i got stung by something in my tank.

[cheshire277]

a couple of days a ago i was moving stuff around in my tank, a while afterwords i noticed i had some welts on the underside of my wrist. i thought they were spiderbites. so i ingnored them, then i was messing with stuff again and i brushed up against these weird little tube things, i thought they were small featherdusters... well it burned like hell and now i have a bunch of welts and my wrist is all swollen.
anyone else have this happen?
if so what are these things and how can i get them out of my tank?

[seahorse_man]

pics woudl help,did they look like worms?Like red/pinkish with white bristles?

[Redeye]

exactly what I was thinking

[dnraiders]

yea fire or bristtle worms...i pick up bristle worms but no affect.. you may be allergic to them

[cheshire277]

my camera sucks and wont take a good enough pic to see. they are not bristle worms they look kinda like this http://www.elasmodiver.com/BCMarinelife/images/White-tube-worm.jpg
but the tube is an orange color and the feather things are clear and look sorta like aptaisa, they are very small less than 1/4in
any guess to what they are is very helpfull thanks guys:)

[Rob619]

that looks like a feather duster

[dnraiders]

they are feather dusters...but they are harmless

[bluielover]

ya, looks like a duster. Thought they were harmless??
if it gets worse, go to a doc. I almost lost a finger because I ignored it

[cheshire277]

okay, i am watching it, it is my wrist, hands are alot more prone to falling off if things go bad.
i guess i am just allergic. i'll have to be more careful or wear gloves or something.
thanks everyone.

[dnraiders]

yea seems like you're allergic....also be careful with anenomes

[cheshire277]

i will be carefull i just got a green carpet... i hope it will live. i have read they are really hard to keep.

[bluielover]

might be a good idea to get yourself some of those aqua gloves, the shoulder high ones.

[Technoviking]

Any chance it's a glass anemone?

The pic that you presented is not yours right?

[cheshire277]

no, my camera wont take a clear pic, they are soo small.

[cheshire277]

they are not the glass anenomes, i do have aptaisa, but these are not the same.
they have a orange tube and little feathers, they look like feather dusters... i also found something call a type of hydroid, that they look like wich would explain the sting..... i just dont know how they would have gotten into the tank.

[BigAir]

Probably came in on some live rock or coral. The are a natural occurance in a reef. As recommended, get some gloves for use while working in your tank.

[Egg3rs]

i work at a store, and i run into little tube worms on new live rock all the time, just a thought, but maybe when you were moving rock around some of their tube skeleton poked ya and broke off, happens to me all the time, keep an eye on it, it can get infected :\

[cheshire277]

these have venom, like spider bites. it sucks
thats a pretty cool nano you have egg3rs:)

[sdmasseuse]

i will be carefull i just got a green carpet... i hope it will live. i have read they are really hard to keep.


I've been stung many times cleaning and picking up rock without gloves. It's most likely bristle worms and it will go away in a week but if it gets worse go to the doctor for sure. I have a green carpet anenome I bought from a guy on sdreefs and it's doing great and the guy I bought it from had it in his tank for 1 1/2 yrs. So they are not hard to keep if your tank is stable. I feed mine 2 pieces of shrimp every week.

[cheshire277]

thanks for the advice, the swelling went down after afew days and the welts are almost gone, so i think i am fine.