Allergic reaction to something in a tank..... :(

I'm worried... :-/

As some of you know I maintain aquariums for a living. I only had 1 tank to do this morning, it was a 72 gallon bow front reef tank.

I am used to maintaining aquariums, never had any allergic reactions before.

It's funny because just yesterday I replied to PufferChick's thread about getting itchy skin/rashes from synthetic salt water. My reply stated that I often come home with annoying bristle worms bite from touching live rock/replacing filter floss (bristle worms in the floss). It's annoying-- but I never had any problems with it since they go away quickly.

Well today, I didn't touch any live rock. I mean I may have touch a few pieces but usually a bad case of bristle worm bites comes from touching ALL of the rocks (re-aquascaping, etc). Today I didn't do anything like that--- just a general maintenance (water change/clean filter media/clean skimmer/clean algae, etc).

I felt fine directly after the service. Did not notice anything. I sat down to talk to my mom and I went to go scratch my head and I felt how different my middle finger felt. I looked at it and its very swollen and its CROOKED! I can't straighten it out. It also feels numb. I took benadryl and I am icing the finger.

I am kind of worried though...... I never had anything like this happen to me. There tank has 1 rock covered with zooanthids- do you think it could be their toxins??
:-/

 

reef daily

that sounds possible to me, because I have a very similar situation myself very recently
I know when fragging zoanthids to wear gloves, but last weekend all I did was move one colony in my tank yet my 3rd finger also swelled up and was hard to bend an a bit painfull for 2 or 3 days afterwards - its OK now

I assumed it was the Zoanthids but maybe I got spiked by something else in there?

Steve

 

Palytoxin poisoning usually gives you a real fast heartbeat, nausea and the turkey squirts. (At least that's what it does to me). Zoanthids have very little palytoxin compared to sea mats and palythoa. I had a vermetid snail shell in my thumb for 4 or 5 days last week and that's what caused it to swell (a little) and make it hard to move.

 

my heart rate seems find.. i do feel a little shakey but i dont know yet if its from the finger or overall stress/worry it has brought upon.

ill keep u updated.

benadryl wasnt a bad idea, right?

thanks guys

 

Benadryl is exactly the right thing to take. Once one of my buddies got squirt in the eye while fragging and got poisoned real bad. I had him take Benadryl and the ambulance gave him even more Benadryl via an IV tube while taking him to the hospital.

 

ok good.. thanks again!

 

you can always go to the doctor just to make sure.

 

Of course I could but I don't want to go unless I need to. I feel fine, if it were to worsen I would..

 

Sorry to hear that. I guess its the same thing as with anything right? Some people can be allergic to anything, for example my mom is allergic to bee stings and she swells up really bad when she gets stung. Were their maybe any poisonus fish in there? ie foxface/lionfish..but then again you would probably feel that right away. I guess just be extra careful from now on, you must be allergic to something.

 

wow! that scary! hope your finger is doing better