In my own experience: acute paly poisoning has a following symptoms
1. There's a metallic acid taste Nickelback the mouth
2. Rapid vasoconstriction of the airway
3. Increased mucus production in the lungs
4. Followed by coughing and sneezing violently
All asthmatic like symptoms
This toxin is transmitted by aerosol

I forgot fever and chills did happen also

Comparing listening to Nickelback to palytoxin poisoning eh? I would say the two are pretty comparable, you missed #5 though where the person puts on a tapout shirt and gets a severe case of "Toolosis".

Thanks for posting the article Dan it was a pretty good read! As much as I appreciate being safe around these species, the RT article like many blindly point at palytoxin without proof.

There are MILLIONS of compounds floating around in our artificial oceans, until a toxicology report is done for one of these cases we can only assume it is one of them.

what I dont get is why some people have this "well its never happened to me so it cant be true" attitude......in this gentleman's case I think its probably pretty safe to assume that the palytoxin is what got him.....also safe to assume that a large percentage of doctors dont know what palytoxin is, therefore they dont diagnose the symptoms as palytoxin..... whats the big deal in making people aware that this toxin does exist and to be careful when handling zoas and palys?

If you are referring to me, I am not doubting it.

I am only stating that you would think something like this would make the news, being salt water is becoming/already is widely spread, you would simply think that this would be publicized.

AND THIS WAS A MAJOR MAJOR THREAT TO LIFE. Blood and all.

I agree with you getting the word out is a good thing, I'm just saying we should be cautious at all times around our reefs not just in the presence of zoas and palys.

Lotsa scarey stuff in our boxes of water :neutral:.

Just playing devils advocate here Doug but how are we safe to assume? There are no photos, no tests and no way to prove in this case that palytoxin was in fact the cause.

My thoughts exactly. Almost. :razz:

I sure could have used more information on it when starting out. Likely the worst I’ve ever felt in my entire life.

This toxin can be air born. Everyone involved (even ones that had no contact with the rocks/water/tank) were ill. I believe only certain palythoas have a substantial amount of this toxin to defend with, I've had lots of zoa's since then with no issues at all.

All of the symptoms Fencer described are true, especially the chills/aches.

This article explains EXACTLY with real values how toxic some palythoas in our aquariums are. The ones in my tank looked identical to the ones in the red-box column (d).

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%...l.pone.0018235

This article paints a good picture, what scares me is the PS at the bottom stating that palytoxin can be about 84x more lethal than the most venomous snake.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/no...tore-near-you/

Regaurdless of the toxicollogy report, it has reminded me that yes these creatures we keep in our tanks can hurt us no matter how much we "love" them. I know that i have definetly gotten very slack with my own saftey when it comes to handling and fraging-especially zoanthids and anenomes. Thank you for posting this, and giving myself and others a kindly reminder and wake up call. Cheers and wishing you a speedy recovery.
Cheers Ronnie :biggrin:

That's really good to know. I have the exact same zoas in one of my tanks.. I think I will toss them, as I don't want anyone even having a chance of getting sick from them. I down loaded the pic and am posting it, as I had a little trouble finding it in the article..

Assuming these are the nasty ones.. Wonder the best way to dispose of them... I have about 100 homeless people going thru my trash on any given day.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y24...a/db85bce4.jpg