Hey everyone,
I recently bought a nice birds nest paradise colony, I acclimated the coral in the bag and then did a drip acclamation into a bucket and then moved it into another bucket with water straight from the tank. While doing the rinse in the third bucket I noticed some hitchhikers on board there were 2 bristle worms and a fire worm but I used a tooth pick to get into the tiny crevices to get them out. After I felt that the birds nest was adequately free of parasites and was fully acclimated I placed it into the main display all while doing this I did use gloves the entire time. Shortly after I had a metallic taste in my mouth, light headed, dizzy, chills as well as after I throughly washed my hands under warm water and soap they felt as if they were vibrating for a short amount of time. I inspected the birds nest again from within the tank and thats when I noticed what appears to be one small brown palythoa hitch hiker in the center of the colony. I went to the ER because I do know the severity of palytoxin, after I was seen they ran a few test and the doctors and nurses all looked at me like I was crazy.
I had told them that this is going to sound strange and that they probably wont know what this is and that I may have gotten palytoxin poisoning while cleaning my corals. They did some research and contacted poison control who was also stumped at what this was and had to have some time to research it. They checked my temp and it was normal, my heart rate was normal about 60 bpm and blood pressure was good. They kept me monitored for about 4 hours and also did some blood tests that came back with an elevated reading of rhabdomyolysis at 400, and did an EKG that came back normal. I slept for the most part in the ER and started to feel better but was not given or prescribed anything and told to hydrate due to the rhabdo. Still feeling a little light headed with intermittent chills and the metallic taste comes and goes. Has anyone had similar symptoms, or any information that could help I do know a bit on the topic but very few resources of treatment and severity of each case as I don't feel as bad as some of the other articles I have read. I believe while digging the parasites out with the toothpick that the paly maybe have squirted me in the mouth or something not entirely sure as I did not even see it tucked into its tiny hole until it popped out in the tank. I guess I will always be wearing glasses and face mask even when not working with Zoas or palys because you never know who is truly hitch hiking on your coral. Just filling in what happen to me in hopes it will help anyone else out as well if anyone has any advice or personal experience in this anything helps.
Thanks everyone!
I recently bought a nice birds nest paradise colony, I acclimated the coral in the bag and then did a drip acclamation into a bucket and then moved it into another bucket with water straight from the tank. While doing the rinse in the third bucket I noticed some hitchhikers on board there were 2 bristle worms and a fire worm but I used a tooth pick to get into the tiny crevices to get them out. After I felt that the birds nest was adequately free of parasites and was fully acclimated I placed it into the main display all while doing this I did use gloves the entire time. Shortly after I had a metallic taste in my mouth, light headed, dizzy, chills as well as after I throughly washed my hands under warm water and soap they felt as if they were vibrating for a short amount of time. I inspected the birds nest again from within the tank and thats when I noticed what appears to be one small brown palythoa hitch hiker in the center of the colony. I went to the ER because I do know the severity of palytoxin, after I was seen they ran a few test and the doctors and nurses all looked at me like I was crazy.
I had told them that this is going to sound strange and that they probably wont know what this is and that I may have gotten palytoxin poisoning while cleaning my corals. They did some research and contacted poison control who was also stumped at what this was and had to have some time to research it. They checked my temp and it was normal, my heart rate was normal about 60 bpm and blood pressure was good. They kept me monitored for about 4 hours and also did some blood tests that came back with an elevated reading of rhabdomyolysis at 400, and did an EKG that came back normal. I slept for the most part in the ER and started to feel better but was not given or prescribed anything and told to hydrate due to the rhabdo. Still feeling a little light headed with intermittent chills and the metallic taste comes and goes. Has anyone had similar symptoms, or any information that could help I do know a bit on the topic but very few resources of treatment and severity of each case as I don't feel as bad as some of the other articles I have read. I believe while digging the parasites out with the toothpick that the paly maybe have squirted me in the mouth or something not entirely sure as I did not even see it tucked into its tiny hole until it popped out in the tank. I guess I will always be wearing glasses and face mask even when not working with Zoas or palys because you never know who is truly hitch hiking on your coral. Just filling in what happen to me in hopes it will help anyone else out as well if anyone has any advice or personal experience in this anything helps.
Thanks everyone!
