Just a reminder

Hi gang. I wanted to post this last week but never got around to do it so here we go. This is what i experienced last week.

I bought a small piece of LR with a small colony of Zoo's on it (around 30 - 40 polyps). I used the drip to acclimate it and when everything was ok i put the piece in the tank. Now that was around dinner time. After i put the kids to bed (8:30 PM) i started doing a water change. I used a very small hose to siphon the water since i wanted to have time to suck up some hair algae so it took about 20 minutes. Plus i moved some LR around to give some place to my new corals.

Well about half way in to the water change 2 of my fingers started to feel a bit numb. I've experienced this before playing around my button polyps and my finger leather coral. So im thinking no big deal right.... wrong. Since i just added the Zoo's to the tank im sure they were a little stressed out so the were kicking out Palytoxin big time (FYI palytoxin is the poison Zoanthids secrete as a defense mechanism). So when i got done changing the water as usual i washed my hands and got on with my business. Well the more time passed the more the more the numbness expanded to my whole hand. Now were talking 3 hours after it started. About 4 hours later i was numb almost up to my shoulder. My heart was racing and i was feeling a little "woozy".

At around 2:00 AM My heart was back to normal the numbness was down to my elbow but i still was a little dizzy. The next morning i was ok except for the numbness. As time went by so did the numbness but it took all day for it to go away. At around 3:00 PM the next day i can honestly say that i didnt feel anymore symptoms. So that would mean about what, 18 hours before the palytoxins lost there effect on me. WOW!!!

I've read a thread on another forum about a guy that was fragging Zoo's in a rubbermaid tub and his dog drank the water. The dog died after only 12 hours.

So enough babbling on my part. Just a reminder to WEAR GLOVES when you handle your corals. Not only Zoo's allot of corals will secrete some sort of poisonous toxins that could hurt you in some way.

Sorry for such a long post :-/

Marc.

 

Hi Marc,

WOW........glad to see you're OK.

Gloves are essential indeed. They should be worn automatically (just like wearing a seat-belt) before turning on the ignition.

 

Wow!

 

Was your delay in posting the story due to the fact that you COULDNT USE YOUR HAND TO TYPE??? hehehe just kidding!

The same kinda thing happened to me, not as bad though! When I bought my first Zoo's I was naive to think they were all harmless....I did my research as I do before I buy anything....must have overlooked that info Got my corals acclimated and placed in the tank....then went on to read more about them online...all the sudden it was noted everywhere that they can harm you if stressed, then noticed I had a small cut on hand, as my hand started to tingle....I was freaking out!!!! Of course I felt all weird too, but think it was just because I realized what might have been happening! The numbness calmed down....but I learned my lesson! Got gloves ASAP!!! So glad to hear you were alright...kudos for staying calm! Such a sad story about the puppy, hopefully your post will help to prevent such incidents in the future!

 

Just think if you had a cut on your hand and they had a way to get into your blood stream easily. Everything I have read about this toxin says there is no cure and it can be fatal if enough of it gets into your system.
One of life's lessons.
I am truly happy that you did not have a worse reaction!!!!.
I probably would have panicked and had a hospital run a million dollars worth of tests so they could tell me there was nothing that they could do.

Jim

 

Wow, glad to see your ok buddy. I had a similar experience when I purchased an anemone. I started re-arranging stuff and ended up tearing my whole right side of my reef. Moving corals around, well I guess they started secreding stuff cuz I was feeling a bit dizzy and had a little numbness in my arm. Very dangerous stuff.

I have considered gloves, but wont help me do stuff comfortably in the tank, so I plan out what I'm gonna do when I need to stick my hand in there so it can be quick.

 

Thanks for the kind words everybody.

Well i guess the only good thing is where im from medical care is free ;D. So i wouldnt have a huge bill but at the end they would still tell me that my luck is out.

Although i was fine the next day (well later that next day) it made me think of how powerfull those toxins are. I didnt panic (im not the type to panic for anything really : ) And yeah i was glad i didnt have a cut on my hands.

I was looking at different kind of gloves. I can see what your saying rickzter about gloves being a pain to work in the tank. Wouldnt just a regular pair of surgical cloves to the job?

Marc.

 

Thanks Reef Lover.

 

O man...i guess i need to get better gloves...right now i only use latex gloves...i have some heavy duty ones but they are hard to use for corals...im saying this because i play the banjo and i have alot of cuts on my fingers lol...hope my zoos dont get mad at me...the only time i ever had a tingling feeling is when my anemone got stuck in the power head and i was holding it to the rock untill it took hold...that was odd