Whos been exposed to Palytoxin?

[Prestigereef]

Deadly coral – Watching this might save your life one day…

 

[smartwater101]

I poisoned myself and my dog because, after a tank crash, i spent hours cleaning off hair algae and throwing it into a bucket. A gooey mess off a large zoa colony, that i thought was long gone, was part of the gunk i was unknowingly pulling up. I dumped the bucket in the tub, used the showerhead to wash it down, and Boom. Poison mist.

You can read more about my experience HERE

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I have gotten sick, vomiting, a few times several hours after working on my tank and can remember moving some zoas. Not sure if its related or not but I feel fine before and after vomiting, it comes on really sudden. I only have 3 small clusters of zoas no palys. I always was my hands before and after working on my tank.

 

[Billdogg]

I was cleaning out a 60 cube in the midst of a upgrade to a 120. The central rock was a large (+#100) chunk of pumice that was siliconed to the bottom (pumice floats). It was covered in pretty green "Texas Trash" palythoas. I managed to rub my arm in them multiple times during the clean out. I noticed my arm getting red and burning some. I looked over at my wife and told her "If I stop breathing, call 911 and tell them I've been exposed to palytoxin" When I explained the seriousness of the situation she called me an idiot and told me to wash up for dinner, so I, being the dutiful husband, did just that. My arm continued to burn/itch throughout the evening but otherwise seemed ok. I woke up about 5AM to very bad pain and large blisters covering a portion of my forearm. Off I went to the Urgent Care. Imagine the look on the admitting nurses face when I took off my jacket! I told her to google "palytoxin". That earned me a trip right past everyone in the waiting area and back to an exam room. The Doctor called Poison Control on speaker phone. They asked if the patient was still alive. I assured them that I was. They reassured me that since I had made it this far, I would continue to be one of the living! I got some steroids and pain meds and went on my way. It ended up costing me a week off work because I am a scrub tech and couldn't really scrub with my arm, well, like this!!!

That was about 5 years ago, and about 1 week post exposure. I still have the scars to prove it. I also have no palys anywhere in my system.

From what I've been able to find out, it is primarily the large ugly palythoa sp. that can be dangerous. Although zoanthid sp. are in the same family, they do not usually have a high enough concentration of palytoxin to be harmful unless you somehow aerosolize them.

 

[Prestigereef]

OUCH!

 

[LesPoissons]

I was trying to place 1st frag of zoas with my bare fingers in my tank. Didnt know better. Rubbed them a bit by accident, tounge went oddly numb and tingly and I felt just weird. Nothing major, faded after 20 min but never made that mistake again. I really think LFS should be obligated to mention palytoxin with sales.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Scary stuff for sure!

 

[Steverd]

Great I just divide 30 Zoanthids and Palys and still not done..
Great reminder.

 

[ZoWhat]

I've had pretty severe palytoxin poisoning before. In 2018.

My 180g DT is 95% palys and zoas.....Im a stupid stupid man, who scrubbed over 200 palys from various LRs in the tank with a toothbrush with my bare arms in the tank. All bc i didnt want green palys anymore.

Got palytoxin absorbed thru my skin. Possibly thru small cut(s) on my arms. Idk

My symptoms:

* rapid heartbeat (couldn't get my heartrate down below 90bpm for 3 days)

* throat and chest CLOSED up making it feel like breathing thru a straw (but I have a rescue inhaler that helped)

* extreme tiredness (just to walkup a flight of steps was exhausting)

* headache (entire head, not localized)

* Absolutely ZERO appetite. I think I ate 2 meals in 5 days

Symptoms lasted 4-5 days but symptoms got better each day. NEVER felt like I was gonna die, just severely sick

High medical deductible kept me from seeking medical attn.

What the heck they gonna do? Give a bag of IV solution and send me home with a $1500 bill? No thanks...

Again, felt sick but never like I was going to die.

 

[redfishbluefish]

When I was young and dumb....now I'm old an dumb.....I put two pair of clowns in my tank! What did I know? I no sooner released these two new clowns, and it was immediately World War III. I had to use multiple nets to try and keep the two pair separated while they tried to go after each other. My wife and I were in a panic, swinging nets around trying to catch them. In the process, my hand was hitting up against corals, some of which were palys. Eventually I had to remove about half the rock to get one pair out of the tank.

That night, welts started showing up on my hands. The following day, I couldn't get out of bed....general malaise/lethargy....just didn't want to get out of bed. Welts stayed on my hands for some time. Day two, felt better, but still not 100 percent. By day three, I was good.

I now were gloves any time I'm in or about zoas or palys.

It wasn't fun. Who would have thought that contacting them with intact skin would cause for the toxin to be absorbed and do it's thing.

 

[MikeO5422]

No joke for sure. Thanks everyone for sharing and making us safer. This inspired me to replenish my gloves

 

[Chac317]

Never had full on poisoning, but a couple times I’ve had a terrible bitter taste in my mouth that does not go away for hours after working in the tank. Seems that is a sign of exposure based on some good old google researching. Hopefully that’s as far as it ever goes

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is very serious and needs to be an awareness to wear gloves or take precautions with all Palys

 

[NC122606]

Deadly coral – Watching this might save your life one day…

Omg! Prestigereef I had no clue you were on this forum.

 

[mcpeachy]

us reefers need poison control. i'm not sure your wife realized that if you were affected by palys she could be in a short amount of time. I considered strongly whether to get zoanthids in my system. when i asked about palytoxin, there were many reefers that didn't take me seriously. i think there needs to be some major information given about how much palytoxin is in the pretty zoas vs not.

I was cleaning out a 60 cube in the midst of a upgrade to a 120. The central rock was a large (+#100) chunk of pumice that was siliconed to the bottom (pumice floats). It was covered in pretty green "Texas Trash" palythoas. I managed to rub my arm in them multiple times during the clean out. I noticed my arm getting red and burning some. I looked over at my wife and told her "If I stop breathing, call 911 and tell them I've been exposed to palytoxin" When I explained the seriousness of the situation she called me an idiot and told me to wash up for dinner, so I, being the dutiful husband, did just that. My arm continued to burn/itch throughout the evening but otherwise seemed ok. I woke up about 5AM to very bad pain and large blisters covering a portion of my forearm. Off I went to the Urgent Care. Imagine the look on the admitting nurses face when I took off my jacket! I told her to google "palytoxin". That earned me a trip right past everyone in the waiting area and back to an exam room. The Doctor called Poison Control on speaker phone. They asked if the patient was still alive. I assured them that I was. They reassured me that since I had made it this far, I would continue to be one of the living! I got some steroids and pain meds and went on my way. It ended up costing me a week off work because I am a scrub tech and couldn't really scrub with my arm, well, like this!!!

That was about 5 years ago, and about 1 week post exposure. I still have the scars to prove it. I also have no palys anywhere in my system.

From what I've been able to find out, it is primarily the large ugly palythoa sp. that can be dangerous. Although zoanthid sp. are in the same family, they do not usually have a high enough concentration of palytoxin to be harmful unless you somehow aerosolize them.

pois

 

[Ross Petersen]

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?

 

[Sailfinguy21]

I was exposed.. i didnt know much about it... and i was remove palythoas from a rock... the black goo got on my finger but i thought nothing of it. Few hours later i had a massive headache... my heart was beating fast and i had sweats.. i was cold but felt hot and i could sleep very well.... thankfully i went away the next day.

I still keep zoanthids but now i know to not cut ir scrape them

 

[tkeracer619]

I was exposed in 2012 and spent 18 hours in the ER. It was not fun, I don't recommend it. I called an ambulance because I honestly thought I was going to die... They can only treat symptoms but not the actual toxin.

At the time, longest time from exposure to death on record was 16 hours from acute heart failure. It's not something I would tough out.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Yea i felt like i was having a heart attack almost.. my chest felt like someone was sitting on it... it went away after like 8 hours.. but still.

I know this sounds bad but i never call 911 for health emergencys... with no health insurance due to the affordabke healthcare act being overly expensive. I had to cancel my insurance when it came out when obama was president.

Last time i went to the ER they charged me 3k$ for a blood test and basic look over... Imagine staying the night in the er.

Id rather be dead then have to pay tens of thousands or more.


Pretty sad how the healthcare system is in this country

 

[Evan28395950]

Nope, don’t have any Zoas or palys