What is the most dangerous animal/coral out there??

[dustybottoms]

Just out of curiousity, what would the most dangerous thing (to a human) but that one could put in a tank. ITS FRIDAY!! YAAY!

 

[joker]

A blue ringed octopus from the Great Barrier Reef?? My opinion.

 

[dustybottoms]

what do they do?

 

[joker]

from what i have seen on the Discovery channel , they bite you, you die hehehehe. very beautiful to see, deadly to feel. You couldnt even get to the hospital in time to save yourself, even if you live next door.
I want one, but dont want to risk it, you know what I mean??

 

[reefnut]

I thought there was a type of Jellyfish that was considered the most poisonous. I'll look it up... also from the Discovery Channel

 

[joker]

well lets get one of each, sit down and drink a beer, stick our hand in the tank and see who dies first!!!!
JK

 

[reefnut]

I'll pass
http://www.aussiewalkabouts.com/grea...er_dangers.htm

 

[reefnut]

Here we go... http://www.caske2000.org/dangeroussealife.htm
Chironex, also known as Boxfish or Deadly sea wasp
Considered to be the most venomous marine creature. Death can occur with minimal contacts.

 

[dustybottoms]

good lists, ohhhh, i stepped on fire coral down in Virgin gorda, OUUCHHH!!! it feels like hot sauce for your foot for about a week

 

[hairtrigger]

A hungry warm-water dweller, commonly called a "Sammy Stingray."

 

[j21kickster]

Originally posted by Kipass4130
there is a species of zooanthid that has the most potent toxin in the ocean.... i think the toxin is called palytoxin...it is a neurotoxin.....
let me do some homework.
I'll do it for ya
-Palytoxin
The crude ethanol extracts of the Palythoa toxica proved to be so toxic that an accurate LD50 was difficult to determine. More recently, the toxicity has been determined to be 50-100 ng/kg i.p. in mice. The compound is an intense vasoconstrictor; in dogs, it causes death within 5 min at 60 ng/kg. By extrapolation, a toxic dose in a human would be about 4 micrograms. It is the most toxic organic substance known!
Shimizu [27] and Moore [28] published the chemical structure of palytoxin and it was prepared synthetically in 1989 [29,30]. Palytoxin is a fabulously interesting compound, with a bizarre structure and many extraordinary signs (Fig. 6). Palytoxin is a large, very complex molecule with lipophilic and hydrophilic areas. The palytoxin molecule has the longest continuous chain of carbon atoms known to exist in a natural product. In the molecule of palytoxin, C129H223N3O54, 115 of the 129 carbons are in a continuous chain.. There are 54 atoms of oxygen, but only 3 atoms of nitrogen. Another unusual structure of palytoxin is that it contains 64 stereogenic centers, which means that palytoxin can have 264 stereoisomers! Added to this, the double bonds can exhibit cis/trans isomerism, which means that palytoxin can have more than 1021 (one sextilion) stereoisomers! This staggering molecular complexity should indicate the difficult nature of designing a stereocontrolled synthetic strategy that will produce just the one correct (natural) stereocenter out of >1021 possible stereoisomers.
Palytoxin induces powerful membrane depolarization and ionic channeling [31,32]. Palytoxin is a potent hemolysin, histamine releaser, inhibitor of Na/K ATPase, and a cation ionophore [33]. It is also a non-TPA-type tumor promoter [34,35].
for all of you chem buffs- regardless- if you ate a Palythoa polyp- you would die- not that you would but im just saying- these are button polyps and zoanthids have similar effects- so be careful and if you are doing cuttings(frags) please wear gloves!

 

[j21kickster]

lol- then where is my money?

 

[joker]

well Hel*!!
I think i could swallow a polyp easier than I could all that science stuff

 

[lurch694u]

Reefnut
LOOKOUT! For the killer sponge!

 

[jarvis]

Originally posted by Lurch694u
Reefnut
LOOKOUT! For the killer sponge!
LOL.....It still growing. Picking up trailerhomes and it even started to eat small children and cattle.

 

[bang guy]

I have some Palythoa that has made me very ill a couple times. Gloves only for me from now on.

 

[joker]

Ive gotten some bad chicken before that took me out for a couple of days, Arrrrrgggggghhhhh, I think I would rather have dealt with the cone snails

 

[reefnut]

Originally posted by Lurch694u
Reefnut
LOOKOUT! For the killer sponge!
what?

 

[lurch694u]

LOL! Do a search on the board on a "tree sponge growing"out of someones tank... I think Mr bubbles wrote about his 25 foot high tree sponge...

 

[puffygrrl]

Originally posted by j21kickster
The palytoxin molecule has the longest continuous chain of carbon atoms known to exist in a natural product. In the molecule of palytoxin, C129H223N3O54, 115 of the 129 carbons are in a continuous chain.. There are 54 atoms of oxygen, but only 3 atoms of nitrogen. Another unusual structure of palytoxin is that it contains 64 stereogenic centers, which means that palytoxin can have 264 stereoisomers! Added to this, the double bonds can exhibit cis/trans isomerism, which means that palytoxin can have more than 1021 (one sextilion) stereoisomers!
for all of you chem buffs-
As a chemist, just to relate and say this in a way that the "Lay Man" would understand...First of all 115 carbons in a row! WOW. Think of the fact that the longer the chain, the harder to break. Also, You know how everyone is saying deep fried foods cause cancer because the action of deep frying something changes the shape of the molecule, making it interact differently in the body than it normally would. Well this is all due to the center (stereocenter) of the molecule and where it is. Many molecules have 2,3 or 4...but 64?!? WOW. And what it means by "stereoisomers" is how many different shapes the molecule can take...and interact with everyBODY differently. Sorry to be a super nerd, but I love this stuff and wanted you guys to know what it all meant Thanks for reading...its OK if you skipped it.