New Hastings home for deadly fish (From The Argus)

New Hastings home for deadly fish

11:00pm Thursday 28th February 2013 in News

One of the world’s most venomous fish species has gone on display at an aquarium.

The lethal creature was originally kept as a pet.

However its owner handed it over to a Hampshire pet shop after its tank cracked.

Aquarists at Blue Reef in Hastings were then asked if they were willing to give it a safe new home.

Found throughout the Pacific and Indian oceans, stonefish – which are also known as goblinfish and warty-ghouls – are so poisonous staff at the Blue Reef Aquarium have had to undergo specialist first-aid training.

Blue Reef ’s Chris Ireland said: “They have a particularly fearsome reputation and are known to have caused human fatalities so we’re taking extra precautions to ensure the safety of our aquarists.”

The poison is held in glands under 13 jagged spines running along the stonefish’s back.

Capable of surviving for up to 12 hours on land, the stonefish has even killed people out walking on the beach metres away from the sea.

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