Yikes! Yellow Polyps

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Autumnsky

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So anyone seen any real information on the toxicity of the often called pest Yellow Polyps?

https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+2856+675&pcatid=675

Had a very negative experience when some pissed off paly or Zoa - killed most of my tank a long time ago and made my hand numb...

Basic internet info runs from peaceful and wonderful to worst pest to highly toxic.

Is highly toxic to fish also highly toxic to me too?

Also it is commented to be a colonial anemone or a Zoe or Colonial Yellow Polyps Parazoanthus axinellae, Encrusting Yellow Sea Anemone or Yellow Polyps and hasn't yet been classified from what I read.

I am about to start keeping Rare macro algae instead of corals.

Anyway, I would like to know if anyone is aware of actual science based info for this coral being a toxic monster. :confused:

Please and thank you. And I have seen people hate that they go crazy all over the tank and take over. :(
 
Well, there are some pretty closely related coral and anemone, but I haven't seen any issues with these polyps besides the fact that they are like GSP...they will overtake everything. An easy avoid IMO.
 
There was one rock with Yellow polyps and now that rock plus the two rocks on each side of it have these on them - and yes, they readily spread. Maybe will need to move them all to a pest SW tank, or maybe an island rock.

So it is embarrassing that I have these, but I also wish I had the waving hand and Pulsing /Pom Pom Xenia and blue cloves in a tank with pretty pests.

Been pretty strong to resist the newbie plentiful (pest) corals for the most part.

This yellow was from the auction and it was just so pretty, and one of the guys I kinda know said they are a good grower, not picky about food and light, not usually any problems. I looked it up quickly and maybe mistook peaceful to indicate not toxic

Next time I will check more. Gotta check quick when there is an auction with an unknown item popping up.

Then I saw an article about them being very toxic...
 
I'm not aware of them being much more toxic than anything else. It is usually the rarer zoas and palys that are more potent with toxins...but some people are more sensitive than others. I've got toxin from zoas in my eye and it only turned red.
 
Yellow Parazoanthus will spread like wildfire. They are on the low end of toxicity as far as Zoanthids and Palythoas go, Palythoas being the most toxic and in some cases deadly if you don't get supportive care. You should never handle any of them without gloves, those toxins are also absorbed through the skin.



As for the Blue Cloves and Pulsing Xenia, they too will spread like a wildfire. The difference in these and Zoanthids is that Xenia and Clove polyps are much less forgiving of water parameter deviations. If you let the alkalinity drop, they both will melt faster than an ice cream cone in July.
 
Yellow Parazoanthus will spread like wildfire. They are on the low end of toxicity as far as Zoanthids and Palythoas go, Palythoas being the most toxic and in some cases deadly if you don't get supportive care. You should never handle any of them without gloves, those toxins are also absorbed through the skin.



As for the Blue Cloves and Pulsing Xenia, they too will spread like a wildfire. The difference in these and Zoanthids is that Xenia and Clove polyps are much less forgiving of water parameter deviations. If you let the alkalinity drop, they both will melt faster than an ice cream cone in July.


Thanks for the extra info.

As a side bar, the idea that the people who can't get rid of Blue Cloves and Xenia could try killing them by changing the Alk - adding their rocks to a low Alk tank for a bit.

It is always odd how much the info out there varies - from super toxic to basically no big deal. Very wide spread. Of info on these Yellow guys.

The part about them spreading is a constant in the information though!

There are a large number of kinds of yellow polyps, though it seems the majority of the "spreads like wild fire" ones look pretty much the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any idea about the Cloves and Xenia staying on their rocks as in an island with sand around them?
 
Thanks for the extra info.

As a side bar, the idea that the people who can't get rid of Blue Cloves and Xenia could try killing them by changing the Alk - adding their rocks to a low Alk tank for a bit.

It is always odd how much the info out there varies - from super toxic to basically no big deal. Very wide spread. Of info on these Yellow guys.

The part about them spreading is a constant in the information though!

There are a large number of kinds of yellow polyps, though it seems the majority of the "spreads like wild fire" ones look pretty much the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any idea about the Cloves and Xenia staying on their rocks as in an island with sand around them?


I've been keeping reef tanks since 1985 and I was probably the first to bring in good live Xenia from The Red sea. I brought several rocks back with me after GW1. I love it and I hate it with a passion which is why it's relegated to trays under my coral runs in our shop. It's one of the best nutrient sinks out there, soaking up nitrates and phosphates like mad. Once the Xenia gets going, I stop using GFO or AlO on the coral tanks it's that good. I wouldn't monkey around with the alkalinity to try to kill it off, use a pair of shears and cut it off. You can try to keep it on an island in the middle of the sand, but you'll fail. It detaches and rolls across the sand until it finds a foot hold and attaches, hence the reason I keep it in trays on the side of my sumps.



I'm also a nurse and I can tell you that if you get a good enough dose of Palytoxin you won't survive. It's one of the most toxic substances nature has to offer. There was someone last year that cooked live rock that had zoanthids on it, had someone not found him, it would have been fatal. When we bring a shipment in that has a bunch of zoanthids in it, like Vietnam, we open the boxes under a hood that vents air to the outside, we learned that the hard way. The first big shipment left us feeling like we had the flu, it wasn't good. I can't stress enough that you need to take care with them. The yellow ones are down the list, the Giant Palythoas are at the top with ones like Rastas in the upper middle. Nature warns you, colourful creatures use that colour as a warning.
 
Thank you for your service ReefingRob. Welcome to the community!!!

I won't be killing or trying to kill anything at this point. No Xenia or Blue Cloves or any other terrible menaces, lol - excepting the Yellow Polyps. Will need to isolate them I guess.

Previously, I got effected by paly toxin/ mildly, numb part of my lower hand, pinkie and side there, from moving stuff in a tank when a frag fell a few inches and got a couple squirts in the 12G nano of toxin. Killed almost everything in the tank. Didn't exactly comprehend what had transpired, until after the squirting but after a little bit I realized what happened when my hand was getting numb.

So this is a particular reason I would rather not have mean and nasty behaving things in my tank.

Hadn't really thought of the importing aspect of the toxic release. Wow, take extra care with that for sure!

What, other than changing out the water will neutralize the effects/toxicity, if anything?
 
Thank you gentlemen, sounds like a couple of things to keep in stock at home. That Poly Filter is magical (and a little expensive). Only have a few inches of it presently, so next supply order, it will be added in.
 
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