ams_reef
Community Member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2020
- Messages
- 49
- Reaction score
- 44
- What state or country do you live in
- Connecticut
I think everyone here is well aware of palytoxin so there is no need to explain. I just want to share my experience to remind hobbyists to still be very diligent around zoanthids and don’t let years of zoa keeping allow you to let be lax on precautions.
So here’s what happened: I bought a single zoanthind polyp and wanted to test run new coral dips. My drip acclimator has become clogged, so, for new arrivals I have slowly drizzled in display tank water by hand every few minutes to great success. I opened the bag containing the zoanthid polyp and placed the rock it was attached to in a deli style quart container with tweezers. I start to acclimate the zoanthid and slowly drizzle in water and I immediately start to feel a little off. I didn’t think much of it. After 10 mins of gently pouring water in every few minutes I add the coral dip treatment and wait a few minutes. To shake off any potential hitchhikers I took the tweezers and gently shook the rock and agitated the water surface a bit. I immediately was hit with intense heart palpitations, it felt like super high speed, short pulses. A few seconds later I am extremely dizzy and light headed, not to the point of passing out, but to the point that I was struggling to walk to my door (I live alone in an apartment and headed to the door so that if I did pass out some one would find me). I start to feel better after 10 minutes or so, still shaky, and wonder what just happened. I go back into my apartment and enter the living room and feel OK. I then open the door to the next room where the aquarium is and start to put the frag into the display tank (not correlating the I’ll effects and the coral) and again feel heavy heart palpitations almost as soon as I stood over the frag and disturbed the water when placing the frag in the tank. I head over to my phone to call 911. In a few seconds the immediate effects had subsided, mostly, and I can’t figure out what is going on. At this point I am outside of my apartment, sitting by the main entrance, so that should I pass out or something that I would be seen by someone. I have my phone with remember hearing something about zoanthids being potentially toxic. I do some searching and find some literature about palytoxins being aerosolized. Mostly
by people boiling live rock, but also some mundane measures such as cleaning the tank. I call poison control and explain my issue, the woman has no information on corals other than dermal abrasions from physical contact and tells me to see my doctor. A few minutes later the same woman calls me and says she has read some reports of palytoxin becoming aerosolized but can’t provide much information. I have not gone to the hospital.
I feel good now, still apprehensive and paying very close attention to any symptoms. I can not prove this was palytoxin but I am almost 100% sure whatever caused these heart symptoms was what was in that water. Combining the coral dip altering the water (it had bubbles on the surface of the water, it’s viscosity seemed light thicker) and me disturbing the water surface I think somehow I have managed to get enough palytoxin aerosolized to have such a rapid, severe effect. Palytoxin is a severe vasoconstrictor and my symptoms matched that exactly.
Needless to say I am a bit worried about the tank, the skimmer especially. I do run activated carbon and will not be spending more than a few minutes in the same room as the aquarium.
So here’s what happened: I bought a single zoanthind polyp and wanted to test run new coral dips. My drip acclimator has become clogged, so, for new arrivals I have slowly drizzled in display tank water by hand every few minutes to great success. I opened the bag containing the zoanthid polyp and placed the rock it was attached to in a deli style quart container with tweezers. I start to acclimate the zoanthid and slowly drizzle in water and I immediately start to feel a little off. I didn’t think much of it. After 10 mins of gently pouring water in every few minutes I add the coral dip treatment and wait a few minutes. To shake off any potential hitchhikers I took the tweezers and gently shook the rock and agitated the water surface a bit. I immediately was hit with intense heart palpitations, it felt like super high speed, short pulses. A few seconds later I am extremely dizzy and light headed, not to the point of passing out, but to the point that I was struggling to walk to my door (I live alone in an apartment and headed to the door so that if I did pass out some one would find me). I start to feel better after 10 minutes or so, still shaky, and wonder what just happened. I go back into my apartment and enter the living room and feel OK. I then open the door to the next room where the aquarium is and start to put the frag into the display tank (not correlating the I’ll effects and the coral) and again feel heavy heart palpitations almost as soon as I stood over the frag and disturbed the water when placing the frag in the tank. I head over to my phone to call 911. In a few seconds the immediate effects had subsided, mostly, and I can’t figure out what is going on. At this point I am outside of my apartment, sitting by the main entrance, so that should I pass out or something that I would be seen by someone. I have my phone with remember hearing something about zoanthids being potentially toxic. I do some searching and find some literature about palytoxins being aerosolized. Mostly
by people boiling live rock, but also some mundane measures such as cleaning the tank. I call poison control and explain my issue, the woman has no information on corals other than dermal abrasions from physical contact and tells me to see my doctor. A few minutes later the same woman calls me and says she has read some reports of palytoxin becoming aerosolized but can’t provide much information. I have not gone to the hospital.
I feel good now, still apprehensive and paying very close attention to any symptoms. I can not prove this was palytoxin but I am almost 100% sure whatever caused these heart symptoms was what was in that water. Combining the coral dip altering the water (it had bubbles on the surface of the water, it’s viscosity seemed light thicker) and me disturbing the water surface I think somehow I have managed to get enough palytoxin aerosolized to have such a rapid, severe effect. Palytoxin is a severe vasoconstrictor and my symptoms matched that exactly.
Needless to say I am a bit worried about the tank, the skimmer especially. I do run activated carbon and will not be spending more than a few minutes in the same room as the aquarium.
