[Had been thinking a while back that the original Think Fish Keepers Daily News thread was fit to burst at 193 pages of posts, so have split the topic and started this as a new thread denoting the year. Moderator FCMF. Sue's post below is the first in this new thread.]Yesterday I did a water change on the main tank. I took the filter off the bracket to clean that too, only the bracket came away with the filter. Yes, the suckers were rigid rather than flexible. So I tossed the bracket in the bucket, filled it up with water and took it outside where I tried to get the suckers off. They were stuck tight. Luckily I have a spare bracket so I put new suckers on that and finished emptying the tank. But before refilling I used a stanley knife to cut the suckers off. The first one went fine - sliced the flat part off, then cut the neck away from the bracket. The second didn't go as well. Instead of slicing the flat part off, the blade slipped, cut half the flat part off then embedded itself in the pad of my left index finger. One temporary dressing later, my husband had to help me refill the tank. I went to the chemist this morning to buy a dressing more suited to the end of a finger, she looked at it and told me to go to urgent care because it was so deep. I only waited 25 minutes, I've waited longer at an appointment with the GP. My finger is now dressed with suture strips and a bulky dressing and I'm on a course of antibiotics. If I'd gone yesterday they could have glued it together but today they had to leave ventilation holes.
Apparently I'm the first woman they've had with a stanley knife injury. Men yes, lots of them, but no woman till today.
The moral of the tale is - leave using a stanley knife till after you've refilled the tank, then go to A & E/urgent care straight away.