Palythoa

[jdavid]

So most of you have palys/zoas in your tank. When I think of a zoa I think of a smaller polyp, and palys the larger ones. For those of you who have larger paly's like the ones in the attatched picture or similar, how do you go about handling them? I'm sure a lot of you have heard about palytoxin, and maybe read about someone being poisoned by zoa/palys. I'm curious, what precautions do you take? Does anybody know what the probability of having toxic palys in your tank is? I was just reading a thread that I found in a search engine where a woman seemed to believe that her whole family's reoccurring illness was caused by palys which she described as looking exactly like mine- purple with green centers. Her description "They are attractive, small and purplish in color, with a bright green pinpoint center. You can see the green glow under the blue lights."

Mine have a much brighter green than any of the pictures I have taken indicates, and the green does indeed glow under actinics.

I'm just wondering, is it possible that a good bit of reefers actually have large amounts of one of the worlds most lethal toxins. Also I have read that there is reason to believe that they promote skin cancer/tumors.

So tell me, if you have palys do you worry about the palytoxin when you handle them? Has anybody here ever became ill after handling/fragging palys? Does anyone here frag palys with bare hands?
Does anyone here take precautions? Tell me your thoughts, Im interested to chat about it.

I myself wear thick kitchen gloves (not latex.. the other kind cant remember what its called)
and then I'm paranoid about touching doorknobs or my animals drinking the water that runs off the patio where I break the rock. Also I wear protective eyewear and I have had a paly squirt me in the face already. I do feel funny after I work with them but I think it is probably more of a placebo effect going on. Nothing serious. Still I am paranoid that an invisible amount of toxin remains on something I touched on the way to the tank from the patio, and I am reluctant to touch my eyes and I think I kind of scare my girlfriend about it a little bit too. There are plenty of links about how deadly the toxin is, but few about the average aquarist ingesting the poison.

I'd like to hear your thoughts or experience with them

Edit:

 

[ripped tide]

There are other reefers who are way more reactive to the toxin than myself, but I have had "palytoxin poisoning" before. My main symptoms were migrain and chest pains. I moved a tank that had a bunch of palys. During the move, I cut my finger on a piece of rock. When I grabbed the palys to place them, I knew that I had messed up. The symptoms didn't take place immediately. It wasn't unti about 4-5am the next day that I started feeling nauseous, migrain, and chest pains.


It felt like I had drank an 18pack plus a heart attack, minus being hammered.


Being stubborn as hell, I didn't go to the doc or hospital. I worked the full day and just dealt with it. The next day I woke up feeling a lot better and just assumed that it was palytoxin poisoning.

I try much harder to avoid them now. That was the only time in 10 years that I have had an issue.

 

[jdavid]

did all the palys look alike or was there many kinds in the tank?

I pretty much always have a small cut on my hand somewhere. you can feel a slight sting when you place your hand in SW where the break/cut in the skin is. Im considering getting some longer gloves online, couldnt find and that reach the elbow anywhere. maybe I should check home depot, they might have them for some reason

what you are saying is consistent with some other reports I have read.

while the toxin in only a dose of micrograms entering the bloodstream should be lethal in minutes, and that analyzed palys after incidents contained mg's of palytoxin per g. So bascally in .25 grams of toxic palythoa there would easily be enough to kill you

Edit: yet- aquarists never die from them

 

[ripped tide]

There are many different type of palys. I think that I either got lucky, or have an immunity from handling them bare handed through out the years. I used to get a head ache from bristle worms. Now I just rub em in and continue what I am doing.

Shane- containerman1

Stephen- McPhock

Jaycen B.- Jaycen B.

And a few others have had some rough experiences with palytoxin.

For gloves- check with a feed and seed for "cattle" gloves

 

[containerman1]

JDavid;843129 wrote: did all the palys look alike or was there many kinds in the tank?

I pretty much always have a small cut on my hand somewhere. you can feel a slight sting when you place your hand in SW where the break/cut in the skin is. Im considering getting some longer gloves online, couldnt find and that reach the elbow anywhere. maybe I should check home depot, they might have them for some reason

what you are saying is consistent with some other reports I have read.

while the toxin in only a dose of micrograms entering the bloodstream should be lethal in minutes, and that analyzed palys after incidents contained mg's of palytoxin per g. So bascally in .25 grams of toxic palythoa there would easily be enough to kill you

Edit: yet- aquarists never die from them

Well I am one of the few who have been poisoned and spent the weekend in the ER I guess its been 8 or 9 mths ago.
I use to handle all kinds of zoas and palys without gloves but I had a cut in my hand and the palytoxin set in and I had a very fast heart rate, fever, difficulty breathing and shaking all over. I went to the ER asap
The Dr. Told me if a person ever injested one ( ate a zoa or paly ) there was nothing they can do other than watch and pray. They would put them on a ventilator and hope the toxins wear off.
He said it happens to dogs more than people. People drop a zoa or paly on the floor and their dog eats and dies.
It seems after I was obsessed with reading about the zoas and palys that the green and brown were thought to have a higher rater of posioning people. Its very hard to know which ones are more potent because they morph all the time.
Wear gloves and eye protection and be very careful . Alot of people still handle them but you just have to be very careful

 

[mcphock]

Ripped Tide;843132 wrote:
Stephen- McPhock

Good memory.

They've got me twice! Once through an open cut, and the other.... heh... shot goop in my mouth while I was trying to tweeze it off a rock.

Both times, the symptoms came on late at night/early in the morning. I was freezing! Laying on my bathroom floor in a front of a huge space heater, but I couldn't get warm. I was also pretty violently shaking. So much so that I should have gone to the hospital.

I did not, and was fine the next day.

 

[joseayes]

Come on Jaycen B. you are missing, we want to hear you.

 

[jdavid]

containerman1;843139 wrote: Well I am one of the few who have been poisoned and spent the weekend in the ER I guess its been 8 or 9 mths ago.
I use to handle all kinds of zoas and palys without gloves but I had a cut in my hand and the palytoxin set in and I had a very fast heart rate, fever, difficulty breathing and shaking all over. I went to the ER asap
The Dr. Told me if a person ever injested one ( ate a zoa or paly ) there was nothing they can do other than watch and pray. They would put them on a ventilator and hope the toxins wear off.
He said it happens to dogs more than people. People drop a zoa or paly on the floor and their dog eats and dies.
It seems after I was obsessed with reading about the zoas and palys that the green and brown were thought to have a higher rater of posioning people. Its very hard to know which ones are more potent because they morph all the time.
Wear gloves and eye protection and be very careful . Alot of people still handle them but you just have to be very careful

wow. gloves and safety glasses, noted

Edit:

McPhock;843157 wrote: Good memory.

They've got me twice! Once through an open cut, and the other.... heh... shot goop in my mouth while I was trying to tweeze it off a rock.

Both times, the symptoms came on late at night/early in the morning. I was freezing! Laying on my bathroom floor in a front of a huge space heater, but I couldn't get warm. I was also pretty violently shaking. So much so that I should have gone to the hospital.

I did not, and was fine the next day.

nearly shot goop in my mouth too- I know what you are saying there

 

[snowmansnow]

If u have a cut and pallys... Wear gloves. You don't know how it may affect you. It can be deadly. There is a reefer here that had a really bad round or 2 w it

 

[elithelion]

I read a post where a guy boiled live rock that had zoos on them. Whole family was in the hospital for days.