That bubbling death machine in my bedroom:
I was reading a post on Facebook with a new reefer trying to figure out what a hitchhiker coral they had on their rocks. They were a zoa or a paly of some sort and were hit numerous posts about how poisonous they are and that they can kill you and your family. Wait what !?
This stuff is seriously scaring the poop out of me. The tank can burn down my house, electrocute me, flood my house, bacterial infections, contagious tuberculosis and now poison in the air I breath. I might be safer fishing in my septic tank. I didn't have any concept of the danger in this hobby. The other real fear is that it could kill or injure my family. Being totally serious, I thought about taking down the tank and just walking away. I have been inodiated lately with article after article of how much this hobby is going to cost and how much time it is going to take away from my life with maintenance. All this only to have an inevitable crash in ten years as the rocks fill up with gunk and kill the bacteria or the fish die from disease. In the interest of informing new reefers this hobby has a way of scaring the hell out of them. If I knew all this before I started I would have run away (like you would have felt a suction as I left the LFS).
Once I was breathing normally and the panic subsided, I decide to look up more information on the subject that set me off. I found an article on "
The Dangers (and Myths) of Zoa Toxicity". It is a poison called Palytoxin secreted by the coral and it is real BUT it is incorrectly attached to all Zoa's and paly's. per the article "The truly potent species appear to be limited entirely to the genus
Palythoa, which is currently placed in a separate family,
Sphenopidae." Now I thought about the poor poster, a new reefer like me, they are likely burning their tank as we speak. The zoa they pictured was probably harmless. paraphrasing the article The colorful zoa's we typically use in our tanks are exported from Vietnam are the latter, and these are apparently lacking in palytoxin at any detectable level.
Why is this hitting me so hard. I take risks all the time. I was in the military for 20 years. I drive around in a jeep with no doors or top. I also fly model aircraft (large spinning propellers and rotors). I also put my kids on the school bus. These are active risks that I choose to take at that time. The potential for injury goes away when you are not actively doing the activity. This is more of a passive risk. The potential for injury is always there quietly lurking. My family is also at risk.
With all this panic and fear you stop thinking clearly. Fight or flight take hold and you use the primitive portion of you brain. (I often tell my kids if you panic you loose). I have to ask how more likely is it to get struck by lighting. I think if this was a HUGE death machine (outside of electrical) it would be talked about in many circles. The risks would be exaduarated and the lore would flow to every nook and cranny of our society. I don't see any of that so it must be extremely rare.
I wanted to be an informed reefer, I am now wishing I was still ignorant so I could just enjoy the tank. To the Zoa and a Paly sitting quietly at the bottom of my tank waiting to kill me. I can see you an now know your game you little turds.
Who would have thought that a fish tank was more dangerous an extreme sport.
I think I am going to make a post of this. Scaring new reefers away from the hobby.
