Aquarium / Reef Medical Emergencies (WARNING possible graphic pictures!)

[Tweakes182]

Being in the EMS field I personally find this topic interesting. Does anyone have any good medical emergency stories from dealing with their tanks?

I personally have had my whole face turn numb from Palytoxin.

I have had my hand throb for hours from a Foxface (Rabbit Fish) stabbing and cutting my hand with his spines.

I have had my hands legs and feet(snorkeling) cut open by coral.

I have been bitten by numerous fish, the most painful being an eel.

Most recently while cutting a zoa with a razor blade I was squirted in the eye by what I assume was Palytoxin.

 

[tcoral]

I got sick one time trying to get palys off a rock, got bitten from a blue jaw trigger for not getting him his dinner fast enough. Got a rash from not using gloves moving rock work around. But then I think that salt water fish are so much smarter overall than freshwater. That same trigger got himself stuck in the overflow, and I thought Oh great! How am I supposed to get him out? when there isn't that much room to get a net in between the tubing and the wall, let alone net a 4" trigger. Well, it only took putting the net over the overflow for him to jump in the net! It was like "Beam me up Scotty!"or "It's about time you came and got me!" LOL, he wanted to be rescued!. It's like you can look in their eyes and see the wheels turning, lol Then there's the creapy things you can find in your tanks, like getting burned by bristle worms or finding this in a 29 gallon tank:

That's in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket! No wonder things were disappearing in that tank! Learned quick no mouth syphoning for water changes, LOL

 

[Tweakes182]

That thing is huge!!!

 

[tcoral]

That thing is huge!!!

Yep, that's what I thought when I finally got it out of the tank! I had other livestock missing and this came out of a 29 gallon plexi so he took up a lot of space in that too! Was hiding in the rock work like a dragon in a cave!

(and it's painful if you touch these or the smaller bristle worms too!)

 

[Saltwaternooby]

Never anything that bad, did frag too many zoas at one time and felt dizzy from exposure either by contact or airborne. I have seen some bad eye pics of palytoxin yours ok Chris.

 

[Tweakes182]

Never anything that bad, did frag too many zoas at one time and felt dizzy from exposure either by contact or airborne. I have seen some bad eye pics of palytoxin yours ok Chris.

It has been a week now and it finally looks better but still hurts. I got a RX for an anti-bacterial eye ointment and RX for gel soothing eye drops. The optometrist said it was pretty bad. I have some pics I will post later.

 

[Pico1]

I had a seizure, hole burned in my thumb, and a few days at shriners from a dual 250 MH ballast getting me. I'm sure some of the old school reefers remember

 

[Saltwaternooby]

WOW Jordan you defiantly need the

shirt.

OUCH

 

[Underwaterparadise]

Got about 5-6 urchin spines in me and my hand hurt like hell all day.

And yes we do remember that Jordan.

 

[Tweakes182]

Jordan's story is by far the craziest and scariest I have heard of.