Almost killed myself, wife and dogs. Novices, Please read! - Page 5

CStrickland · 02/05/2016, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reelfishy

Good tip for novices and experts. Before cooking live rocks, it is a good idea to let it sun dry for a few days.

I haven't seen anything to indicate that dried out palytoxin is less poisonous.
In fact, I read a post in another thread where the guy dried the rock out, and later kicked up some dust from it - killed his dog and put himself in the er.

entropygain · 02/06/2016, 11:39 AM

I'm surprised that boiling could vaporize palytoxin given its chemical structure. However, something toxic is getting released for sure. There is also a report in the scientific literature about multiple cases of very similar origin. More details in the link below if anyone wants more technical information.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3770997/

Frontier · 02/06/2016, 02:23 PM

I have a short story along these lines. When I first started in this hobby back in the day, I purchased a rock with a couple of different colonies of Zoas/Polyps. As everyone does when they are eagerly starting their first tank, I was constantly rearranging things with my bare hands - including this rock.

Around that same time period I started having some very strange heart arrhythmia and other symptoms including a metallic taste in my mouth. This was very scary and I went to see my doc who ran tests and referred me to a cardiologist. I finally, luckily, put two and two together when I ran some searches on "metallic taste" and found a small blurb somewhere concerning a person who had experienced the same thing from touching Golden Polyps. Guess what was on that rock? Ding!

It was pure chance that searching "metallic taste" caused me to find this after frantically researching for days to try to figure out What horrible disease I had and *** was wrong with me. In short, I never touched them (or that rock) again and the symptoms went away for good.

Edit - These suckers: Yellow Polyps

If you read down -
Palytoxin
The members of the Zoanthidae family have varying degrees of poison called palytoxin. All of the Palythoa genus and most Protopalythoa genus produce a high level of this poison in their mucus and gonads. Other genera, such as the Zoanthus genus, have it to a lesser extent, and so a less dangerous degree.

These are worse than Zonathus genus evidently. Who Knew? LFS was selling them as "Golden Polyps" and I bought them. It's easy to find info on this now, not so much in 99/2000.

FortyFour · 02/25/2016, 09:54 PM

Years later, thank you for sharing.

02/06/2016, 11:39 AM	#102
entropygain Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: San Diego Posts: 283	I'm surprised that boiling could vaporize palytoxin given its chemical structure. However, something toxic is getting released for sure. There is also a report in the scientific literature about multiple cases of very similar origin. More details in the link below if anyone wants more technical information. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3770997/ __________________ ...remind me to go diving more often Current Tank Info: 140 gal LPS/Softie reef

02/06/2016, 02:23 PM	#103
Frontier Duke of Valonia Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Ft. Liquordale Posts: 312	I have a short story along these lines. When I first started in this hobby back in the day, I purchased a rock with a couple of different colonies of Zoas/Polyps. As everyone does when they are eagerly starting their first tank, I was constantly rearranging things with my bare hands - including this rock. Around that same time period I started having some very strange heart arrhythmia and other symptoms including a metallic taste in my mouth. This was very scary and I went to see my doc who ran tests and referred me to a cardiologist. I finally, luckily, put two and two together when I ran some searches on "metallic taste" and found a small blurb somewhere concerning a person who had experienced the same thing from touching Golden Polyps. Guess what was on that rock? Ding! It was pure chance that searching "metallic taste" caused me to find this after frantically researching for days to try to figure out What horrible disease I had and *** was wrong with me. In short, I never touched them (or that rock) again and the symptoms went away for good. Edit - These suckers: Yellow Polyps If you read down - Palytoxin The members of the Zoanthidae family have varying degrees of poison called palytoxin. All of the Palythoa genus and most Protopalythoa genus produce a high level of this poison in their mucus and gonads. Other genera, such as the Zoanthus genus, have it to a lesser extent, and so a less dangerous degree. These are worse than Zonathus genus evidently. Who Knew? LFS was selling them as "Golden Polyps" and I bought them. It's easy to find info on this now, not so much in 99/2000. __________________ Current Project: Small, low nutrient, SPS reef with a few select LPS corals and a couple of fish! :) Current Tank Info: Red Sea Reefer 170 Last edited by Frontier; 02/06/2016 at 02:47 PM.

02/25/2016, 09:54 PM	#104
FortyFour Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Denver, CO Posts: 371	Years later, thank you for sharing.