A warning about toxicity. A MUST read.

I was wondering why my hand went numb after placing 3 small frags of zoanthids in my tank. It went away after about 8 hours. I also felt a little off for awhile. A lesson well learned.
 
just womdering. I read in here that poly toxin cases high blood pressure and low blood sugar. well i have quite a few polys in my tank and handle them with no gloves and guess what I now have high blood presure and low blood sugar. humm could it be linked. both symtomes started after I started my reef tank. like I said just wondering.:eek2:
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=1398120#post1398120 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by intheband
corals found in the aquarium trade DO NOT contain palytoxin..and its not in zoanthus at all-but rather in palythoa-and only a few species(once again-not available in the trade)contain it...

zooanthids are perfectly harmless-all the hype about this is getting pretty rediculous:rolleyes:

can anyone refute what im saying at all??-and produce the data to back it up?ill gladly eat my words if you can( and maybe even be more careful in the future)..but if you cant-all youre doing is feeding a senseless paranoia..
Click to expand...

YOU ARE VERY INCORRECT SIR.... I am reding this thread as I had extended contact with some zoo's that just came in the mail last night. I have handled zoo's before, with caution, and never had a reaction. Many of the zoo's had come loose during shipping, so I glued them back on to rocks. Like a noob, I didn't use any gloves. Within 30 minutes my hands were on fire and it was spreading up my arms and thank god stopped at almost my chest. I took a very hot shower using tons of soap, which helped some. It was almost midnight and I was feeling nausious and feverish. I ended up waking my girlfriend and telling her what was going on. I wrote down the information about the zoos and maded sure to write down and tell her it was palytoxin in case I got worse and had to get medical help. I tried to get some sleeep, but developed a pretty severe headache. I got up this mornig and have extreme sensitivity in my arms and hands, a headache and numbness / burning in my left hand arm. I am very concerned and am getting ready to call the poison hotline in our area. I came on here to see if I should be as worried as I am and then read this most ridiculous and uninformed post and just had to chime it.. IT IS REAL, THERE IS TOXIN IN ZOO's AND PALY's...
 
"1) I have touched, cut, ripped and brushed up against zoas w/out any reactions and I have a few different species. I have heard from multiple sources that only certain zoas contain the palytoxin."

Yes, and I have been stung by bees many times in my life with nothing more than flash of mild pain and a bump. I had a friend die from a single bee sting... Everybody has different chemistry..

I was stung by a Portugese man of war jellyfish in the Florida keys in Dec. I barely felt the sting and other than my hand swelling almost double its size and huge blisters, it was no big deal... Many people die or have serious reactions to those stings...

Read my previous post if you don't think it is real...
 
So why aren't our fish killed by the zoa that ARE toxic?

And if we could start a running list of all the zoa that ARE toxic, that would probably help a lot of people out.
 
huh... well so are lionfish rabbitfish and half the other things we keep in our tanks. Personally I think it's pretty damn cool! in fact I am going to mush some of them and rub my broadhead in the mush for deer hunting! haha.. p.s. I can't wait for my blue ringed octopus to come in!
I can't believe this thread is still on here! wowoweewah!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13395053#post13395053 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by becon776
huh... well so are lionfish rabbitfish and half the other things we keep in our tanks.
Click to expand...

That gets into the whole (often ignored) distinction between poisonous (zoas) and venomous.
 
very interesting
for the dog
drinking seawater can kill
its head was in a bucket/tub full of seawater

anyway
i just got zoanthids and almost crapped my pants when i first read this. this was after i had gotten them today @_@ but the more i look at it the more i dont think zoas really have that strong a toxin but the palys might (which i avoided buying because they seem a lot meaner than zoas...im sure every coral has SOME kind of toxin to defend itself but maybe enough to just taste gross) also maybe people have certain allergies? if its gonna do any damage i think it would be in eating it and then maybe it had to be a certain kind or alot of it...which i dont think would be terribly tasty and im sure they would feel yucky D:
 
Thanks for the advice....would hate to die doing my own hobby that I found so safe! Dying working on the reef, no one would ever believe. would just assume my wife had decided to feed me some poison!
 
I've handled many different types of Zoa's without a single side effect...I believe I've been lucky. I'll wear gloves and glasses in the future. When working with Zoa's (Fragging) I've heard of cases where the juice squirted into people eyes with very bad results. I always wear safety glasses now. It's one thing for your hands to go numb for a while, and another to go blind!
 
Honestly been reading up about toxin in zoas and palys, I don't want to carry in my tank anymore. Lucky I don't have any now because I would regret. They are very nice, I really like them, but the risk is to dangerous to try having one now. I think I'm going to stay away from them.
 
I got a pink paly frag in the mail today, its packaging was a little funky. the palys were basically wrapped in newspaper soaked with sw. i put the frag in my tank, and about an hour later, i noticed this green/brown liquid escaping from the top of one of the polyps. could this liquid possibly be this toxin? i just coincidentally read this tread last night. i havent touched anything in my tank since, and i was wondering what level of caution should be taken. thanks
 
Sounds like the zoos are releasing some zoxanthellei. Forgive my spelling, but it is the algae that live inside of corals and tun the light into food for them.
 
This thread is really fascinating to me. I don't know if it's been mentioned here in a previous post, but perhaps the zoo's are so brilliantly colored as a warning sign to predators. I recently started a reef tank again and got a nice little clump of zoos today. I was very cautious handling them, taking great care not to come into contact with their bag water or anything else. Interestingly, the guy who got them for me out of the breeding vats never wears any kind of protection. I would assume they've never had reason to take precautions.

A few years back I was collecting my own from an exposed reef fairly regularly with no protection at all. Around the same time I developed some strange health problems and generally felt "off" for quite a period of time. I had never had any kind of ongoing health problems up until then but I noticed some nights when I was out there on the rocks I would not feel quite right. Of course there were other factors occurring such as job and family stress, but it is interesting to think back on it and go hmmm I wonder if...
 
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