anyone been stung by a lionfish?

[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]

Originally Posted by Doc

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