How Toxic are my Zoos ?

[jacko]

I posted last week about killing my corals off with Joe's Juice:

I lost my LPS: a 3 headed FrogS., a splitting 6 to 9 headed FrogS., an open brain (about 4 inches across), a 2 inch purple & green fungia, and a three-headed trumpet. As well as a few digitata, m. cap, birdsnest, & pocilaporra. All my softies & zoos lived just fine, as did the acros.

I have been trying to figure out how this happened and I blamed the high pH resulting from using Joe's Juice (lime slurry) combined with my usual kalk top-off addition later that night. But I did not use a huge amount of ether, and I have used both in my tank for months. So, it seems that there is something else going on...

After talking about this to GHiller today, I got to thinking: I used Joe's Juice to kill my mojanos AND I used it to kill off a rock of ugly zoos.

I hated these zoos because they grew too fast, and they lacked color. So I Juiced them. I was remembering all the threads on the toxicity of zoos ... people killed their dogs, and whatnot, so can anyone tell me, how bad dead zoos are to my tank? Would their toxins kill LPS? Does anyone have any evidence of this?

[thedude]

I would lean towards very toxic to other reef inhabitants. The toxins they contain were likely developed/evolved to discourage other reef critters from eating or moving in on their territory. I'm pretty sure that the toxin isn't specific to certain reef critters, it would apply to all.

That is more true since it isn't only toxic to reef critters, it also hurts us and our pets. I also believe I read that certain island natives used the toxins on their spear tips.

Nasty stuff.

[EricHugo]

It also sort of depends on which zoanthids you are referring to and the toxicity is somewhat species and time of year dependent.

[rbattle]

Also, you happen to come across one of Eric's pet peeves. It is not zoo: Zooxanthellae are the symbiotic algae in the coral tissue. Zoanthids are the polyps of which you are speaking.

For what it is worth, I am scared of zoanthids toxicity in closed systems. Many people have them in large numbers in their tanks, but just the presence of the toxins that have been extracted from the polyps is enough to keep me from wanting them in my tank.

Rush