How to handle corals

[kengaroo]

I am getting my first order of corals in the mail today. I am new at this, but is it okay to touch the corals with my hand when I place them in the tank? I know some of them may sting other corals, but will they sting me when I touch them?
I got these corals:
Green Open Brain
Sun Polys
Candycane
Red Mushroom
Blue Mushroom
Any advice on maintaining these corals for beginner will be greatly appreciated.

 

[colourmop]

yeah you can grab them with your hand, just make sure there is no cuts on your hands. also, you could try to grab the stony part(or the rock they mount on) just remember to wash your hand after you handle corals/touch your tank, because the poison/bacteria/unknow chemical in it
to maintaining those corals, first you need to place them farther apart because they will release toxic chemical/sting tentacles at night, you dont want them kill eachother
then you have to spot feed the brain, candycane and sun polys (feeding for sunpoly is a must, brain and candycane require good light, sun doesnot) you could use a turkey baster to suck up some brine shrimp/mysis, and squish them on top of the corals (better feeed them at night, like an hour after lights out. you can see their feeding tentacles are out) for sunpoly, you could try to spot feed as well, but some people put a big bow on top of the coral to cover the whole sun poly, and fill the bow with food(home made food/mysis)
mushrooms dont really need to feed
hope those helps ^^

 

[rykna]

Yeah it's okay. A few people do have allergic reactions, just like someone who is allegic to bee stings. I grabbed everything from my anemones to my zoos, only problem i ever encountered was a carpet anemone that arrived on my live rock. Not knowing it was there I went to pick up the rock and the little anemone didn't think much of being squished. Felt like a wasp had stung me.
If you do end up having an irritation from touching the corals, most peope use latex gloves if it bothers you.
Look forward to seeing pics of the new corals!!!!

 

[hatessushi]

I always use gloves when I need to put my hands in the tank. It's a good practice to get into and you don't have to worry if there happens to have been something on your hands that might be considered toxic to something in the tank. They sell gloves for this purpose at most of the aquarium supplies websites.

 

[teen]

most corals pneumatocyst aka stinging cells arent big enough to penetrate a humans skin. especially on the hands because there calaced(sp?), if you were to kiss it for some odd reason, you would feel it because the skin on your lips isnt as thick. you should be fine just picking them up and placing them in the tank.

 

[solarscar]

I'm not allergic to much of anything, but i handled my anenome for two days, trying to get it to stick to something and i had some pretty nice size cuts on my hands. I had a 'go to the ER full body rash' that lasted about 10 days, sucked really bad. Normally, without cuts, i never had a problem. As stated above the barbs in the nematocysts don't penatrate very far, even through skin on your hands, but cuts, just an excellent route for the poison to get in your system. I got some birthing gloves now

 

[chilwil84]

you never know what you may be allergic to so safer is always better and you never know what chemicals may be on your hands. since you are new and you may be moving your new corals around a bit to figure out where they are the happiest those long gloves may be reasonable but not neccessary minimal flesh touching and clean well rinsed hands and i wish you the best with your new corals