Is this "Coral" going to kill me???

[Khemul]

Either way it is dead. If it were a sponge then the bath and sitting outside like that would have killed it. If Paly's (looks like it) the bath would have probably killed it.


Not sure they'll release the toxins as they decompose or if they only do that while alive. If you want to be extra paranoid just continue soaking the rock in freshwater for a while. The damage is already done. Anything you want to keep would be dead and the stuff that isn't will not likely survive the decomposition. So no sense in wasting salt mix. Just soak in a bucket of fresh water, dump out the water (without reaching into the bucket or touching the rock, if you are paranoid), refill and it should all take care of itself. Otherwise if you really want to salvage anything and have the salt mix to spare, it can't hurt to soak it in saltwater either.

 

[BlueFyre]

I don't think they release toxins into the water when they die. I have had palys melt in my 25 gallon cube without any harmful effects on the tank.

 

[rrasco]

You are more likely to catch a mild vd off a Wal mart toilet seat than you are to get palytoxin poisoning from any handling method of that rock or even straight out palythoa colonies. Sure it happens, but not to anyone you or your lfs knows its nearly totally something someone read about. They'll tell you its someone they know, but it ain't.

Two people in our local club have been poisoned as well. There is a lot of hype about it, but it is real, and it does happen.

 

[Mxx]

Um, why did the guy put the rock in fresh water to begin with? Why did you buy them after they had been submerged in fresh water for half a day?

I would suspect that a vast amount of the creatures, if not all the creatures in and on that rock are dead. If this is the case, your going to have a long wait while the decomposition takes place and your N2 cycle ramps up. Hair algae will most like be problematic in the near future. Keep that in mind

He had been advertising the sale of his tank with live rock for a while but hadn't succeeded in getting any interest. Unfortunately for him his online advert was written in a manner which wouldn't have attracted any normal interest. And so being unable to sell it, he thought, he was going to start to kill it/recure it and then let it dry out afterwards in order to try to sell or do something else with later once he returned from his several week holiday.

I nevertheless got a lot of lovely rock for an incredibly good price, even if it was slightly 'killed' by its temporary freshwater bath and not quite as good as if I'd called him a day earlier. The rest of it including most of the coralline algae looks fine actually, and even if it does create a bit of a cycle then I suppose that is just contributing to cycling my tank and filters and I am fine with being patient before adding other corals or fish.

 

[Mxx]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and question whether ANY exposure to palytoxins is perhaps not a good idea? If a large amount can kill us, then maybe absorbing even a small amount isn't that great for us either?

And despite whatever precautions we do take, inevitably if we're working with palythoas then regardless of how careful you or I are you are going to touch them and get some of the poison onto your gloves which you'll use to touch something which you're going to touch later on with your bare hands or which the hands of others will. It's quite tricky to be absolutely 100% 'sterile' about such things and ensure that everything you came into contact with is always completely decontaminated. To do otherwise and keep palythoas might be a dumb risk for me, especially if it's not in my nature to be scrupulously clean and cautious about such matters and as I don't have my own utility sink to 'disinfect' myself after conducting maintenance. And yes I was handling this palthoa rock with no gloves or other precautions initially, and likely handled a lot of other things thereafter before I washed my hands either, which in retrospect was perhaps not altogether so clever to do.

Thanks for the advice though, I will either take the advice given which is to keep that rock in a bucket of freshwater which I with good caution change a number of times over a good long while as I let that rock 'recure', or I'll just toss it if I can bring myself to do that.

 

[Mxx]

Mxx, we covered this is hype. In no way does coloration predict palytoxin

Simply wash hands and keep out of mouth. Zoanthus sociatus= even less of a risk.

I got that actually, was just trying to inject a little irony when describing the 'Nuclear Zoas' I'd been tempted by!

 

[brandon429]

Oic


Those aren't even available here lucky you! Post pics when you can