Lake Malawi Species • Man Survives Mbuna Attack!

[Smeagol]

Um... Why didn't anyone tell me mbuna bite?! I nearly got my arm gnawed off today when I reached into the tank to remove a slice of zucchini that I gave them as a treat.

[DJRansome]

IME only the maingano have nipped at me. It is startling but no blood is drawn. Good to hear you survived.

[Smeagol]

IME only the maingano have nipped at me. It is startling but no blood is drawn. Good to hear you survived.

It was all of them: Maingano, Yellow Labs, and Acei. At first I thought I was getting shocked; it felt like a whole bunch of little sparks hitting my arm. I thought, "oh no, my heater is shorted out and electrifying the water!" But then I saw it with my own eyes.... mbuna attack!

[jcover]

FYI - Haps will do that too, lol. My venustus and star sapphires will do this.

[Deeda]

I too am glad you survived the attack.

A few years ago I was keeping some Lake Tanganyika 'Lamprologus' speciosus or what was called then the Black Ocellatus shelldwellers and was scraping some algae off the front glass and this little 2 inch fish latched on to the meaty part of my hand and when I jerked my hand out of the water, the fish landed on the floor. I quickly got it back in the tank with no harm to the fish.

[wryan]

FYI - Haps will do that too, lol. My venustus and star sapphires will do this.

I've had the S. fryeri do it here ...

[SenorStrum]

I feel for Deeda! The first time my Acei bit me, I jerked my arm out so fast I almost broke the glass top! Scared the heck out of my kids too...

Oh, and I'm sorry to tell you that you legally have to call animal control now and report the incident. What if they got out of your house!? It could be a danger to the community!

[Rhinox]

My mbuna used to nibble but I never got enough of a pinch to startle or hurt