** Share any symptoms of possible palytoxin poisoning you may have experienced.

[A. Grandis]

Good to have you guys reporting the poisoning here!!
Thanks very much for taking the time.

It would be great if you could post PICTURES OF THE ZOANTHIDS you are talking about, beside your injuries, so we would have a collection of images to know what exactly organisms we're talking about.

Please avoid identify them only with their usual "cartoon names".

It is not late to post your pictures and relate them to your past post number (on the top right of every post).

Thanks, share the info and keep this rolling!!!

Be safe out there!!

Grandis.

 

[toontjuh]

I've been getting sick for the past 8 or 9 months or so. At first didn't even think about my ugly brown palys which i've rearanged for way too many times. After each time handling them the symptoms would get way worse.

Numb fingers. Tingeling all over my arms. A heavy metal taste in my mouth. Drinking anything was like drinking rusty old water. Heavy fevers which lasted for days and days. My breathing was terrible. Lots of clear mucus. Unable to tell wether i was warm or cold. Constant migraines. Waking up in the middle of the night with full body cramps. Fainting. Emergency trips to the nightcare. The list carries on.

ended up staying home for a few months, but with nothing to do i kept busy with my aquarium.
finally i had terrible trouble even walking. Picking up a glas of water to drink was way too troublesome. Very confused. Unable to eat. Constantly throwing up. Constantly sleeping, sometimes for several days. Or unable to sleep and awake for several days.

as soon as i touched my tank water the entire proces would start again. I just couldn't put two and two together.

when the weight started dropping faster and faster and after so many tests without zero results, even brainscans and x rays. I started selling my corals, because i wasn't able to care for them.Now after not having touched any type of pally or zoa for almost 2 months things are getting better.


they could never find out what was wrong, all test result left them clueless. I never got a definitive answer if it was my pally's. All i know is the huge difference i am feelling.


reading through this post made me realize how careless i was with them.

i even let the rocks with pally's dry in my room for days and then just scraped them off with water or boiled them off. Constantly getting a dose of palytoxin.

 

[jnotjane]

I know this is an older thread, but I'll chime in on my experience from about 18 months ago. I keep a 29G Biocube and at the time I lived in Phoenix and had several nice colonies of zoas and palys, along with a number of other lps corals. I had just gone through a rough patch in my life (lost a parent, 2 pets and a close famnily friend in the span of a few months) and in my depression I had let my tank go. I finally got around to cleaning the tank up, which involved moving corals around and lots of slime.

The first night I was sick, it hit suddenly and we thought I had food poisoning. I threw up until there was nothing left, then kept throwing up. After that initial bout, I would throw up about 45 minutes after eating anything remotely solid. Over the course of the next 2 months, multiple ER visits and every test the drs could think of, the last test they finally performed was an upper gastric test that showed my upper stomach muscles were not functioning. Basically, the nerves in my upper stomach were paralyzed.

Fortunately, after 2 months, the muscles gradually regained function. It took about 6 months before I could eat normally and I still after 18 months have to be careful with certain foods, but I'm pretty much fully recovered. The drs. never did figure out a definitive diagnosis, all blolod test showed no sign of an infection or other pathogen. But the liver function indicated I may have been poisoned. At one point things were so bad that my husband and I actually discussed what was to be done if I died (I NEVER want to see that look on his face agian!).

The best guess the drs. had is that I somehow ingested a small amount of palytoxin by eating or drinking something after cleaning my tank. I now am extremely cautious of handling any corals and scrub down with lots of soap and hot water and then wait a bit before eating or drinking anything. Was it palytoxin? Was it something else in the water? I don't know for sure, but I'm not taking anymore chances.

 

[r1racer]

For the last week I have been moving my rocks around and plucking off vermatids bare handed. Caught what I thought was a cold for three days. The next day I go back into the tank because my rasta zoas were tipped over on their frag plug. They were clearly stressed and I moved them...I touched them as I felt the slime.

Fast forward to this morning and my left upper eye lid was swollen and still is a bit 14 hours later. Also, when I drink water underneath my lip on the inside of my mouth goes numb and tingles. My hands are cold and I am getting tingles from my shoulder to my fingertips and developing a minor headache.

I also had wheezing for about 15 minutes last night about 10 minutes after I touched them.

 

[650-IS350]

numbness and tingling in the mouth is usually signs of poisoning. same as metallic taste.

To everyone ALWAYS use Protective equipment. Safety glasses, gloves, mask. In the case of any squirting. Do not take things for granted.

 

[mystikal]

curious to know how long these symptoms may have lasted for?
12 hours-One day-two day-one month-two months?

 

[mfin77]

Which corals are poisonous? When people say palys on here do you mean zoos? I'd like to stay away from the poisonous corals

 

[kinomatika]

just had an exciting run-in with palytoxin myself.

got some live rock the other day and didn't realise that one of them was just totally encrusted with palythoas. i'm actually really new to the hobby so i didn't know what they were at all and thought they were probably just very small aiptasia. i pull the rock, dunk it in the utility sink full of water as hot as i can stand, and start picking these itty bitty palythoas off the rock with planting tweezers.

that was at about 7am today, and it's noon now. i feel alright except for shortness of breath and i can't quite inhale all the way, sort of the same feeling you get when you inhale water after swimming.

no headaches, runny nose, tingling or numbness, though i did have a mild metallic taste in my mouth for a bit. i'm gonna take some benadryl and if it doesn't get better by tomorrow i'll go to the doc.

 

[Evo_1983]

Thanks

Thanks

I just had to register to say thanks to the people in this topic, new to the hobby and just had my first experience with paly after reading horror stories online I made sure I used gloves etc, but very worried I have a leave burn on my arm from cooking.

Pretty sure I got nothing in it but been feeling anxious all day since, now I'm unsure if it's just the horror stories
Or a mild dose of paly, no other symptoms though so hopefully no biggy but wanted to thank you all for a informative post

 

[Rispa]

Can anyone share the varieties that they're having this effect from? I know that summer supposed to be more potent than others and it would be good to hear which ones are which.

 

[albano]

I made sure I used gloves etc, but very worried I have a leave burn on my arm from cooking.

not exactly sure what you mean by that statement, especially 'from cooking'

 

[Evo_1983]

not exactly sure what you mean by that statement, especially 'from cooking'

It should have said "œlarge burn from cooking" being a large open wound something which would make the paly toxin enter the body with ease.

Anyway 12 hours later I feel fine so I think I was more worried about the toxin than actually ever affected.

 

[albano]

Ohhh, I was worried that you were "˜cooking' the rocks, which could release toxins thru out your house.