Scopaeniform
New member
I am going to have to side with the skeptics on this issue.
I first got into the reef keeping hobby a few years back when I was working at a LFS. Part of my responsibilities while working there was to take the live rock that had arrived in the morning (the 50lb. cardboard boxes of rock) and place it in our live rock holding tank to be sold. This would mean innumerable cuts on my hands from jagged edges and dead corals. Our corals would usually come in on the same day and I would put those away in our huge reef tank as well.
Now being that the Zoo's we had were imported they would most likely have built up a fairly high concentration of palytoxin in the bags where they had remained for several days. Because we didn't mix our water with that of incoming corals; I poured the water from the bag over my hands and then placed the coral (being held in my hand) in the aquarium. I didn't always get the chance to wash my hands after handling the zoo's before helping a customer that would walk through the door.
The palytoxin is suppose to cause constriction of the myocardia in a sudden and violent fashion (with constriction on the arteries as well I am sure) if a toxic dosage is achieved. With that said, my heart muscles should have clamped up tighter than Enron in a congressional hearing a long time ago.
The palytoxin may be there, but the consintration levels have to be EXTREMELY weak. I am talking a several ten-thousanths of what it takes to acheive toxicity in the human body. The toxin of the zoo's may be the most lethal known to man but it doesn't mean squat if the concentration is extremely low. Dogs use their mouths for everything and there are any number of toxins that he could have come into contact with (antifreeze, poop, insectacides, etc.).
P.S.- If you ever wonder what it feels like to have extreme myalgia from toxins in an aquatic friend, you should try a being stung by a Billroute (freshwater relative of the Stonefish, also from Australia). I was stung in the middle knuckle of my middle finger and within ten minutes I was in the worst pain of my life (and I have broken several bones). My left arm had swollen to twice the size of the right one and I seriously thought I was going to die. It made my sting from a pincushion urchin a few weeks earlier feel like a nice back rub. The Billroute that stung me was a baby half the size of my thumb nail.
I first got into the reef keeping hobby a few years back when I was working at a LFS. Part of my responsibilities while working there was to take the live rock that had arrived in the morning (the 50lb. cardboard boxes of rock) and place it in our live rock holding tank to be sold. This would mean innumerable cuts on my hands from jagged edges and dead corals. Our corals would usually come in on the same day and I would put those away in our huge reef tank as well.
Now being that the Zoo's we had were imported they would most likely have built up a fairly high concentration of palytoxin in the bags where they had remained for several days. Because we didn't mix our water with that of incoming corals; I poured the water from the bag over my hands and then placed the coral (being held in my hand) in the aquarium. I didn't always get the chance to wash my hands after handling the zoo's before helping a customer that would walk through the door.
The palytoxin is suppose to cause constriction of the myocardia in a sudden and violent fashion (with constriction on the arteries as well I am sure) if a toxic dosage is achieved. With that said, my heart muscles should have clamped up tighter than Enron in a congressional hearing a long time ago.
The palytoxin may be there, but the consintration levels have to be EXTREMELY weak. I am talking a several ten-thousanths of what it takes to acheive toxicity in the human body. The toxin of the zoo's may be the most lethal known to man but it doesn't mean squat if the concentration is extremely low. Dogs use their mouths for everything and there are any number of toxins that he could have come into contact with (antifreeze, poop, insectacides, etc.).
P.S.- If you ever wonder what it feels like to have extreme myalgia from toxins in an aquatic friend, you should try a being stung by a Billroute (freshwater relative of the Stonefish, also from Australia). I was stung in the middle knuckle of my middle finger and within ten minutes I was in the worst pain of my life (and I have broken several bones). My left arm had swollen to twice the size of the right one and I seriously thought I was going to die. It made my sting from a pincushion urchin a few weeks earlier feel like a nice back rub. The Billroute that stung me was a baby half the size of my thumb nail.
