A warning about toxicity. A MUST read.

[DgenR8]

HMMMM, How many spouses would want to uase that on one of us? Or how many of us might want to use it on a spouse??

 

[glipper69]

I think we are all getting a little to paranoid. I just bought my first colony of zoo's about 2 weeks ago I handled them about 10 times trying to find the location they and I most desired I don't think I washed my hands once afterward. what I usually do is just dry off with a towel then later when I have the time I wash my hands. I am still here with no ill affects.

Please someone put it in there Will that if they die they should be tested for paliotoxins and that the results should be posted on REEF CENTRAL.

hmmm, I'm getting a little hungry I think i'm gonna have a little zoo sandwich. hum hum.

Good Luck
Frank

 

[Los]

The Pacific Island native would crush the zoos in a bowl and dip their spears in the jelly. Just a scratch from their spear would kill their opponent. I still handle them without gloves except when fraggin them. How much of that mucus does it take to kill a human? who knows, Also what would happen if someone was poisoned buy a zoo and dies. He frags zoo and 20min later he collapses... He goes to the emergency room and they say his heart stopped, he had a bad heart, or natural causes. they won't check for palytoxins. How many spouses would be able to step up and say Doc check for palytoxins in his system we have a reef tank. well thats my .02

The same is true of certain types of frogs (poison dart frogs), but that doesn't mean that handling frogs in general is dangerous at all.

I suspect both sides are right. There is probably a certain type of zoo that isn't found in the hobby, but that is deadly. Fortunately, we don't seem to have any evidence of any human being killed by zoos sold for reefs. With them being so popular, I think we would have heard something about it.

Cheers,

LOS - who promisses NOT to eat his zoos.

 

[BlackOcellarisUT]

OK well heres my horror story,
I was reaching in to move a newly bought coral (encrusting goniopora) from the front of the tank to somwhere else. I had placed it there a few day earlier realizing when I got home that I had no coral putty left. Once I placed it in the correct position and it was done I accidently rubbed the inner of my arm against the side/ bottom of the rock and possibly some zoos. When my arm was out of the water I felt an intense stinging on my inner arm, and within minutes it was streaking and red. I walked upstairs to tell my parents to keep an eye on me because I felt really lightheaded. I felt very slow, and everything was just a little weird when I looked around. It was like this for a few hours until I felt ok again. My arm was red and streaky fro a few days but I was very scared. I think it was either the zoos, or maybe a little hitchiker millipora on the new coral because it was carribean. I really do not know but whatever it was it scared me. I know that millipora sting is a neurotoxin, but is this the same with polytoxin? Yeah it scared me, now I am much more careful. Good coments guys Thanks -tj-

 

[becon776]

wow... intersting thread! I was once stung by something (don't know for sure) while moving live rock. a little pinprick caused my left hand to swell incredibly. I couldn't move my hand for a week. A bit nervous and told my wife to keep an eye out. Gave me an entire new respect for my underwater friends.

 

[Chris Mu.]

death by zoos

death by zoos

Wierd stuff ..i've been working with corals for ten years now, on the retail level, and i cant say that i have ever had any type of reaction to a zoo.. i have like 8 rocks of zoos in my own aquarium too and over the past ten years have stuck scrapped up hands in zoo tanks and never had a problem.. cant say that i have tried eating them... i guess thats what somebody really needs to try heh heh (dont do this unless under close supervison of a professional doctor ..) heh heh disclaimer so you cant sue me .. wait you'd be dead anyways lol .. so all i see so far is dont eat your corals? is this even a new thought? Torches, plates, hydnopora .. now those will leave you burning ..zoos? never happened to me and i handle em almost every day..idk i'll believe it when i hit the floor i guess .. heh heh Interesting post topic though...anybody have any metalic colors they want to get rid?
i need reds and blues and would consider some bright oranges !

Thanks!

 

[Chris Mu.]

oh and one more thing

oh and one more thing

I think somebody should make a movie about corals comming out of the ocean to take over the world... i mean imagine a long tentical plate the size of a vw beetle traveling down the street.. heh heh and toxic zoos that kill people in seconds .. just think of the possibilities!

 

[zooqi]

thats my .02

I agree and I handle them all the time even when fraging them. I handled over 100 big colonies yesterday and brok some of them and some I put pressure on the rock and brok it to tow and I had slimes all over my hands.

 

[Recce]

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 can back that up, I have stood on them, less than an inch long, and ended up with a foot the size of a football! Well not quite, but you get they idea :eek1:

I am with the skeptics on this one, I have often torn chunks off zoo colonies to give to people, and I nearly always have some kind of cut on a finger, and I have a colony of zoos, that I frag by pinching the zoo at the base, and tearing it off the rock, covering my fingers in mucus, which I will admit is difficult to wash off, and I have suffered no ill effects.

Do any of the papers etc, say how much of this palyotoxin is present in any particular specimens?

 

[ez1ez]

That's an idea... Maybe a Biologist would like to frag some zoo's and check the levels of palytoxins in them. I would send him 2 of every zoo I have. Then we would know which are the most lethal.

 

[cal3v]

Quick question, is palytoxin a protein? If it is I need to check if I can find out if I can get some donated, and I can probably run a protein gel and use southern blotting (if that's possible as well) to find out which of our corals actually has it. Or maybe ELISA test? I dunno yet. Have to do more research but it would make a good independent project for my bio-tech class, have to see if its even feasible to do at my school too though. Anybody who can help in any way in research, etc, please lmk. Thanks!

 

[musicsmaker]

You might want to run that by the guys in the chemistry forum. I went there to ask a few questions and it was either Randy or Bomber that said their college professor synthetically reproduced it.

 

[cal3v]

Cool, maybe I can get a sample and do some testing.

 

[Creetin]

I dunno, I was just fragging some with bare cut up hands in my tank two days ago, and i am not dead, or swollen. How does anyone know which spcies it is that can, or do have this palytoxins?
My condolences on your dog.

 

[Recce]

I dont know how seriously to take the danger threat from zoos, but I know that I wash my hands much more thoroughly now after handling them. Yesterday, when I moved a colony of palyothoa (spelling?), I noticed a very thick slime on my hands, that took a bit of scrubbing to get off. I might just have previously wiped my hands off on a towel, and worried about washing them later, but I thought about the dog story, and definitely didnt want to poison m dogs.

 

[MarkKlier]

Wow, that is sad. In the tank given the structure of these compounds, they should lend themselves to protein skimming. That does little good for direct contact.....thanks for the information. MK

 

[Trumpet12]

Does anyone know what the concentration of these dangerous compounds in zoos is?

cal3v,

I think it would be great if you tested some zoos, so that we could learn how dangerous they really are.

 

[cal3v]

If I could I would, it seems like finding a way to do it is difficult, I am going to try and contact a company who is developing a detection kit(said it on an older press release) so maybe they are done already.

 

[Trumpet12]

If I could I would, it seems like finding a way to do it is difficult, I am going to try and contact a company who is developing a detection kit(said it on an older press release) so maybe they are done already.

Okay. I hope they have the kits.

 

[Creetin]

Is it me, Or does any one else think the crazyglue had something to do with it? Crazyglue has been tested in the medical field and has been determined a DANGER. It is poisonous, And destroys tissue. In very small amount's dilluted by a good deal of water it is probably nothing to worry about, But fragging a crap load of corals in a small amount of water can be an accident waiting to happen.