fact or fiction

[laverda]

Hi
I just got my first zoos at a frag swap. The guy I got them from told me they were deadly poisiones. Later I asked another experianced club member, if all zoos were toxic and he told me he never heard any such thing and thought some one was pulling my leg.
It would not supprise me if the were toxic to eat, but I don't think any of us plan on doing that. But how carfull do we really need to be.
This is starting to sound like an urban mith.
So what is the risk to the average Aquarist? Where is the data? who did the studies?
Steve

[SeanT]

Zo's are very toxic.
Never handle them with open cuts on fingers and wash well afterwards.

[beerguy]

Here's a link for you:


http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=158730&highlight=toxic

[SeanT]

Read this:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=158730&highlight=toxic%2A

And this:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=158663&highlight=toxic%2A

[laverda]

HI
I read the threads before I posted. I would be devistated if that happen to one of my dogs. I will extreamly caful working with my tank while the dogs are nearby!
I was more woundering about the day to day handling of thing in my tank. Thanks for the rapid responses.
Steve

[mnreefman]

i touch mine all the time when feedinf the tank or just moving things around

[KorbinDallas]

I think the problems happen if you ingest their slime, or if you have an open sore and touch a cut zoanthid. Someone just told me sunday that they were fragging some common zoos all day and his fingers turned black for awhile. :eek: Scary stuff. Treat them all as though they are deadly poisonous.

[ez1ez]

I have fragged over 100 zoo's in the last 2 months.. I have glued them to rocks so they can start new colonies. My hands started getting stiff, where I couldn't make a fist. They felt very sore and swollen. After a month I went to the MD. to see if I had the beginings of Hypertension or High blood pressure. He told me I was fine that it was probably just atheritis go home and if it persists he would do more tests. Then I read the post on toxicity of zoo's. I started wearing gloves and keep my hands out of the water. Well my hands aren't stiff anymore. I read that it won't kill you to touch it but the toxins build up in your system over time of continueous interaction, and then it will pose a problem. But everyones body reacts differently. I still love zoo's but now I use long gloves... since I read this I have found out that there are sponges that do the same. Most of the toxic sponges never make it to tanks but they exist. Goodluck, SAM

[KorbinDallas]

ez1ez,
Were you cutting them and then picking them up with your bare hands? Or was it the result of just touching the intact zoos with your bare hands? I'm just trying to figure out if I'm in danger from picking them up once in awhile.

[ez1ez]

I was taking a colony of zoo's scraping of a few polyps with a exacto knife and then glueing them with super glue Gel to a new rock. (I'm starting new colonies to trade once they grow) I never used gloves. Palytoxins will build up in your system like I believe its cyanide, a little wont kill you but you won't feel good. as it builds up in your system you have different reactions until.............. A LFS just gave me a zoo carpet to frag for them. Im using gloves this time.

[Badmort]

You start losing your train of though midsentence? = )
Hey Ez1 What type of softy is that in your sigpic? I want a frag
please.

John

[cal3v]

EZ1 I think that might possibly be bristleworm spines and not the zoos, at least from what I've experienced.

[dchisenh]

Well, I thought what everyone was saying about palytoxin was pretty cool, so I did a quick google search on it, and found a couple interesting websites.

Some people now apparently believe that since only sporadic species are known to posess the toxin, that it's not actually produced by the polyps, but by dinoflagellates and is concentrated in the coral.

I've listed two websites (one technical, and the other not so technical) that I found real quick, that are pretty good snippits about the toxin.

http://www.cbwinfo.com/Biological/Toxins/Palytoxin.html

http://www.chem.orst.edu/ch331-7t/ch334/MOTD116.htm

Personally, I've experienced neurotoxins first hand through handling a wild red-eft of Notophthalmus viridescens (Eastern Red-spotted newt) when I found him while I was hiking. Having kept newts before, I picked the little guy up and put him in my pocket and proceeded back down the trail and within minutes, I noticed that my lips were a little numb. My finger tips also were kind of "tingly" and I noticed I couldn't taste anything, like my tongue had gone to sleep. It lasted for about a half an hour or so, nothing major, but the only contact I had with the newt was with my hands when he kept trying to crawl out of my pocket. I never handled him again. ;) Since they contain a form of tetrodotoxin (the stuff in those poisonous fugu puffer fish), I don't want to risk fate twice.

Just thought I'd let y'all know. :)

-Dan

PS, I think that's a Dendronepthya sp. of soft coral in ez1ez's sig, VERY hard to keep alive in captivity. I remember reading that the folks at the Waikiki Aquarium in Hawaii had trouble keeping them alive for very long even with their expertise. I think it's one of those corals we should admire in the ocean, for now at least. :)

[ez1ez]

My sigPic is a picture I took of a friends tank. He calls it a carnation and has it hanging upside down in medium current.