Don't feed the animals

[settinggirl]

Wow, that sucks.  In college I used to work in the fish department at a pet store that had a small moray eel.  I was feeding it frozen squares of brine shrimp.  I got caught up talking to someone and was holding a piece just over the top of the water and looked away for about 5 seconds. By a stroke of bad luck the eel came up to the top of the tank which it never did and came out of the water after the food. It got the food but also got  the pad of my thumb (thank god it was only about a foot and a half long so it's head was not as big as this guys in the video) and latched on! I freaked out and started thrashing my hand to get it off.  I heard a slicing noise (fffffftt) and the eel fell back in the tank unharmed.  I stared in disbelief at my finger--I could see the fat cells (gross!) and then so much blood. The worst part was the bacteria that the eel had in its saliva in my thumb stung sharper and shriller than anything I ever felt before in my life!  I would have to agree with the stupidity of food in your hands near one of those things, eels intimidate the hell out of me now.  I wonder how common eel bites actually are--probably not very.