Dear Stephane:
Don't worry. You won't be hurt with the zoanthus in aquarium. Even if
it is toxic, enough toxin will not come into your body. The toxicity
of Palythoa varies. I collected a large amount in Puerto Rico with no
ill effect. However, it is always a good practice to wear rubber
gloves, because many marine organisms are cause of allergic reactions.
As to Ostereopsis, it produces a small amount of palytoxin analogues,
but it is not known if they are the source of palytoxin in Palythoa.
Again, you have to grow thousands of liters to get visible amounts of
them. We grew one time thousand of liters, but found very little
toxins.
Yuzuru Shimizu, Ph.D., D. Pharm. Sci. (Hon.)
Omar-Youngken Distinguished Chair Emeritus of Natural Product Chemistry
Professor Emeritus of Biomedical & Pharmaceutical Sciences,
College of Pharmacy, University of Rhode Island
