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Bitten by bandensis

Thales

Colossal Squid
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Today I had to move cuttles around for various reasons. They really didn't like the clear plastic container I usually use to catch them up, so I resorted to my hand. One of them latched onto my pinky, the same way they will latch onto the glass or a shipping bag, and started to bite me. It was cute at first then started to hurt. Not hurt like I needed to fling it across the room and off my hand, but I got him off and into his new digs quickly.
He had broken the skin a little bit, really a little, and the site started to hurt. I got paranoid and every crap in my body made me thing I was poisoned. :smile: The pinky swelled a bit, but not enough to take a pic. 10 minutes later I had forgotten about and 30 minutes later the swelling went away.

So, strange reaction related to my body, or something in the bite? Maybe one day we'll know.
 
Thales;114804 said:
Today I had to move cuttles around for various reasons. They really didn't like the clear plastic container I usually use to catch them up, so I resorted to my hand. One of them latched onto my pinky, the same way they will latch onto the glass or a shipping bag, and started to bite me. It was cute at first then started to hurt. Not hurt like I needed to fling it across the room and off my hand, but I got him off and into his new digs quickly.
He had broken the skin a little bit, really a little, and the site started to hurt. I got paranoid and every crap in my body made me thing I was poisoned. :smile: The pinky swelled a bit, but not enough to take a pic. 10 minutes later I had forgotten about and 30 minutes later the swelling went away.

So, strange reaction related to my body, or something in the bite? Maybe one day we'll know.


Do bandensis have venom and could you have been poisoned?

BTW: Really random, but I read on the computer by highlighting each line and when you highlight the little smiley that Thales used, it looks sad hehehehe.
 
L8 2 RISE;114806 said:
Do bandensis have venom and could you have been poisoned?

Most cuttles have a variant of cephalotoxin, which is likely to cause some effect as your immune system says "hey, there's random crap in this cut" although "random crap" could just be the stuff in tank/sea water. As far as I know, bandensis saliva hasn't been studied specifically, though, but most forms of cephalotoxin are not very dangerous to humans (but are very bad for crustaceans) unless the human is allergic.
 
Sorry you got bitten but good that the effect was minor.
I guess now we can have a Cuttlefish Bites thread like Octopus Bites!

Nancy
 
Octodude;114832 said:
I thought that refered to the toxin in their flesh?

Unless there's more than one TV special on the subject, it's discussed in detail here:

Pfefferi Toxicity?

in brief, though, you're right, it's specifically mentioned that the toxin is in the flesh, and implied (although vaguely enough that it shouldn't be taken as "true") that it's not in the saliva.
 
I would never pick up the flam or the wunderpus or the new zebra with bare hands. No way, colors like that mean something IMO.
Bandensis though, all the time when then need to be moved.
This one was 3 or 4 months old. I think I moved 7 today, one bit me.
 
I once got bitten by an officinalis and although it nipped there was no lingering pain
 
i read somewhwere that some people are allergic to ceph bites the same way theyre allergic to bee stings....dont know how you would test for that though, i'm sure most doctors arent too learned in ceph venom
 

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