World's 2nd deadliest poison, in an aquarium store near you!

[thewackyreefer]

I would be very careful handling zoas and gloves and eye protection are very important. Every see a paly shoot toxin out of it? Goes about a foot and if you catch that in the eye you will not be happy. It has happened to several people I know and it does not feel good.

I don't think anyone has seen "toxin" fly out of a paly considering a vast majority do not contain the toxin. Again, getting anything in your eye is going to make it hurt, turn red, etc. and I think it's a safe bet to say those issues are due to the bacteria and not a DEADLY toxin.

 

[sprinklerdudes]

well it is a very exciting hobby we are in, but there are real dangers , salt water is very conductive , i have been knocked silly trying to adjust a florescent light fixture above my tank, , you know that hurt, it hurt alot, i know a couple of people who swear they almost went blind from fragging colinies of zoes , and while cutting had one squirt in there eye, i believe it happens, i know from experiance , it was late one evening, and i was cleaning my tank, i had a huge frogspawn, probaly about twenty heads or more, it had started sending out feeder tenticales, well one of the clown fish came up and nipped me on the knuickle, it startled me, and i accidently slamed the back of my hand agianst the frog spawn, to my suprise i got stung, a large red mark looked like a ciger burn, about twenty minutes later my hand and arm were numb, i couldnot move my hand, it lasted for over four hours, i had tingling ,and slight numbness in my fingers for days, if this harmless frog spawn can do that, i know the other cute little brown palys and hundrends of zoas traded around with out knoledge of origin can surly contian some pretty nasty stuff, just my .02 cents

 

[sprinklerdudes]

whats more dangerous, driving to the fish store or owning a fish tank, i think the drive is more dangerous.

 

[Ryan2112]

If you don't want to wear gloves glasses and a mask that's on you it's your life. But to say its over board if people want to be safe when handling anything that has the potential to be poisoness shame on you. Even if it's only one in a million chance that your going to get sick or die. that one person who does get sick I'm sure took info from someone that said you don't need any protection people do it all the time. It's better to be safe then sorry it's very important teach people the safe and correct way so stuff like this doesn't happen.

 

[mnat]

Gloves are not needed at all:

 

[mnat]

I spent some of today in hospital getting my eye washed out as I got some Palytoxin in my eye that squirted out of a zoa when i was fragging it. My eyes nice and red and i have a few burns on it. Should be back to normal after a few days though. I was lucky.

 

[RackDeep]

This past weekend I actually experienced some paly "juice" squrt into my right eye and I immediately rised it out with fresh water and went about with what I was doing not worry about it at all. Well the next morning I woke up and my eye was extreamley red. As the day progressed it became very irritated and half swollen shut. Later that night I found some bacterial eye drops that I previously had prescribed to me for another eye injury. After putting the drops in for 3 days the swelling went down and the irritation and redness subsided. Obviousley I didn't die but precautions should definitely be taken when cutting up some corals and eyeware and gloves are definitely a good idea

 

[dougers31]

Just getting saltwater in your eye can cause all sorts of bad stuff I would imagine... I mean fish poop in there for goodness sake. You never know what kind of bacteria etc is in that tank so being cautious would be smart IMO.

 

[Reef Breeders]

there was an article in coral mag all about toxic reef animals, I remeber palytoxin was a main feature. I have never really been careful with zoos, I guess I should start then, huh?

 

[mainereefer]

probably 80% of whats in your fish tank is venomous, toxic, or poisonous. I wouldnt be scared, just like anything dangerous it needs to be respected and as mentioned these are live animals and need to be treated as such

the first thing I ask ppl when they are considering a sw tank is are you allergic to bee's if they are I recommend a fw tank. any stinging coral,nem,and or half the sw fish can send you to the hospital. or even kill you

I see lfs all the time with squirrelfish or fang blennys.... even some tangs have venom(sohal) I have never seen a warning sign or an employee warning anyone about them being dangerous


I always have a bottle of hand sanitizer by my tank, I use it before and after touching anything in my tank

 

[Rydogg420]

I read this before from this person posting here in R2R, I am so against to what he did. You don't like the palys or zenias etc. post on the site and there is a bunch of beginners or people that like them, and will drive to get them, there is no need to kill the coral !!! Had he gave them to someone he would not have gone throe this ordeal. thats my .02

I agree with you.. I hate killing corals and always try to give them to my LFS if noone else I know wants them. The guy who owns the LFS gets mad at me for bringing him my red cap all the time (even though he sells it and makes free money) But I tell him I do not want to just kill huge chunks of coral because its growing well..

Also I hear pink zoa's are more likely to make your hands numb from their "poisons"..

 

[Betroc2]

I had a stinging on my wrist after moving some of my rock around. What kind of gloves can you wear that don't fill up with water and make it hard to manover your hands and see what your doing? Most gloves are just too short.

 

[amppdx]

I had a stinging on my wrist after moving some of my rock around. What kind of gloves can you wear that don't fill up with water and make it hard to manover your hands and see what your doing? Most gloves are just too short.

You can rubber band them off, but latex gloves (or similar) can get torn pretty easy doing rockwork. I use dishwashing gloves banded off on the end. You lose alot of feel but for aquascaping it really isnt that big of a deal imo

 

[KatyEnochs]

Just a little side note, the toxin does not go away when dry, it's actually more concentrated. One of my dogs managed to sneak a small old frag plug from behind me in the fish room that had fallen at least 3 weeks prior, so it was completely dry. Unfortunately, despite fast medical attention, my dog did not survive. A quick google search will show multiple people with pets who have also died because of palytoxin.


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[3dpilot]

Reason why I don't have any paly or zoa's in my tanks. I really like them though, what a shame

 

[glb]

I don't think face, eye and hand protection is overboard at all. I'd rather be safe than sorry. If anyone has ever been to the hospital for this, then there's reason to be careful IMO.

 

[Mrfresh]

I remeber reading yhis on rc. Crazy stuff

 

[spspirate]

Thats some good reading Rev!

 

[WatercolorsGuy]

The chances of you getting sick by a zoa are slim to none. I wouldn't and I wont worry about it.

Wow...very dangerous thinking. We have had several mishaps just this past year by experienced reefers in our club resulting in serious injuries from zoas.

 

[reefgeek96]

I also got some "paly juice" in my eye once when I was fragging and it was terrible I can tell all the skeptics that palytoxin is nothing to mess around with.