the fish bite!!!! - Egypt Discussion Forum, Holiday Forums

the fish bite!!!!

yvonney

2006-09-12 08:46:15

hi all

just returned from sharm ( my 3rd time ) and i as amazed that in the water by our hotel the fish were biting !!!!
my son got bit 3 times by a yellow/blue fish and believe me it drew blood!!!!

when i was in the maldives in may this year there was a lot of literature in our water bungalow about not feeding the fish as it makes them aggressive

there is a public beach next to the hotel we stayed in (so im told) and there was a middle aged egyptian man in the water at our hotel with a bum bag full of food that he was giving to people to feed the fish with.

is this the reason or is there something else???

i cant help thinking that no one will want to go into the water, especially young kids if the fish are going to bite you!!!

cherrym

2006-09-12 09:50:17

what hotel were you at? we are going to coral sea in 16 days and counting, I have a 4 year old boy and sure if he gets a bite from a fish then he will refuse to go in the sea, which will then be a shame.

Michelle

CarrieBMW

2006-09-12 10:17:25

When we were in Sharm last month at least half of us got bitten by fish on our legs although none drew blood.

A couple of times a man came down and told people not to feed them otherwise they will bite :shock:

It was the Italians mostly who thought they could ignore this and carryon giving them bread which was very annoying.

We stayed in Crowne Plaza which by the way was great.

alanwall

2006-09-12 10:18:24

Was it a Triggerfish like this...

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/gallery/albums/album47/a10.jpg

These can get aggresive when breeding.

Or do you mean the blue and yellow ones that look a bit like Dory in Finding Nemo

http://www.doebe.de/guide/pix/z_xanthurum.jpg

These are usually quite placid.

I've know various small wrasse nibble at spots and blemishes, though not usually in the Red Sea. Some of the cleaner fish try to remove bits of flaky skin etc.

Pippy

2006-09-12 11:24:34

Hi Yvonne

I don't know if you recall, but at the Conrad last year the guys on the beach really went to town on anyone they saw trying to feed the fish.........rightly so too!
Did you have problems with biting fish at the Conrad?
We didn't :wink:

Pippy

kosh42

2006-09-12 11:31:38

I've only been nibbled by the small fish, but never really bitten.

Feeding the fish makes them associate people with food. So when you go in the water, they associate you with food and off you go.

yvonney

2006-09-12 11:38:36

hi again

the hotel was the iberotel club fanara

alanwall - none of the pictures you posted were the fish that bit my son

pippy - no fish ever bit us at the conrad beach or anywhere else

the first time my son got bit it was in his belly button - which we both did find a bit amusing i have to say - but it left 2 puncture holes which drew blood. I think the fish went for his belly button because his is quite pronounced and might have resembled the bits of white stuff the guy was giving them. He then got bit on his leg and arm. The fish was mediun in size and yellow and blue .

Everest

2006-09-12 11:52:57

Did he have any suncream on? If so, did it contain cocoa butter?
Mrs E has been nibbled by fish while she had been using it.

Edit: feeding fish not only makes them more likely to bite, it will also kill them and the coral in time.

yvonney

2006-09-12 12:12:31

Hi everest - yes he did have suncream on but on his back not front as we were going snorkelling - just checked the label and no cocoa butter!!!

yvonney

2006-09-12 12:31:54

We took photos but they were a bit cloudy and the water was very shallow and has anyone any idea if this is a sea snake or an eel ???

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/2192/iberotelclubfanaraaugust2006001ws3.th.jpg

Everest

2006-09-12 12:43:39

Was it moving very slowly? Looks like some sort of sea cucumber to me. Harmless.

alanwall

2006-09-12 12:46:50

What are we looking at? The long skinny thing bottom middle is too thin to be a sea cucumber, surely. More like a spotted snake eel. Yellow and black rather than blue - odd..! :hmmm

yvonney

2006-09-12 12:50:13

It had its head stuck in the ground - it was light brown and blackish speckled - double click the link it makes picture a bit bigger - it was there for about 5 mins and then wriggled off - my son thought it was a snake but ive only ever seen black and white sea snakes before

yvonney

2006-09-12 13:00:38

These are the other photos i got

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/5680/iberotelclubfanaraaugust2006001fw0.th.jpg

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/831/iberotelclubfanaraaugust2006002ki1.th.jpg

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/8215/iberotelclubfanaraaugust2006003pm3.th.jpg

alanwall

2006-09-12 13:56:25

It looks like a snake eel.
They often sit buried in the sand apart from their head - like this marbled snake eel I photographed near Nuweiba.

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/gallery/albums/album47/Spotted_snake_eel_Nuweiba_Egypt_Aug06.sized.jpg

He most likely nearly trod on by accident it and the fish reacted in the only way it can to defend itself.

Everest

2006-09-12 15:23:52

Not all sea cucumbers are short and fat Alan.

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/3046/seacucumberys6.th.jpg

I take it that was the thing that bit your son? If so, it wasn't a sea cucumber anyway.

Edited by Everest 2006-09-12 15:27:26

carrot2502

2006-09-12 15:25:18

Well, scanning through my NEW Debelius Reef Guide, my inexperienced eye suggests it could be a Network pipefish. Alan, you'd probably know it better as Corythoichthys flavofasciatus which will obviously trip off your tongue easier than it does mine!

As for the mysterious biting fish, Mrs C. always clicks her fingernails underwater when she snorkels and gets loads of different fish nibbling at her. Bit worrying if they draw blood though! They wouldn't want to bite Mrs C. too hard though as she takes Warfarin!

Derwentrocker

2006-09-12 16:01:12

The fish were biting terrible when we went in June, the reason being, it was mating season for the fish, so they were very excited and thought our thighs were fish to mate with.

carrot2502

2006-09-12 16:15:44

Michelle, I take it you have already booked for next June?? :roll:

yvonney

2006-09-12 17:01:13

Hi

the picture of the snake/eel or whatever it is is not what bit my son

my son was bit by a bright blue and yellow medium sized round fish

this was just something else that was in quite shallow water at our hotel beach and the head was buried in the ground with the long body not moving too much at all

my son just wanted to know if it was a snake or an eel

it was more roundish on the body like a snake than the pictures show and the head was in the ground between some rocks so i didnt see it - even when it wriggled away it was too fast to see the head

everest - the body of the thing i saw was more round and smooth so i dont think it was the same as your photo

alanwall - im glad that i didnt see the head if it looked like that!!!lol!!!

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