andysgirl8800
Blenny Badlands
So, this may be a strange question, but here goes. I was scrubbing out the hair algae off my rocks (and everything else) yesterday. I was wearing gloves, but not the full length ones, just standard yellow dish gloves. Which means, of course, that they fill with water while I am working in the tank. :grumble: Then, I started to notice distinct stinging along my skin inside the gloves. The more crap I stirred up as I brushed off the algae, the more I noticed the stinging sensation, almost like how a 9v battery feels when you touch it to your tongue, but in much smaller, pinpoint areas along my arms and fingers.
At first I thought I might have stray electrical current in the tank, so I checked with a voltometer....nada, so I got back to work. The stinging got more frequent and more strong when I went to work on the very worst HA infested area of my tank. I just tried to ignore it. I took the gloves off to work around my mushrooms so I could feel the brush better and not accidently damage my corals. Once I took them off, I wasn't feeling the stinging anymore. :shock: I didn't notice any marks on my skin, but it was also wet and a bit covered in disembodied bits of HA (die die DIE!!!)
Really wierd. One thought I had was maybe there are tiny little stinging animals, like jellyfish, or something, that are hiding in the HA. When I stir things up, they end up in the water column. Since my hand is in the immediate vicinity, and the water has free access to my inner glove, maybe these little stinging animals get trapped between the glove and my skin and are stinging in self defense. Without the gloves, they don't get trapped and are free to move to another hiding place. :12: Has this happened to anyone else?? Does anyone have any other theories?
At first I thought I might have stray electrical current in the tank, so I checked with a voltometer....nada, so I got back to work. The stinging got more frequent and more strong when I went to work on the very worst HA infested area of my tank. I just tried to ignore it. I took the gloves off to work around my mushrooms so I could feel the brush better and not accidently damage my corals. Once I took them off, I wasn't feeling the stinging anymore. :shock: I didn't notice any marks on my skin, but it was also wet and a bit covered in disembodied bits of HA (die die DIE!!!)
Really wierd. One thought I had was maybe there are tiny little stinging animals, like jellyfish, or something, that are hiding in the HA. When I stir things up, they end up in the water column. Since my hand is in the immediate vicinity, and the water has free access to my inner glove, maybe these little stinging animals get trapped between the glove and my skin and are stinging in self defense. Without the gloves, they don't get trapped and are free to move to another hiding place. :12: Has this happened to anyone else?? Does anyone have any other theories?