Whos been exposed to Palytoxin?

[Sailfinguy21]

If you get reactions like that by just putting your arm in the tank then i suggest you buy gloves that go up to your shoulder. They sell em for fish tanks. Reusable.

If you get reactions from torchs abd stuff thrn your skin is probably alot more sensative to stings and stuff then other people.. you must have allergies to it.

I can touch hammers. Torchs, anemones.. even my condy anemone which is suppose to sting you.. they dont bug me at all jist get a slime on my hands and i rub it off or something.

Its just palytoxin that got to me.

 

[Rilo]

I'm setting up a reef aquarium in an educational setting (i.e., high school). Thinking it would be prudent to avoid all Palythoa and Zoanthus species. Thoughts on this? Or pick and choose among the Zoanthus species that are known to be safe?

I wouldn't do it in a high school setting. At most I'd stick with soft coral and LPS avoiding zoanthids, and palys at all costs. I'd also avoid sps for cost and care reasons.

Peer pressure is a ***** in high school. At some point a student is going to do something stupid that could cause the death of the tank or worse exposure to palytoxin. The risk is not worth it. There are many more corals that will be just fine.

 

[Ike]

While there may be some people in this thread that have been exposed to palytoxin, many of the reports are probably exposure to a wide array of bacteria and toxins that can be present in our aquariums. If you want to err on the side of caution, wear gloves when doing any fragging or maintenance and be very careful to not touch orifices or have any curs or open wounds when working in your tank.

 

[Neptunium93]

Wasn’t there also a couple incident with paly toxin on the news lately as well? Scary stuff man

 

[2mk]

It is possible to grow corals in you blood. Although it is very painful. I heard a story once were someone was in the ocean and she scraped her knee on a coral. A few hours later her knee was swollen and very painful. They figured out she was growing corals in her blood.

mmmmm.....

 

[2mk]

While there may be some people in this thread that have been exposed to palytoxin, many of the reports are probably exposure to a wide array of bacteria and toxins that can be present in our aquariums. If you want to err on the side of caution, wear gloves when doing any fragging or maintenance and be very careful to not touch orifices or have any curs or open wounds when working in your tank.

I will definately wear gloves. Just ordered a of long shoulder lenght pair yesterday.

Have not done any fragging before until the past year or so when my hammer and Frog Spawn started to break into pieces at the base in my tank due its large size from growth during the past six years. Fragging for me means mounting broken off fragments on new stones.

 

[2mk]

Wasn’t there also a couple incident with paly toxin on the news lately as well? Scary stuff man

Me being a newbee even after keeping a 35g reef for almost 6 years, I am scared. That's what caused me to pay attention and realize what had happened to me a few times back during the past six years that I may have been poisoning myself without even realizing it. It really scares me since I now have a lot of fallen apart corals that I have to remount on stone bases.

These stories make me refuse to stick my arms in the tank when I readily did so without hesitation before to rearrange my rocks and corals, especially having a Zoa/Paly in my tank that I don't know if it's deadly or not.

 

[2mk]

If you get reactions like that by just putting your arm in the tank then i suggest you buy gloves that go up to your shoulder. They sell em for fish tanks. Reusable.

If you get reactions from torchs abd stuff thrn your skin is probably alot more sensative to stings and stuff then other people.. you must have allergies to it.

I can touch hammers. Torchs, anemones.. even my condy anemone which is suppose to sting you.. they dont bug me at all jist get a slime on my hands and i rub it off or something.

Its just palytoxin that got to me.

Thanks. Bought gloves yesterday.

 

[Prestigereef]

I'm absolutely amazed at just how common things go wrong

 

[mcpeachy]

Palytoxins aren't created by paly's or zoa's. They are created by a dinoflagellate that is eaten and concentrated by the corals. In order for a paly to have the toxin it needs to have been exposed to that dinoflagellate AND be of a type to concentrate it.
This means you can have 2 otherwise identical paly's, one that is toxic and one that is not.

there are allergy shots for cats now. I think someone needs to use this idea! lol. I'd love for someone to propagate nontoxic palys and zoas.

 

[MombasaLionfish]

there are allergy shots for cats now. I think someone needs to use this idea! lol. I'd love for someone to propagate nontoxic palys and zoas.

I don't think it works like that. Allergies are your immune system overreacting to non harmful substances. Poison is acutely destroying your body. Palytoxin is intended to destroy. I'm not sure how it works weather it goes after the nervous system or something else. Though if they figure out how to do that count me in.