Whos been exposed to Palytoxin?

[scardall]

curious , could some people be allergic to paly's/zoo's ? I have touched them while moving their rock or frag plug with no issues.

 

[Stevegrant]

I had never heard the word Palytoxin before I decided to cull overgrown palythoas. About 4 hours after I finished I was watching TV and my right eye began to sting. It’s a long story that I won’t bore you with but I ended up in hospital with my cornea melting. A week later I had a corneal transplant. My opthomologist ended up doing aa paper and talk to other eye specialists here in Adelaide South Australia

 

[Sailfinguy21]

curious , could some people be allergic to paly's/zoo's ? I have touched them while moving their rock or frag plug with no issues.

touching them when moving is different, me and others get sick when you cut them or boil them on the rocks or scrape them off rocks.. its the goo "blood" they let out that gets you

 

[Fourthwind]

This was me.. please take this stuff seriously folks. It's no joke!

Palytoxin Nearly Killed my Family and Pets! | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

A traumatic event happened at my house this week. My family and pets became very sick and in the dogs case, near death. A chain of events lead to my house being filled with aerosolized Palytoxin.

reefbuilders.com

 

[ca1ore]

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?

I helped a local school set up a reef tank some years ago and strongly advised avoiding palys/zoos. While we reefers really ought to know better (palytoxin has been known about for decades), high school students do not. In this particular case, they went with softies and the tank was spectacular. Better, in fact, than any softie tank I had ever setup ..... :mad:

 

[ZoWhat]

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?

@Ross Petersen

IMO, Extremely irresponsible to have any palys in a high school.

If word got out that ingesting only one polyp would probably kill you.... I could see a possibility of one student getting one polyp from the tank and sneaking into someone's lunch sandwich that they hate and want to see die.

Immaturity and peer pressure and social status are fueling unpopular bullied kids to do some very stupid things....acting out in ways like never before.



.

 

[InkedReefLady]

Both my husband and I have had incidences where we've worked in former set ups (no palys or zoas in our 300 gallon!) and felt like we've had the flu and or a metal taste in the mouth after either working directly with them or in a tank that has them. They are pretty, but we will not keep them now.

Even at coral expos, I walk right by the vendors that sell them.

Ain't no body got time for palytoxin poisoning! LOL!

 

[Tamberav]

I get headaches and a bad cough when fragging palys....not just any zoo/paly (not all are toxic) but definitely the ones known to harbor a lot of toxins. I got rid of my purple death paly because I was sick of feeling sick.

 

[truperc]

I touched some captain america paly's in my tank and ended up rubbing one of my eyes. couple hours later my eye was burning. Into the ER with a Morgan Lens for a half hour (this isn't fun). Went to the ophthalmologist the next day to get drops. She confirmed that it was paly toxin from the small holes burned in my cornea. I am glad I didn't wait any longer to go to the ER! When I read that Stevegrant had to have a cornea transplant i count myself as very lucky.

 

[Brew12]

curious , could some people be allergic to paly's/zoo's ? I have touched them while moving their rock or frag plug with no issues.

Palytoxins aren't created by paly's or zoa's. They are created by a dinoflagellate that is eaten and concentrated by the corals. In order for a paly to have the toxin it needs to have been exposed to that dinoflagellate AND be of a type to concentrate it.
This means you can have 2 otherwise identical paly's, one that is toxic and one that is not.

 

[scardall]

Palytoxins aren't created by paly's or zoa's. They are created by a dinoflagellate that is eaten and concentrated by the corals. In order for a paly to have the toxin it needs to have been exposed to that dinoflagellate AND be of a type to concentrate it.
This means you can have 2 otherwise identical paly's, one that is toxic and one that is not.

Thank you. Those facts explains alot for me. I wonder if these toxins would be released naturally without any phisical outside influence by us?

 

[tony'stank]

I was redoing the aquascape . I placed all the live rock in saltwater in a kiddie pool on the outdoor patio. There were a lot of green zoas
on the live rock. There was no heater in the kiddie pool and the the zoas must have gotten stressed as the water cooled. My dog drank some of the water. She started vomiting and died very quickly

 

[Brew12]

Thank you. Those facts explains alot for me. I wonder if these toxins would be released naturally without any phisical outside influence by us?

I have no idea. The science on palytoxins has been advancing quite rapidly in the last 3 or 4 years and much of the previously accepted information has been proven wrong.
The only thing I can tell you for sure is that I take precautions when working with all of my zoa's.

 

[Ross Petersen]

@Ross Petersen

IMO, Extremely irresponsible to have any palys in a high school.

If word got out that ingesting only one polyp would probably kill you.... I could see a possibility of one student getting one polyp from the tank and sneaking into someone's lunch sandwich that they hate and want to see die.

Immaturity and peer pressure and social status are fueling unpopular bullied kids to do some very stupid things....acting out in ways like never before.



.

Absolutely agree. I'll only be purchasing corals that are within reasonable safety consideration - definitely no Palys.

@Ross Petersen

IMO, Extremely irresponsible to have any palys in a high school.

If word got out that ingesting only one polyp would probably kill you.... I could see a possibility of one student getting one polyp from the tank and sneaking into someone's lunch sandwich that they hate and want to see die.

Immaturity and peer pressure and social status are fueling unpopular bullied kids to do some very stupid things....acting out in ways like never before.



.

No Palys for sure. I just need to discern if some Anthozoas are safe. Seems to be a grey area...

 

[ducati1212]

I avoided them for this reason. I dont really like the look anyway and there are plenty of other corals out there.

Im also more of a fish guy with corals than a coral guy with fish so its not a huge loss for me.

 

[RomoFL]

I have paly which hitchhiked on my live rock and also a small group of zoas I bought from LFS.. worst I’ve experienced was a tingly on my arm and a slight itch. I guess I am lucky. The palys have since gone dormant thanks to cyano.

 

[DxMarinefish]

Can Palytoxin be released into the atmosphere and thus into the room as part of the water surface agitation?

For example, a condition may arise where corals with paly's can become stressed (the reefer has not physically messed with them), and they release toxin, which then becomes part of the air/moisture in the room.

I have some Zoas, and with two small kids i don't want to risk it.

Usually i rarely mess with the tank and I always use gloves.

Just seems like Russian roulette to me and I don't really need to have them.

 

[MombasaLionfish]

I was glueing corals to my rock. One of my zoas got rubbed squirted out brown goo into the water. Luckily I was wearing gloves.

 

[2mk]

HI everyone! I have join R2R for a while and this is my first post. Hearing about paly toxins for the first time after keeping a 35g reef tank for close to 6 years (inherited an abandoned tank from my nephew due to lack of interest) is a shock/surprise to me. My favorite coral has always been Zoanthids due to its wide range of colors, but I was never really succesfull in keeping a colony for more than 6 months except for one.

Currently my tanks (55g Aquaoen & 35g Red Sea conbine into one sump) are dominated with Hammers, followed by Frog Spawns that I had kept during this time. My other corals are 2 Shrooms, a few small mid size Leather Coral, and on colony of Paly/Zoanthids.

Usually my fingers felt swollen and tingly painful especially when my fingers sustain minor cuts caused by my live rock sharp protrusions.

Long story short, I have had at least 2 instances before that I felt not well for a few days after sticking my bare hands in the tank to reposition my corals. The worst case was 3 days of headaches, numb fingers, minor breathing difficulty as far as I can remember.

That one time was caused positively by me touching my leather coral.

My question is, are all corals toxic? Any thoughts on this topic? Anyone heard of bad health effects, or developing health issues such as heart problems or others associated with long term exposure to corals in general? I am really concerned. Any inputs anyone?

Is the below item really toxic? is it a Paly or Zoanthids?

 

[MombasaLionfish]

HI everyone! I have join R2R for a while and this is my first post. Hearing about paly toxins for the first time after keeping a 35g reef tank for close to 6 years (inherited an abandoned tank from my nephew due to lack of interest) is a shock/surprise to me. My favorite coral has always been Zoanthids due to its wide range of colors, but I was never really succesfull in keeping a colony for more than 6 months except for one.

Currently my tanks (55g Aquaoen & 35g Red Sea conbine into one sump) are dominated with Hammers, followed by Frog Spawns that I had kept during this time. My other corals are 2 Shrooms, a few small mid size Leather Coral, and on colony of Paly/Zoanthids.

Usually my fingers felt swollen and tingly painful especially when my fingers sustain minor cuts caused by my live rock sharp protrusions.

Long story short, I have had at least 2 instances before that I felt not well for a few days after sticking my bare hands in the tank to reposition my corals. The worst case was 3 days of headaches, numb fingers, minor breathing difficulty as far as I can remember.

That one time was caused positively by me touching my leather coral.

My question is, are all corals toxic? Any thoughts on this topic? Anyone heard of bad health effects, or developing health issues such as heart problems or others associated with long term exposure to corals in general? I am really concerned. Any inputs anyone?

Is the below item really toxic? is it a Paly or Zoanthids?

It is possible to grow corals in you blood. Although it is very painful. I heard a story once were someone was in the ocean and she scraped her knee on a coral. A few hours later her knee was swollen and very painful. They figured out she was growing corals in her blood.