Handling rock?

[drillsar]

I hope this isn't a stupid ? or laughed at..

I am about to buy rock from TBS and mantis shrimp possibility scares me as well as those gorilla crabs. Should you wear gloves while handling rock? If so what gloves would be safe? Would mantis shrimp or crabs bite you? Just curious

 

[Martini5788]

I hope this isn't a stupid ? or laughed at..



I am about to buy rock from TBS and mantis shrimp possibility scares me as well as those gorilla crabs. Should you wear gloves while handling rock? If so what gloves would be safe? Would mantis shrimp or crabs bite you? Just curious

Mantis shrimp will punch you with their hammer fists. No glove will really be able to save you from that though. I would wear gloves because of the bacteria on the rock itself that can cause infections if it is introduced into a cut or something. The mantis you would most likely get would be a wennerae, and they aren't that bad. If you end up getting one, feed it with tongs and then use the food in a trap. Only dangerous to cuc really, but if they hit you you would likely get a blood blister, nicknamed thumb splitters.

 

[davocean]

Really we should all be using gloves, not only for ourselves but also for the animals, keep contaminants out.
They have some heavy gloves on foster smith and other sites.

 

[sfdan]

I used to work in an LFS and handled thousands of pounds of live rock with bare hands for many years without incident, so I'd say your odds of anything happening are very low.

OTOH, if I were doing the same job today I'd probably wear gloves because I'm more careful than I used to be.

 

[amperidot]

I wear gloves, I breakout in itchy red bumps everytime I handle live rock, and even sometimes from just putting my hands in my tank. I use any sort of long glove I can find.