Zoas that dont contain Palytoxin

[Krixic]

As long as you don't plan to boil your rocks you will be fine. These are a great colorful, generally easy to keep, sadly with a bad name attached to them because a few people choose to boil their rocks. Don't be afriad, there is a reason these are listed as beginner friendly for being so "deadly."

For sure, although my question is why people would boil their rocks to remove them? Are they so difficult to remove that they must be killed?

 

[Daddy-o]

Thats accually a very good point. Almost every house on the planet have bleach and vinegar, if someone were to be irresponsible and mix them together, they can poison their whole household (releases clorine gas). As long we are responsible,these things are not a danger to us. Strange how new things can provoke so much paranoia to the human mind. Thanks again

Heck, the cyanide in 1 cherry pit can kill you but we all still enjoy them and let our kids eat cherries
Cheers! Mark
On a side note, if I was to get 1 variety of zoa, it would be Goblins on Fire

 

[Krixic]

Heck, the cyanide in 1 cherry pit can kill you but we all still enjoy them and let our kids eat cherries
Cheers! Mark
On a side note, if I was to get 1 variety of zoa, it would be Goblins on Fire

True! And those are really pretty! I plan on having a lot of green and red in my tank so this might be a good choice!

 

[Daddy-o]

True! And those are really pretty! I plan on having a lot of green and red in my tank so this might be a good choice!

I have about 30 varieties in my 30 gallon. Are you in the Bay Area?
Cheers! Mark

 

[Krixic]

I have about 30 varieties in my 30 gallon. Are you in the Bay Area?
Cheers! Mark

Sort of. I'm in Sac but I plan on going up towards Mendocino area little later this month.

 

[Fishurama]

For sure, although my question is why people would boil their rocks to remove them? Are they so difficult to remove that they must be killed?

Some people think they will release toxin in the water, some people think its easier overall for removal, you might have more pests and not even want to remove the zoas but have to,etc. There could be many reasons. I wouldn't ever.
They are easy to frag. I purposely picked this video(not the best way to frag them, but to show my point) of this guy doing it without gloves... and he is still alive today. Like all the others you can find who did it without gloves.
Like i said, just don't boil them LOL

 

[fish farmer]

For sure, although my question is why people would boil their rocks to remove them? Are they so difficult to remove that they must be killed?

It's like this, aquarium owner gets some big green/brown palys overtaking their rock. The pretty zoas/palys IME grow slower than the ugly ones. The owner wants to save that big slab of rock and put pretty corals in that spot....out comes the scrub brush, vinegar, boiling water, flame thrower....icky paly goo gets everywhere.

I think the only coral that has kept some of my brown palys at bay are green mushrooms and those are even more invasive.

 

[Krixic]

Got

It's like this, aquarium owner gets some big green/brown palys overtaking their rock. The pretty zoas/palys IME grow slower than the ugly ones. The owner wants to save that big slab of rock and put pretty corals in that spot....out comes the scrub brush, vinegar, boiling water, flame thrower....icky paly goo gets everywhere.

I think the only coral that has kept some of my brown palys at bay are green mushrooms and those are even more invasive.

Got it!

 

[Kaboobie]

I love the way these things look and so does my wife (could probably get so many because of this fact alone) but unless someone could tell me 100% they don't' contain any palytoxin I just can't tank the risk of adding them to my tank, unfortunately. I care about the safety of my family too much to put something I know to be such a hazard in my house where my child lives.

 

[ScottB]

Somewhere on this sight are links to a research paper where they measured palytoxin concentrations across species. Again, they were (almost) all paly, not zoanthids (although the species delineations are fluid).

I am in charge of dinner so leave it to you with access to google to find the paper.

As to the reference that only aerosolization causes problems with palytoxin, that is completely inaccurate. Maybe that is how one could die, but it is far easier to get sick if you come across the rare species you should not molest.

 

[Krixic]

Somewhere on this sight are links to a research paper where they measured palytoxin concentrations across species. Again, they were (almost) all paly, not zoanthids (although the species delineations are fluid).

I am in charge of dinner so leave it to you with access to google to find the paper.

As to the reference that only aerosolization causes problems with palytoxin, that is completely inaccurate. Maybe that is how one could die, but it is far easier to get sick if you come across the rare species you should not molest.

I believe fishurama posted this article earlier in the thread, but yes they do mention that most all zoas sold in aquariums stores are low in palytoxins. Thanks for the input!

 

[Silverrshadow]

Very glad I found this thread as my brother and husband both are starting to collect (and eventually frag) zoas!

 

[Chewbacca]

I need to know what size flame thrower do I need or should I get the biggest one I can find? It may be truck mounted.



just a stick in the rib for fun

 

[jbilliel]

I recently got a small rock of two different kind of zoas and accidently bumped into it when I was cleaning the sand bed doing a water change. I immediately realized what I did and washed up good, but now it has me a little freaked out. Do people wear gloves when doing water changes?

 

[ScottB]

I recently got a small rock of two different kind of zoas and accidently bumped into it when I was cleaning the sand bed doing a water change. I immediately realized what I did and washed up good, but now it has me a little freaked out. Do people wear gloves when doing water changes?

I generally only wear gloves when I am taking zoa colonies out of the water. If I had to handle palythoa I would wear gloves.

 

[SmugglersReef]

I had these before. They grew like weeds and I moved rocks around a lot years ago. We started getting headaches so I removed them from the tank. My LFS had a senior employee go out on disability for 2 months. He cut his finger in a tank and then was moving around some of the poisonous ones and he ended up in the hospital. The toxin traveled up his arm and he had several blood transfusions. So stay away from these. I was thinking of adding some colorful ones in my newest tank recently but I spoke with my friend who is a fish veterinarian (really, he has a non profit aquarium) and he said basically they all could have the toxin. I read a study was done a while back and when they cut into a sampling of polyps they found about half of them had the toxin in them. There was no definite answer of which ones.

 

[Krixic]

I had these before. They grew like weeds and I moved rocks around a lot years ago. We started getting headaches so I removed them from the tank. My LFS had a senior employee go out on disability for 2 months. He cut his finger in a tank and then was moving around some of the poisonous ones and he ended up in the hospital. The toxin traveled up his arm and he had several blood transfusions. So stay away from these. I was thinking of adding some colorful ones in my newest tank recently but I spoke with my friend who is a fish veterinarian (really, he has a non profit aquarium) and he said basically they all could have the toxin. I read a study was done a while back and when they cut into a sampling of polyps they found about half of them had the toxin in them. There was no definite answer of which ones.

Well thats reassuring

I think i still will tough it out and get them. Enough people have had them to live and tell the tale so I will too.....right?

 

[jbilliel]

Call me paranoid, but I am strongly considering ripping out the frag of zoas and palys that I just put in my tank before they grow and make it even harder to erradicate. Given the zoa is probably not too bad of a problem should I attempt to pull the rosta zoa off or would I be pushing my luck?

 

[SebastianReefer]

Yikes, well I suppose a face shield might not hurt then haha. Appreciate the info, I will be cautious when I decide to introduce them to my tank

Just don’t be boiling and rock in the house that can make everyone in the house sick

 

[Tahoe61]

Utter Chaos grow really fast. I just removed them from my display for fear they would take over slower growing zoanthids.
The palys, utter chaos were isolated on a rock so I just reached in, no gloves and pulled the frag plug.
Wash your hands thoroughly and avoid molesting any palys or zoo and you will be fine.