Man hospitalised after fish bite

rohnds

Large Fish
Apr 23, 2005
408
1
0
Austin, TX (born NYC)
#1
New York - A man has been taken to a hospital after tangling with a venomous fish in his home aquarium, police said.

A one spot foxface rabbitfish bit the 19-year-old aquarist on Tuesday night while he was working on his fish tank, said Nassau county police officer Thomas Brussell.

The species, known by the scientific name Siganus unimaculatus, has venomous spines on its back, according to fishbase.org, an electronic database maintained by researchers.

Also called the blotched foxface rabbitfish, the fish is found in tropical seas off western Australia, the Philippines and other parts of the western Pacific Ocean.

Brussell said firefighters took the young man to a local hospital with a bite to his left index finger at 21:25, but information on his injuries and condition was not available early on Wednesday.

Police would not release the man's name.


Here is the article






Rohn
 

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TRe

Elite Fish
Feb 20, 2005
3,645
1
0
ft. lauderdale
#7
yea id defintly not buy one of these... i think ive decided that its smartest to buy all 100% reef safe fish... cause i wanna turn my 125 gallon into a reef tank but i cant because of the fish i chose to put in there
 

Feb 6, 2005
893
2
0
47
Waterloo, ON Canada
#10
1979camaro said:
i wonder where mushroomman is?

lol :)

From my understanding only the dorsal spins are venomous (NOT it's bite), and it is only a bit stronger than a bee's sting. Keep in mind that some people are DEADLY allergic to a bee's sting, but MOST people are not and only experiance minor irritation and swelling in the area of the sting. This can be the same with any of the venomous fish kept in aquaria.
 

aresgod

Superstar Fish
Jan 14, 2004
1,987
2
0
mass
Visit site
#11
it is only the spines and they are rather skittish fish, they don't blunder around like lions, when I used to clean the tanks at the lfs with them in them I was never nervous, whil the lions always thought I had something to eat so they would wander over...salty waters is right that it is just like a bee sting.
 

Feb 6, 2005
893
2
0
47
Waterloo, ON Canada
#13
I still find it funny how they say he was "BIT" by a venomous fish, as if it was this crazy attaking fish and not the carelessness of the aquarist...

I see the headlines now "The PITBULL Of Aquria Strikes Again" or "Mothers unit to ban the sales of these DEADLY fish"