Did I accidentally just buy the worlds second deadliest toxin?

[JiveTurkey]

Hello everyone. New to the forum and to keeping corals. I purchased three to add to my tank as a test and one of them looks the same as the play toxin producers. From the pictures can you tell if the coral on the far left is a producer of palytoxin? Help is hugely appreciated. Of course I handled it bare handed.

 

[Mael]

someone with more info will need to chime in here but as far as your current situation your fine. I have handled zoas and palys before bare handed when I wasn't thinking although most of the time I wear gloves, in the end unless they squirt or you physically damage them you probably don't need to worry.

That said, with this toxin all precautions should be followed, especially if you ever decide to frag a zoa or paly colony, gloves, protective glases and either keeping your mouth shut or a mask should be standard wear for fragging these. While it is a very rare occurrence that someone gets the toxin on or in them it happens enough that you should never skip the precautions. Looks like a nice small colony in your pic, enjoy it.

 

[Lauracooks]

From what I read always assume there is palytoxin. Don't eat it, boil it, scrape it, handle it with a cut, let it squirt you in the eye or power wash it. Gloves and goggles when fragging. With all zoa's and palys. But happy in the tank they are fine

 

[JiveTurkey]

Here's why I am concerned. I went to reposition them today after my Naso Tang ripped one or two of the polyps off by accident as he eradicated the algae hitch hiking on the corals from the store. Before reading of any toxicity warning I was struck with a real whopper monster of a headache. My hands almost always have cuts. You can see the offending Tang exploding into the attached picture.

 

[Mael]

did you see anything come out of their mouths?(the zoas) If the symptons haven't gotten worse than a headache I would just monitor how long it takes to go away and be careful going forward, if you always have cuts gloves are going to be mandatory when working in the tank, preferably elbow length at least.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I've done plenty of work on the tank in the last couple of days with no apparent ill effects however I have been even more surgically careful with my OCD hand washing. Lol! The Bannerfish is still trying to snack on the zoas, but nothing else. I think I will be getting rid of the Bannerfish which makes me very sad as it is an original denizen of the tank from when I took ownership of the house. ):

The coral bug has bitten. And I am hooked.

 

[Mael]

it happens, and then your like me and have 30 different frags of z's and p's in a few months time =)

I am also OCD about hand washing every time I touch the water. Not a bad thing in this hobby for sure.

 

[Mstefa1]

I never wear gloves - not even when fragging... I'm going to die for sure. lol

I do wash my hands though.

 

[lazy_reefer]

as long as you dont squirt it in your mouth or eyes...you will be fine. frag them many times with no glove, yet im still alive. always wash your hand after plunging your hand into your tank.

 

[toothybugs]

Reading this you hear "wear gloves and goggles" but those do nothing for the occasional squirts that hit the lower half of your head.

Wear a dust mask too.

 

[650-IS350]

those aren't the strongest, ones I would avoid are the following.

The hawaiian ones looks like these too.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165247