Bought a frag from my LFS

kdsealyon

Member
Sorry about that.




You never know. Sometimes little critters will slip in under the radar, and you may not notice them for a long time. A lot of marine critters are experts at hiding in tiny crooks and crannies in the rocks. It's not unusual to find new things in the tank a few days, weeks, or months after adding a new rock or coral. Of course, you should dip corals before adding them to our tanks, because every once in awhile, a not-so-friendly hitchhiker may tag along.
Like a really cool crab! mwhahaha
 

KHow

Member
Just to go back for a second.... The coral that she posted up top... What is the name or type? And will my dang ole foxface devour it?
 

pegasus

Well-Known Member
Just to go back for a second.... The coral that she posted up top... What is the name or type? And will my dang ole foxface devour it?
Some palythoas contain palythoa toxica (palytoxin), although it's more common in zoanthids. This is the second deadliest poison known to man. Not many creatures will attempt to eat palys or zoas...
 

bang guy

Moderator
I never know to comment on this or not. Protopalythoa and pretty much all Zoanthids do produce seriously bad toxins. Palytoxin has only been found in Palythoa residing in a specific lagoon hosting a specific bacteria found nowhere else. So, we're not going to find Palytoxin in our aquariums thankfully. That doesn't mean it is ever safe to handle Zoanthids barehanded. Especially while fragging them. People do get sick, very sick, handling Zoanthids but the way you know it isn't Palytoxin is that the first symptom of Palytoxin poisoning is death.
 

pegasus

Well-Known Member
I never know to comment on this or not. Protopalythoa and pretty much all Zoanthids do produce seriously bad toxins. Palytoxin has only been found in Palythoa residing in a specific lagoon hosting a specific bacteria found nowhere else. So, we're not going to find Palytoxin in our aquariums thankfully. That doesn't mean it is ever safe to handle Zoanthids barehanded. Especially while fragging them. People do get sick, very sick, handling Zoanthids but the way you know it isn't Palytoxin is that the first symptom of Palytoxin poisoning is death.
Not sure how common it is or isn't in our tanks, but just reading stories of palythoa toxica is enough to make me extremely careful around any of them. One of the most common issues with palytoxin comes from people boiling rocks that have zoanthids on them... most often unnoticed zoanthids. Boiling them releases the poison and it's obviously very potent when it becomes airborne in steam. Nausea, headaches, fever, etc., are just a few of the effects it has on people. Although I haven't read of any deaths from vapor inhalation, it's makes you extremely sick, and it has to run it's course. There is no antidote for the poison, and since I have no way of knowing where they come from, I don't take any chances with any of them.
 

bang guy

Moderator
That's why I hesitate to comment. They ARE still very toxic and need to be handled as toxic as there are literally hundreds of different toxins associated with Zoanthids.
 
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