Palythoas experience (almost in hospital)

waynemah · #1 04-18-2011, 12:39 AM

Hi All,

I'm fairly new to this hobby (just over a month in), I bought my tank used *turnkey*, or so I thought.

I paid a professional to help with the move of my tank, we all got sick for over a week (including my dogs). Fever, chills, body aches, headache... I would say it was the worst feelings i've encountered. Since I've owned the tank I havn't felt 100% always feeling a little sniffly and sore.

With the tank purhcase I received an abundance of brown/green palythoas. I liked them at first, but once my tank cycled they started to grow everywhere. I wanted to remove them slowly out of my tank. Aparently removing them is a pain (litteraly).

Last night I had taken a very small patch off of the rock, this came off very easy like a small carpet. My idea was to slowly remove this stuff and give it away. This morning I woke up to a few pieces of SPS completely bleached, a plate coral retracted and the fish not doing well. This frustrated me and they had to be removed. I slowly took every rock out one at a time and cut the pieces off, using gloves and a resperator (didn't want to take chances). This was around 7:30 AM, I then did a water change and removed the large offending rock all together.

At 10:00 ish it hit me, fever, chills, sore everywhere. By 1:00PM I was debaiting going to the hospital once again. Just now do I feel ok enough to type at a computer (currently dizzy and a temperature of 38+ degrees).

I guess the moral of the story is, the palys that I have CAN kill your tank and harm you/family/pets. I wore glasses/gloves and resperator and still got owned, along with loosing some SPS and possibly my fav plate coral

Be careful with these things, I believe they can produce airborn toxins that can hurt you. My wife is affeted as well, and she was only around the tank momentarily (not touching anything).

Attached is a picture of the now removed palythoa.

fencer · #2 04-18-2011, 01:08 AM

been there and done that

Edmonton newbie · #3 04-18-2011, 01:25 AM

fencer did you just create a new sn to tell us all about your latest adventure? lol

fencer · #4 04-18-2011, 02:26 AM

no ...just too weird

corrosionjerry · #5 04-18-2011, 02:57 AM

I think I just purchased some of this stuff yesterday...

I put it into my tank with my bare hands.... guess I must just be lucky not to get sick or is it because some people are more sensitive then others to it?

Will use rubber gloves from now on when I am moving these critters

waynemah · #6 04-18-2011, 03:00 AM

I think the toxins are released when you pull the off the rock or squish them. I would suggest moving them to a separate piece of rock to control the spread.

daniella3d · #7 04-18-2011, 11:38 PM

That's probably it. Some people will die if sting by a bee...I just develop a small bump that is gone in a few days.

A lot of people can't help but to feel sick, once they learn that there is a potential problem with a toxin. Since here we can read that the man used a respirator, it is obvious that he knew about the risk and that could have affected the perception or even created the reaction. A bit like someone fainting just to the sight of a needle

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by corrosionjerry

I think I just purchased some of this stuff yesterday...

I put it into my tank with my bare hands.... guess I must just be lucky not to get sick or is it because some people are more sensitive then others to it?

Will use rubber gloves from now on when I am moving these critters

hillegom · #8 04-18-2011, 11:56 PM

Google palytoxin. You will read that is the second most deadly toxin in the world.
Good thing not all palys have this toxin.

waynemah · #9 04-19-2011, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniella3d

That's probably it. Some people will die if sting by a bee...I just develop a small bump that is gone in a few days.

A lot of people can't help but to feel sick, once they learn that there is a potential problem with a toxin. Since here we can read that the man used a respirator, it is obvious that he knew about the risk and that could have affected the perception or even created the reaction. A bit like someone fainting just to the sight of a needle

.

I believe you are referring to hypochondria, but does not explain why my dogs and wife (which knows nothing about palytoxin) were sick as well. Dogs were weasing and slept for most of the day, they both were warmer than usual.

Googled hypochondiac dogs, resulted in nothing.

I used the resperator during the fragging of the palys, I then removed it once in another part of the house (upstairs).

cale262 · #10 04-19-2011, 01:02 AM

I bought a couple of rocks covered in these Paly's about 6 weeks ago, the person I bought them from took them out of his tank wearing CL gloves and I didn't think anything of it. When I got home I took them out of the bucket with my bare hands, there are so many paly's on these rocks that there was really no rock to grab without grabbing a paly, I felt a couple of them pop under my fingers, even though I was trying to be careful, there was just nowhere else to grab the rocks and the are heavy enough that I couldn't help but pop one or two....Either way I didn't really think anything of it but I did spend the next week in bed very ill with some of these very symptoms.