anyone been stung by a lionfish?

[sicklids]

i have not yet! just wanted to hear how it feels and how severe they can be.

 

[Bifferwine]

I know Yote has. His jumped out of the tank and he grabbed it in his hands to put it back.

 

[sicklids]

the guy at the fish store i bought mine at said he had been stung twice, once by accident and once by stupidity! the accident, he was cleaning his tank and his volitan just happen to swim up and get frightened and stung him.

the stupidity: he was netting a dwarf lion for a customer, well it jumped out of the net and rather than letting it hit the ground, he put his hand out, he then said it went ahead and hit the ground afterwards!!!

i found that funny, he said that if mine ever stung me just put the sting under the hottest water i could stand. he also said that the pain never subsides, it stays the same for a while!

 

[yote]

Trust me,A lionfish sting hurts.Like sticking your hand into a hornets nest and leaving it there for a few hours.
But what happened,was I was going to trade a fuzzy dwarf lion.So I had my wife hold the bag while I netted the fish.Well,while trying to get the fish in the bag,it flopped out of the net and like anybody else that cares for their fish,I reached down and scooped him up without thinking.
So no more lion fish for me,even though they are one of my favorites.

 

[ab420]

I know Yote has. His jumped out of the tank and he grabbed it in his hands to put it back.

Now THAT is love and devotion! That's one lucky lionfish!

 

[yote]

Naw,That was called doing without thinking.

 

[cumminz]

There is a bigass one at my LFS and the guy said that he was stung and his hand swelled up 3 times its normal size. I handfeed mine, so I know the day wil come

 

[yote]

There is a bigass one at my LFS and the guy said that he was stung and his hand swelled up 3 times its normal size. I handfeed mine, so I know the day wil come

And when it does come,I guarantee you'll stop hand feeding em.:death:

 

[cumminz]

lol, Il bet I will, But i love him so much. lol

 

[Doc]

hmmm, I would not hand feed a lionfish. I like to watch mine gobble up silversides but from the safety of distance from him. I got hit by a foxface rabbit fish and that was painful enough. I have no desire to feel a lionfish sting. If you do choose to keep feeding him by hand, make sure you have an epi-pen handy for the allergic reaction.....lol

-Doc

 

[joeman]

I had a narrow escape once as I was selling my tanks a couple of months back. The water was all cloudy because I had been shifting liverock from one tank to the other so I could then catch the fish more easily (to give to a friend). As I reached in to the murk to grad the last rock something hit me and I saw a flash of his fins as my Lionfish darted to the other side of the tank.... I didn't feel any sharp pain, but he had hit me head on (quite hard and he was quite large)...
I ripped my hand out of the water and looked for puncture marks... it was one of those moments. I didn't feel anything, but didn't know if the pain was about to hit me.. so I stood there motionless for what felt like 10 mons (but was probably about 5 seconds) just waiting...
anyway, in the end - nothing :-) I was lucky...
The guy at the LFS had been stung once & said it was like 10x a bee sting. I think the real risk is that you are alergic to the sting -if you are, I believe it can be life threatening!

 

[Doc]

Joeman is right in that it is way worse than a bee sting and that the allergic reaction is what is potentially dangerous. The venom is a bit different than a bee sting and you should be even more careful if you know you are allergic to bee stings. Lionfish can choose to sting with venom or not. Getting hit with the spines does not automatically mean it will inject venom, it just depends on their level of fear.

-Doc

 

[sicklids]

WOW! you are one lucky guy! anytime i do anything to my tank i make sure i know where that fish is! i was adding LR yesterday, you know how hard it is to add rock while watching a fish? im sure you do if you own a lionfish!

 

[cumminz]

You know,When I first got mine, I was scared of him, But whenever I putmy hand in the tnk all of my fish come to me, Including him.

 

[reefer2b]

Lionfish can choose to sting with venom or not. Getting hit with the spines does not automatically mean it will inject venom, it just depends on their level of fear.

-Doc

I did not know that. I guess that may be why when my husband got stung by ours he said it didn't hurt all that much. It stung yes but no swelling and it went away pretty quickly.

 

[cumminz]

I also Did not know that, Doc