Chaetomorpha: skin irritant?

[richardb42]

Last night I pulled some perv clownfish eggs from a 20 gallon tank holding a medium-sized ritteri anemone as well as a football-size bunch of Chaetomorpha. I do this every 2 weeks and as long as I don't touch the ritteri, I'm ok.

This time I decided to harvest some Chaetomorpha. I ripped it apart with my bare hands and sent some chuncks to other tanks. At 2:00AM I wake up with terribly ichty hands - I tried hand cream, cortozon (sp? - for baby rashes) cream. My hands still ich this morning...

Should Chaetomorpha be handled with rubber gloves?

 

[billsreef]

I've never had a problem with Cheaetomorpha. However, I've found it tends to be quite a haven for small bristle worms. The little hairs on the worms will get in your skin and give a reaction just like working barehanded with fiberglass :eek1: Odds are, you encoutered some bristle's in that handfull of chaet.

 

[richardb42]

Thanks, that's probably it. I've got tons of little bristle worms in that system...