Can this coral kill me?

Malifry97 · Nov 11, 2019

Sea MunnKey said:
If I can find my one & only selfie of my blistering eyeballs ... (I'm not a selfie picture guy myself pleaseee .... ;Nailbiting) . I'll post it here if I do locate it.

Oh Gosh! I’m curious.

Arsenix2001 · Nov 21, 2019

I learned the hard way last night. I added two mixed zoa colonies of about 50-60 polyp's each to my tank last night. One I set ok and the other wasnt quite right. Thanks to the info here I had been diligent about wearing gloves the entire time but had all but finished and thrown them out. At the last minute I decided I wanted to adjust the last colony juuuuust alittle bit so I carefully went to grab a bare spot of the live rock to nudge it. Turns out it was bare, there were two polyps on the underside I felt me thumb squish. Within a few minutes the tip of my thumb just felt warm and funny. Over the next 4-6 hours I got extremely tired like I took a Benadryl, had a mild headache and a slight slight bitter taste in my mouth. No heart racing or high/low bp though. Woke up this am feeling better but my thumb still feels alittle odd and I almost feel a bit hung over. Can garauntee I wont be going anywhere near those things without gloves/eye protection from now on. Ran a cup of activated carbon in the tank afterwards. Not a fun evening....

Fishurama · Nov 21, 2019

Fishurama said:
I guess you know more then the NIH. You arent going to get sick just putting your hand in the tank or even touching them. You need to inhale,ingest it, or literally try to get the poison in your blood stream through a cut in your skin. There are many videos of people touching them, new,advanced, aquarists with bare hands, they don't die, it shouldn't harm you. As i stated, you literally would need to try to like squeeze the zoa/paly into a cut and try to hope it has enough toxin to harm you. Or as someone else here posted, had a cut and scrubbed rocks in the tank allowing it to build up from destroying them all at once. I stick my bare hand in my tank all the time, you will be fine. There is a reason these are considered a beginner coral, and almost killing you just for touching it, would highly go against that. With all that said, when fragging be careful, wear eye protection, wear mouth protection, cover any large cuts and you should be good.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5099280/

I forgot to post this on my last post. I posted the normal/average reefer, here is Mr.Tidal Gardens himself as well. No gloves, youll be fine. As stated by the NIH, you need to literally eat it, inhale it, or try to squeeze a zoa over a cut trying to get sick,get in your eye,etc. You aren't going to get sick just by placing your hand in a tank with them. It needs to get into your blood stream, you skin protects you against that(unless cut as stated)

brandon429 · Nov 21, 2019

If I had that coral, Id take no special precaution with it over any other coral. Thats how we dealt with palys in our house 2001-2012 or so when I replaced that rock for no particular reason with sps.

I dont buy paly fears, simply due to thousands of handling instances. I realize there are web issues reported, it just doesnt happen in our house. what i would not do is rub them in my eye directly or fail to wash hands after handling.

I was in very close contact with our local LFS for that long as well, they were selling paly rocks by the hundred pounds over the years, no cautions whatsoever. they were like any other rock.

All paly death risks seem to have started recently I can't explain why its not a huge deal in these circles vs the web

perhaps boiling rock is a change that aerosolizes them, we didnt do that. we wouldnt scrub them furiously or anything, but handling them normally nbd for us.

Gw2kpro · Nov 21, 2019

Fishurama said:
I forgot to post this on my last post. I posted the normal/average reefer, here is Mr.Tidal Gardens himself as well. No gloves, youll be fine. As stated by the NIH, you need to literally eat it, inhale it, or try to squeeze a zoa over a cut trying to get sick,get in your eye,etc. You aren't going to get sick just by placing your hand in a tank with them. It needs to get into your blood stream, you skin protects you against that(unless cut as stated)

The issue with that is, it's very easy to rub around your eyes with your hands if this is something you do infrequently. Even if you're wearing glasses. I think that it's a best practice to wear disposable gloves when fragging. Not only does that protect your hands when handling them, but it's a constant reminder to not touch your mouth and face.

Fishurama · Nov 21, 2019

Gw2kpro said:
The issue with that is, it's very easy to rub around your eyes with your hands if this is something you do infrequently. Even if you're wearing glasses. I think that it's a best practice to wear disposable gloves when fragging. Not only does that protect your hands when handling them, but it's a constant reminder to not touch your mouth and face.

Ive already stated that,quoted below, my point being,physically touching it wont harm you, and that is a fact. If you feel "something" just from touching them, its placebo. I would still use eye protection/a mask personally as ive stated,Im more worried about it getting in my eyes or mouth. Where it then can cause damage to sensitive soft tissue(your eye) or accidentally digesting it through your mouth by accident if it squirts, where the real issues could arise, then could send you to the hospital.
Putting your hand in your tank, grabbing them, touching them, etc will not harm you unless you have a cut and then try to literally drip the toxin in since your tank water will already dilute it to nothingness. Like im quoting below, i do agree to wear protection(lol) people don't need to act like touching this coral is a death sentence. Watching out for your eyes/mouth is the biggest part. Sadly whoever started that myth is giving these corals a bad name.

Fishurama said:
I stick my bare hand in my tank all the time, you will be fine. There is a reason these are considered a beginner coral, and almost killing you just for touching it, would highly go against that. With all that said, when fragging be careful, wear eye protection, wear mouth protection, cover any large cuts and you should be good.

sde1500 · Nov 21, 2019

Fragged some zoas off a rock last night, no gloves, cut them off the rock, glued them to the plug, then back in the tank. Still alive to write this.

Or am I...

Fishurama · Nov 21, 2019

sde1500 said:
Fragged some zoas off a rock last night, no gloves, cut them off the rock, glued them to the plug, then back in the tank. Still alive to write this.

Or am I...

Sorry you are dead. Saw you on the news last night. Brutal.

ruskimax · Nov 21, 2019

Hard to make definitive ID’s, but as stated earlier these seem to be relatively harmless Z. gigantus. Trouble palys, though often similar in color, have white stripes radiating from the oral disc. As also pointed out, these grow like mad and you may regret leaving it (poisonous or not) in the future.

Arsenix2001 · Nov 21, 2019

Well someone says safe or not, I find it beyond coincidence that I touched (roughly mind you) these two polyps and from that exact spot is where the heat/tingling radiated for hours. Let alone the other side effects that followed. There is plenty of documentation now showing non-cut skin absorbing the toxin. Take whatever chances you want, I I'll be wearing gloves!