collected corals sting very hard if at all.

 

That said, as anyone who has snorkeled or scuba'd in the Caribbean knows don't even look too hard at the fire coral. That stuff burns like hellfire.

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I cut my hand when I scrapped a rock too hard then the cut brushed up against a frogspawn coral. That was a very unpleasant experience. If swelled up, became incredibly tender, and was bright bright red. I soaked my hand in peroxide and after a day the swelling and pain was non-existent.

 

Good reminder that these corals actually do sting!

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My RFA is super sticky, and if I touch in with a scrape that sure is painful. Also, I think some people have allergic reactions to it, but it's uncommon. Urchins and carpet anemones are probably among some of the most painful animals you could have. Still not much more that a bees ting, but I wouldn't go hugging your new carpet nem with a bunch of scratches on your hands.

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Long spine urchins are the worst..

Carpet anemones will stick to your hand I recommend extra care if you have a carpet anemone.

 

Other than that paly tanks give me a little joint pain if I don't wear gloves.

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I read somewhere that if your in the hobby long enough you eventually become sensitive to the coral stinging cells. A guy at our LFS had his thumb swell up pretty bad after moving around live rock in his tank. I probably should wear elbow length gloves.

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Worked at a saltwater store for a couple months. Took a lionfish to the hand, foxface spines, and a carpet anemone. Carpet was BY FAR the worst thing i've experience from a saltwater perspective. Idk what I did put it got my right around the underside of my wrist and would not come off. It left a nice red patch for a week. The lionfish was a super good bee sting and just burned. I was cleaning the tank and didn't pay attention and took that to a finger. The foxface spines got me on my palm. Had him in a specimen container, he twitched, hand was covering him. Yep.

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The only sting I've gotten thats worth mentioning was a St. Thomas mushroom. It's weird I've handled alot of coral species without incident but this frag was upset about being moved and he got me good between the fingers......MAN!! that thing burned for WEEKS! Still don't use gloves though....lol

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Long spine urchins are the worst..

Carpet anemones will stick to your hand I recommend extra care if you have a carpet anemone.

 

Other than that paly tanks give me a little joint pain if I don't wear gloves.

Oh yeah...palytoxin can be dangerous, but honestly it isn't that much of a problem as long as you don't boil your rocks and be doubly unlucky.

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Never had any reactions here, but I saw a fellow hobbyist swell up with red bumps all over his hands after getting a haddoni nem out of his tank (which I was buying at the time). I've had to touch it plenty since then and never had any sort of reaction, so I'm sure it's up to the individual. I also touch my rbta all the time.

Have been "brushed" by a foxface, but I stuck my hand in hot water immediately and never felt much. Not sure if he actually stuck me or I just got to the hot water in time.

My only issue is when aquascaping; my fingers sometimes swell up like I've been stuck by a bristleworm. I could either be touching the babies or I'm just getting tiny cuts from the other sharp worms that grow on the rocks. Vinegar works really well for bristles in your finger...

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  • 1 month later...

This thread jinxed me. I've been stung by my rbtas several times since in my attempts at trying to remove one. I've tried an ice cube to the foot, tried gently prying with a finger nail. Nothing but stinging red marks on my hands that itched, and tiny blisters on my fingers and wrist.

So now I realize if a bubble tip is healthy it can get pretty angry :( oh god the slime!!! Couldn't get the slime off my hand without scrubbing and tons of soap.

They still have full control of the tank.

RBTAs: 2
SunWyrm: 0

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FlowLikeWater

...Other than that paly tanks give me a little joint pain if I don't wear gloves.

 

 

Oh yeah...palytoxin can be dangerous, but honestly it isn't that much of a problem as long as you don't boil your rocks and be doubly unlucky.

 

 

I have been stung by paly.

 

Ive heard tribes used to use palys as poison for their arrowheads.

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emo reefing. :lol:

LOL. I would get large super long gloves if t were not for the fact I got extremely small hands. Most gloves are worlds to huge.

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LOL. I would get large super long gloves if t were not for the fact I got extremely small hands. Most gloves are worlds to huge.

Same here. Tried gloves when I was afraid of bristleworms, but it was too hard to work with them. Now I just put up with the swollen fingers.

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Nano sapiens

Acanthastrea bowerbanki on the inside of the wrist. Welts and a burn/itch for a few days.

 

Torch back-in-the-day, same welts.

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