WARNING : wash your hands

[BLUEaquarium06]

So a few people might know I've been crazy sick for the last 2 weeks with little improvement. Well a few days ago after lots of tests they determined what was wrong they think. It was zoas... I never wear gloves and stupidly on my part I rarely wash my hands after working in my tank. I learned my lesson the hard way and I just want to tell everyone to learn from my mistake. I did some pretty serious damage and lost 38lbs in 2 weeks. WASH YOUR HANDS.

 

[Brookster123]

Holy cow!! Glad you're feeling better

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Mr. Aquaforce]

Holy cow!! Glad you're feeling better

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Meep! Will keep that in mind

 

[Dary421]

What kind if symptoms did you have ?

 

[acewiza]

Yeah, never heard of that - what is zoas? It doesn't come up in the dictionary. A google search returns some things about corals, but that's the closest I can get to it.

 

[Sniperhank]

zoanthids. A wide swath of polyp coral that produce a toxin. Some is pretty minor where others have been used to kill, on purpose and accidental.
It is something we all should be aware of. I've forgot what was going on after working in my tank and rubbed my eyes before. Pretty irritating to be sure. Thankfully not that bad of a toxin, but allergic reactions to them can also play a part.

 

[coralbandit]

Aquarium Science: Palytoxin and You: How and Why to Avoid a Deadly Zoanthid Toxin | Details | Articles | TFH Magazine®

 

[BLUEaquarium06]

What kind if symptoms did you have ?

Hahaha what symptoms didn't I have. It started out with a massive headache when I got to work after doing a water change. About an hour into my shift I was vomiting and going to the bathroom every 5 minutes if you know what I mean. After about a day of that the vomiting stopped but the bathroom did not. I went to the doctors and they told me it was the stomach bug. After it continued for awhile and I have peeed in like 5 days I had to go back because they were nervous about my kidneys. They asked questions and I told them im always messing around with corals and the only one I know of that has serious toxins are zoas. They did some blood work to check for toxins as well as salmonella and some other stuff. I don't know that exactly but they told me it was the toxins from the zoas and what happened apparently was the toxins killed all the bacteria in my intestines and colon so I could not digest ANYTHING. But I'm doing much better now and feeling pretty good soooo yay hahaha

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Wow! I'm glad you're feeling better! Thats some scary stuff. I try not to handle my zoas much for that reason when I do have to work in my reef. Paly toxin isn't anything to mess around with.

 

[Dary421]

Hahaha what symptoms didn't I have. It started out with a massive headache when I got to work after doing a water change. About an hour into my shift I was vomiting and going to the bathroom every 5 minutes if you know what I mean. After about a day of that the vomiting stopped but the bathroom did not. I went to the doctors and they told me it was the stomach bug. After it continued for awhile and I have peeed in like 5 days I had to go back because they were nervous about my kidneys. They asked questions and I told them im always messing around with corals and the only one I know of that has serious toxins are zoas. They did some blood work to check for toxins as well as salmonella and some other stuff. I don't know that exactly but they told me it was the toxins from the zoas and what happened apparently was the toxins killed all the bacteria in my intestines and colon so I could not digest ANYTHING. But I'm doing much better now and feeling pretty good soooo yay hahaha

whoa!!! sounds rather nasty,...i wore rubber gloves the last time i was playing with the zoas, sounds like a good practice to keep up id say ,...glad youre on the mend

 

[acewiza]

So is this toxicity a normal state of affairs? If so, cannot imagine why you would keep something like that in your house.

 

[Sniperhank]

Because they are beautiful and the toxin varies.

 

[Autumnsky]

Yes, toxins are real from the Zoanthids and Palythoas - corals. And some spines of fish.

I had a frag rock I bumped off the top rock, it wasn't glued because I was still looking for the location with the right amount of light. It hit just the edge of a colony - one of these are the culprits. It bumped the far right edge.

There was a pale one in there too pink purplish looked like the Hawaiian ones.

After it bumped the opened heads, I saw milky looking liquid squirt out of at least 2, a really large squirt from one. I didn't think too much of it and yes, my hands were bare without gloves. After another 5-10 minutes the side of my hand was going numb. Finally I thought it could be from the Zoa.

Washed up really well. Later everything seemed disturbed/closed mostly. Next day almost everything in the tank was dead. It was a nano 12G. I would have done a huge pwc or 2. I didn't realize the power they had.

If you keep them, beware!

Read about some tests and some had no toxic effect, some mild and others were extreme toxic effect.

Glad to hear you are getting better.

 

[Ketso]

38lbs in 2 weeks?

Bottle that stuff and make millions running tv ads!