My mini-carpet anemone attacked me!

[tonggao]

A few days back, I reach into one of my tanks to grab a loose coral at the bottom of the tank. Without seeing what I was touching, I felt a sharp pain, and immediately took my hand out of the water. Guess what I saw, a good sized rock hanging off my wrist by a mini-carpet anemone. I have to apply a pretty strong force to pull it off my skin (I was even afraid to pull my skin off with it), and immediately washed my hand in hot water. The pain persisted for a few days, and now I am starting to feel itchy. Not a big deal, but I am still surprised that such a small soft coral can do so much in just about 10 seconds of time.

 

[raddogz]

I would put hydro-cortisone creme to help with the itching and see doctore if it starts to get worse.

 

[Elite]

Wow.. I have several but I never got bitten by them. Thanks for letting us know man..

Oh..Feed them more often.. They might leave you alone .

 

[tonggao]

Raddogz, thanks for the advise.

Phong, you got it. This is one of the tank I was tearing down with no fish in it, and I had not feed the tank for several days. I don't blame it for grabbing the first piece of meat it saw, I was just very surprised that it can do so much damage in just about 10 seconds of time. I got sucked on by mini-carpet a few times on the fingers with no problem in the past, and this time they got the tender part of me.

 

[Bebo77]

lol... first its the blob attacking humans.. now this...

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

wow, what a trip...

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Interesting. I hope you're OK.

 

[otterpop510]

wow.. i know they are sticky from when i've touched my mini-carpets, but never to that extent.. though one time i put in a neon goby and bad luck, it literally swam down right onto a mini-carpet, that promptly stung, killed and began to ingest it. i tried to pull the little guy out within 2 seconds (after realizing what happened) but it was already dead and the mini-carpet was holding tight.

though i have gotten stung from a BTA that took a week or two for the welts to go away.. used some calydryl and that seemed to help a bit.

 

[chrisqueenz]

Wow, kind of makes you think twice before dipping your hands into a tank!

 

[650-IS350]

Thats why you always use gloves... like the corralife type ones...

 

[Ti]

ouch

 

[Nuuze]

It too happened to me. What I do notice though is when I grab livestock with the inner part of my hand I'm okay for the most part. (knock on wood!) But if something brushes against the out part of my hand or any part of my arm I usually get an irritation of some sort. Once I was cleaning the glass with a small cut on my thumb (from some wrenching action working on my car) and brushed the cut on a frogsppawn. It stung like heck for a few minutes pretty bad! Then it was irritated for several days and slightly swollen. After the cut healed it doesn't bother me no more. But yeah, I used some over the counter cut medicine help help heal it...

 

[dannieboiz]

Hey Tonggao, I think it's likes you. It gave you a hickey :eek1: :lol:

 

[Mrseptember15]

LOL A hickey.

 

[tonggao]

Danny, I was hoping for something prettier, and was hoping for something not so painful.

 

[otterpop510]

hey, when it comes to luving, its all in the eye of the beholder.. and who says love doesn't hurt sometimes?.. :lol:

 

[reefkeeper1]

Obviously not Alyssa Milano's arm

At a talk, the speaker said carpet anemones are the most venomous of the anemones, and that the thin skin on your wrist area is a lot more sensitive than your relatively more calloused hands.