So my nine year old sohal tang has gotten very aggressive with me, for a while now he's been biting my hand at every opportunity, or swimming in tight circles around my hand. Recently he also lashed his tail hard enough to make a shockwave in the water, resulting in a jammed finger - with no direct contact with the fish!
Two days ago, he finally got me with his blade. It was a very superficial cut on the back of my middle finger near the knuckle. Basically it looked like a papercut and would only bleed when I flexed the finger which would distract it a bit. The pain was way out of proportion to the injury... I have a pretty high pain tolerance and it got progressively worse over 5-10 minutes, reaching about an 8/10 with severe throbbing. After an hour, it felt like my hand was smashed by a sledgehammer and I developed pretty significant swelling extending from the cut to the back of my hand and onto the second and fourth fingers.
I cleaned the cut out well since there are undoubtedly some nasty pathogenic bacteria in the tank. I ran my hand under water as hot as I could stand for about 15 minutes hoping to denature any toxin/venom that got in there. I applied some antibiotic ointment and a band-aid over the cut.
The cut looks fine now but my hand is still crazy swollen.
Anyway thought I'd share this experience. I'm aware of the risk for injury from surgeonfishes, but was not aware that they were potentially venomous. At least the sohal tang most definitely is!
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the fish. He's been a pet since 2007 and is big and gorgeous, so I don't want to give him up. But he's tormenting me whenever I need to reach into the tank and he also has been picking at LPS coral and gorgonians quite a bit. He's in a 400 gallon tank with a ton of live rock and has nori available 24/7, and he eats as much other food as he can grab from the crosshatch triggers (who are gentle and wonderful). Surprisingly he is fairly easy going with other fish, even new additions - he will occasionally pester one who he finds himself displeased with but it is generally short lived and he's never inflicted serious damage. He does not like my other (naso) tang at all; she is smaller and generally hangs out in one corner to avoid him, but she's much more effective in using her blades and he's been on the receiving end of all physical damage inflicted from their bickering.
Two days ago, he finally got me with his blade. It was a very superficial cut on the back of my middle finger near the knuckle. Basically it looked like a papercut and would only bleed when I flexed the finger which would distract it a bit. The pain was way out of proportion to the injury... I have a pretty high pain tolerance and it got progressively worse over 5-10 minutes, reaching about an 8/10 with severe throbbing. After an hour, it felt like my hand was smashed by a sledgehammer and I developed pretty significant swelling extending from the cut to the back of my hand and onto the second and fourth fingers.
I cleaned the cut out well since there are undoubtedly some nasty pathogenic bacteria in the tank. I ran my hand under water as hot as I could stand for about 15 minutes hoping to denature any toxin/venom that got in there. I applied some antibiotic ointment and a band-aid over the cut.
The cut looks fine now but my hand is still crazy swollen.
Anyway thought I'd share this experience. I'm aware of the risk for injury from surgeonfishes, but was not aware that they were potentially venomous. At least the sohal tang most definitely is!
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the fish. He's been a pet since 2007 and is big and gorgeous, so I don't want to give him up. But he's tormenting me whenever I need to reach into the tank and he also has been picking at LPS coral and gorgonians quite a bit. He's in a 400 gallon tank with a ton of live rock and has nori available 24/7, and he eats as much other food as he can grab from the crosshatch triggers (who are gentle and wonderful). Surprisingly he is fairly easy going with other fish, even new additions - he will occasionally pester one who he finds himself displeased with but it is generally short lived and he's never inflicted serious damage. He does not like my other (naso) tang at all; she is smaller and generally hangs out in one corner to avoid him, but she's much more effective in using her blades and he's been on the receiving end of all physical damage inflicted from their bickering.
