Lions and U in the tank

[Carlo]

Curious, how many of you have lion fish?

Do you ever stick your hand in the tank or do you use "tongs" or heavy/thick gloves when working in the tank?

I spaced off tonight (drinking some crown royal) and went to move a couple of rocks around and felt something on the top of my hand. I'm more or less used to the cleaner shrimp crawling on my hands and up my arm but totally forgot about the dwarf lion I added a week ago.

I look down through the top of the tank wondering which type of shrimp it was and see it's the dwarf lion sitting on the top of my hand. I initially freeze and think of all the horrow stories I've heard of people getting stung by them so I don't move. Nothing happens. After a couple of minutes I very, very slowly start to move my hand back and forth across the tank hoping he'll get off. Finally he does.

After another drink (bad) I can't help but wonder if this was a fluke or not so I put my hand on top a rock and the dwarf lion makes his way over to my hand after a couple of minutes and again perches on it. I don't make any sudden movements but again can move my hand around the tank and he doesn't budge. Finally I bend my wrist after a few minutes and lift my hand out of the water and he goes on his merry way.

Am I playing with fire or do I have a "gentle" lion? Are they normally like this? I've never had a lion before so I have nothing to go on.

Anyone here ever been stung by one? I've read everything from "slightly worse then a bee sting" to "100 times worse then a bee sting". If you've ever been stung by one, how bad was it?

Carlo

 

[Absinthe]

I cant say much about the personality of lions but I can tell you that I have seen people stung by a variety of lionfish and stonefish show up in the ER.

Hot water and pain killers. To me they looked like they were in more pain than a bee sting!

 

[Carlo]

Yea, I think so too but don't know (or care to find out) how bad it is. It seems to me 100 times worse is a bit on the dramatic side while a little worse then a bee sting it putting it to mildly.

Just guessing but I'd think 5 to 10 times worse then a bee sting would be more like it. Of course if you have some type of allergic reaction to the lion sting then that changes everything!

I can't imagine it being worse then the time I got swept up in a current and pushed onto a colony of fire coral. It got me from my calves to mid chest region on the whole left side of my body. That I think was the worst pain I ever had from "nature" without doing something stupid (done a lot of that).

Carlo

 

[kathainbowen]

I used to love my stock tanks with lions. I <3 lionfish, but, sadly, I do not have the space for a lion right now, not even the cute, red dwarf fuzzy I keep eyeing at Trop!

Small lions in captivity, for the most part, can be quite timid of people. If you swish your hand at them, kicking up a gentle current in their face, they will generally turn and swim away. However, every now and then, you will find specimens that seem absolutely bedeviled by humans who will go out of their way to get close. I even used to find the occasional small lion that seemed convinced it was a big-baddy, always trying to get right up by my hand while tank scrubbed and posture with those spines of his!

Personally, I have taken great pains not to get stung; I'm very allergic to bees. However, since I had to work with them, and since I love lionfish so much (I really want to make a chilled tank and keep a blackfoot lionfish!), I did a ton of research on their stings. The individual reaction varies dramatically from person to person, especially if someone is allergic to protein based toxins and venoms. If you are not aware of your own tolerance to things similar to bee stings or other venoms like that, you could very well be playing with fire (especially if you are highly allergic to bee stings and unaware of it). If not, it could just cause you very serious.... discomfort, for several hours and nothing more beyond that. Your reaction will vary with your own body.

General concensus seems to be that, to help alleviate some of it, that you should immediately attempt to flush the area with as hot of water from the tap as you can stand without burning yourself. Different people say that this helps to break down the venom. At the very least, even it it doesn't break down the venom, it will help to flush the wound as much as possible.

 

[IrradiatedReef]

One of the guys I work with careless and was stung on his hand. Said in about 5 minutes, his whole arm burned. Pain took 3 days to go away. Then for the next 2 weeks, like a time released capsule, he would move his hand in what ever wierd way and the pain would come back.

 

[Carlo]

It pretty much sounds a lot worse then a bee sting to me.

Guess I won't be intentionally doing that anymore. I really didn't think it was a good idea but he was so cute doing that after the "initial" accidental discovery. I could probably do it another 20 times with no problem but it only takes one time to learn your lesson. It's a lesson I'd rather not learn the hard way.

Thanks for the info everyone,
Carlo

 

[Phyl]

I'm seeing a sting in your future, Carlo... playing with him sounds too cute to pass up.

 

[Carlo]

Certain things like bees do bother me a great deal, I don't know if I'm still alergic to them or not but as a kid I had a few problems with different parts of my body swelling up from bee stings (not the area that was stung).

I guess based on that fact I should be extra careful and definately not "play" with a lion.

 

[PMolan]

I was stung by my volation about a week ago. I was feeding like normal and he came up from underneath. He was excited about the food. One of his top spikes stabbed my finger. It hurt the rest of the night like a burning needle stuck in my finger but nothing a few excerdrin PM's didn't fix. The next morning there was no pain.