Do Button Polyps or Mushrooms STING PEOPLE?

crazyzeus1

crazyzeus1

Member
I just bought a colony of button polyps & a rock with some mushrooms on it (iradescent green & fuzzy..not sure what kind). I put them in the tank...
Later this evening, I had a prickle sensation on my finger. I have now found FOUR teeny-tiny prickly things in my hand (almost like a tiny cactus spine). What in the world could have done that in my tank?
We have:
spaghetti leather
yellow polyps
xenias
various mushrooms (red, green, blue, elephant ear, new green fuzzy one)
botton polyps
zoos
green star polyps
???? Anyone know???? I didn't touch anything except the two new things I put in...BUT...the lights in the tank were off for the night, so maybe something had it's tentacles out at night or something??? OWIE!!!! I just found another one...STRANGE
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
sounds like you touched a bristle worm to me....
they are the only thing that has cactus like spoikes that will stick in your skin like that....
button polyps and mushrooms wont do that....
you prob touched a bristleworm when moving the stuyff advertantly
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
no they arent bad they are a type of scavenger and every tank will have them.... lots of times especially during the day they hide under rocks or in crevices and mainly come out at night to feed....
mine actually come out now when i feed the fish i can see them sticking out of rocks and hoiles to grab stuff as it settles or floats by....
they are a pinkish color with lots of bristles covering there bodies in horizontal rows....and can range from small like 1/4" up to many inches or even feet given the right conditions.... if u ever see a really big one i would remove it since they can eat some soft corals and clams if they are big enough and are hungry since there is not enough detrius in the tank to feed them anymore....
they are hitchickers that come to your tank via live rock and corals that have rocks attached to them.... some say they are beneficial and id have to agree that they are considered part of ur clean up crew....
if you do a google search or a forum search on this site you will find many topics concerning them and what they look like...
 
mbrands

mbrands

Member
Just as a warning, watch out for the tines (prickly things) in your filter too. I've never been stung in my tank, but when rinsing off my foam pads in my cansiter filter I've been stung before. Now I wear thick rubber gloves to clean out the filter.
 
crazyzeus1

crazyzeus1

Member
Originally Posted by mbrands
Just as a warning, watch out for the tines (prickly things) in your filter too. I've never been stung in my tank, but when rinsing off my foam pads in my cansiter filter I've been stung before. Now I wear thick rubber gloves to clean out the filter.

That would make TOTAL sense. I washed out one of the filter pads in our filter & was squeezing it lots of times. That would explain how it got inbetween my fingers!!!! I bet that was it...I'll be sure to wear rubber gloves next time!!!!!
 
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