Zoo's and neural toxins?

[Critter]

I was watching a vid of Eric Borenman's, and he says that Zoo's produce some nasty toxins... do any of you that move stuff around in your tanks that have zoos and other coral wear gloves ?(like the white surgical kind) or do you go comando lol?
GL, I think I got some of my zoo frags from you... how do you handle them?

 

[Mal3]

Gloves are a very good idea. I have had some reaction to Palys and zoas at times. My fingers swell up when I touched them, but everyone is different. Palys are known to be deadly, and I am serious.

Ask Sanjay about how Palys wiped out the Penn State tank of fish and another persons tank too!

 

[CarlC]

I knew pretty quick when I was having a reaction. I all of a sudden got a copper taste in my mouth. I scrubbed my hands in cold water and had no other reaction.

No more zoo's in my tank so I am in the clear!

Gloves and goggles should be worn. Some zoo's and paly's have a tendency to squirt or pop when cut.

Carl

 

[Critter]

So with Zooanthus, are there different levels of toxin based on the type, or are they all deadly across the board?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10449325#post10449325 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mal3
Gloves are a very good idea. I have had some reaction to Palys and zoas at times. My fingers swell up when I touched them, but everyone is different. Palys are known to be deadly, and I am serious.

Ask Sanjay about how Palys wiped out the Penn State tank of fish and another persons tank too!

 

[Mal3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10450533#post10450533 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Critter
So with Zooanthus, are there different levels of toxin based on the type, or are they all deadly across the board?

Paly's are the worse. Zoas are not as bad. I advise use gloves and don't take a chance.

 

[coralnut99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10449325#post10449325 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mal3
Gloves are a very good idea. I have had some reaction to Palys and zoas at times. My fingers swell up when I touched them, but everyone is different. Palys are known to be deadly, and I am serious.

Ask Sanjay about how Palys wiped out the Penn State tank of fish and another persons tank too!

I certainly won't be the one to tell everyone to just dig in, but as said, everyone is different. I'm not even allergic to poison ivy. The only allergic reaction I have on any sort of recurring basis, is to oak pollen in the air in season. So if you have even a mild history allergic reactions to substances, gloves should be in your toolbox. I've fragged zoanthids, and palys with no reactions whatsoever, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that respect. The best word of caution here is with the possibility of one squirting into your eyes while fragging. That's one I hadn't considered, and I think I'll give it a good deal more thought the next time I frag mine.

 

[Critter]

The thing was, that the plugs I got my zoo's on from the last frag swap kept getting knocked over by my crabs... So I was getting tired of it, and happend on the coral fraging video of Erick Borneman's and I had an Idea... I had a couple of Frag-Mag's that I had bought some time ago... so what I did, was put on my white gloves and pulled the frag out, used my dremel to cut off the stem part of the plug, then using ziploc super glue gel, glued the flat coin shaped part of the plug with the zoo to the frag-mag. covered with wet paper towel for a minute or two then put back in the tank on the glass. Did this to both of the zoo's I had got, and it is awsome, now they are on the glass and shouldn't be getting knocked over any more. To be honest, I kind of liked the gloves... so next time I'm moving corals around etc, I'll use the gloves.

Ps anyone wanting to view the video of EB's, here is the link to a website... its on the right side about halfway down... I thought it was awsome.

http://www.wax32.com/

 

[MOX]

i go commando only thing that had an affect on me was my torch. It left a milky white specks all over my hand but it did not hurt.

 

[GL]

Re: Zoo's and neural toxins?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10447020#post10447020 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Critter

GL, I think I got some of my zoo frags from you... how do you handle them?

I never had a problem handling them. I never wore gloves either. I did make sure I never touched my mouth or eyes until I washed up real good just in case. I was not so carefree with the paly's though.


If they are the orange/blue/yellow's they came from me. It sounds like it because I had them on the larger plugs. Hope they are doing well for you.

Unfortunately my tank is not fairing so well. I went on another vacation to Canada, just got back Saturday. The person who was supposed to take care of the tank didn't, they had before, but this time the GFI tripped (never has while I was home). I came home to a brown cesspool, I lost all my fish including my wild caught true percs, all my corals except some xienia, GSP's and some hairy mushrooms (the only ones I would not mind losing ). All the shrimp, most snails, most starfish, etc.

I'm not sure what I am doing now. I'm thinking I may just tear down and forget it for a while.

Greg

 

[Critter]

Sorry to hear that Greg... the Zoo's are doing well, no major growth yet, but I just got done with a 6 mointh battle with GHA. I ended up taking half of my base rock out and putting in another tank, and what was on it which was about 70%, never came back.
I plan on removing my crushed coral sub and replacing with a shallow sand bed. I think most of my nutrient problem is in the CC. Anyway, taking a break isn't a bad idea, starting over just gives you a chance to be creative all over again good luck.

 

[insanefishguy]

Id be careful pulling it all out at once, too. I just moved and when I set my tank back up I decided to ditch the crushed coral too. Boy do I regret it. I never had a problem with algae before. Now I have bryopsis out the whazoo, and dont know how to fight it.

 

[insanefishguy]

GL sorry to hear about your tank. If you should decide to keep the tank going, I would be more than willing to give you some frags. I dont have a whole lot of awesome stuff, but what I do have, I would be more than willing to give ya some of to bring the tank back.

 

[Critter]

good points... I have planned on doing it half at a time... probably over a 2 to 3 month period. In other words, one weekend remove half the CC, and replace with sand. then wait a month or two for it to seed. then shift the remaing coral/rock over to the sand and remove the rest. I may even take a couple weekends to remove the CC depending on hard/messy it is. thanks for the input.

Chris

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10511545#post10511545 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by insanefishguy
Id be careful pulling it all out at once, too. I just moved and when I set my tank back up I decided to ditch the crushed coral too. Boy do I regret it. I never had a problem with algae before. Now I have bryopsis out the whazoo, and dont know how to fight it.

 

[GL]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10511564#post10511564 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by insanefishguy
GL sorry to hear about your tank. If you should decide to keep the tank going, I would be more than willing to give you some frags. I dont have a whole lot of awesome stuff, but what I do have, I would be more than willing to give ya some of to bring the tank back.

Thanks very much for the offer!

I'll let you know if I decide to rebuild.

Greg