Just got stung by my volitan lionfish..

Yes gloves are going to be used next time

 

How bad did it hurt? I've heard it is much worse than a wasp/yellow jacket and I've read it can last for a few days

 

Been there done that. Got drunk and thought i was superman and stuck my hand in his tank with a lion fish. Well the lionfish won and i lost but the good news is hot water will help or in my case more capital morgan helped me. It should go away in couple of hours

 

lol nice!

 

Besides using heat (hot water or a hair dryer) to denature the heat-labile proteins in the lionfish's venom, you'll want to guard against infection at the wound site, and make absolutely certain no part of the spine(s) has broken off in the wound (that's worse than the venom, as it can lead to a nasty infection).

FWIW, the correct water temp is no hotter than 114*F, as anything hotter will scald you, and the resultant burn can be more problematic than the sting.

Finally, getting stung is generally 100% the fault of the aquarist. I've kept venomous fish for over 20 years now, and for the past few years, have been keeping them exclusively, and to date, I've never been envemomated (watch me go home and get nailed cuz I said that!).

Just a little "rating" in terms of toxicity from weakest to strongest:

Lionfish
Scorpionfish
Waspfish
Stingfish
Stonefish

Unless you're allergic, the only venom potent enuff to cause death in humans is that of the stonefishes (there have been 3 recorded cases last I checked), but the waspfishes and stingfishes will make you wish you hadn't been stung, as they're way worse than scorps, and are actually members of the stonefish family.

 

ouch thats gotta suck.

 

i knew Greg or Renee would chime in!!!! Good advice!

I do have a question..............the LFS is checking with reexposure rates after getting stung/injured. They stated that there is concern that the second time someone gets hit with a lion fish the reaction is much more severe and life threatening. The reason they are concerned is they wanted to know if it was the same way with palytoxin. They dont want me to go back to work there if I have an allergic reaction now. Was wondering if you heard anything about that with lions.........I had not

 

AMMONIA!!
Seriously, pour ammonia on it and itll help with the pain, Of course you should typically do that right after getting stung but you will be fine by morning...Maybe a little tender but nothing to where you cant use your hand

 

@ matt It hurt pretty bad. I've ran a cutting torch over my hand before and it felt better than the lionfish sting, but the pain from the sting is completely gone now. and @ greg It was 100% my fault, I shouldnt have put my hand in the tank with it being so cloudy I'm going to be more careful in the future

 

That would be like saying a second rattlesnake bite is worse than the first. It's not an allergic reaction. Now, if you happened to get nailed and they gave you the antivenin, you'd be hosed the second time, because your body will react to the antivenin!

Case in point, with rattlesnakes, they'd assess your continued risk of being bitten, and if you live in a high risk area, they'd rather not give you an antivenin if they can help it (unless death is a danger). Note that this is for the "horse serums"...they may have some synthetics now that work differently.

Also, I know the ER director at one of our local hospitals, and he said they don't even stock scorp or stonefish antivenin cuz it's crazy-expensive (and we're talking a HUGE hospital here).

So, your boss shouldn't worry...if you're not allergic, you likely won't be.