Agreed. I think the urine theory comes from the mistaken fact that trace amounts of ammonia will have the same effect that vinegar does (vinegar has been shown to inhibit unfired nematoctyes from triggering in SOME species). Unfortunately, freshwater, which urine is mostly, has also been shown to cause nematocytes to fire. That being said, nematocytes are not all created equal and I have heard anecdotal evidence (no literature that I have seen) that vinegar has the opposite effect on stings from some non-jellyfish species such as the Man-o-war (read excruciating pain if applied). So, no idea how coral would react.

We used to use vinegar and lidocaine when I was diving in the tropics. I have also heard that meat tenderizer breaks town the proteins in the toxin...'cause everyone carries that in their beach bag.

Do be careful with Zoa's - I stay away from them from now on for they are extremely risky.

Some Zoa's are fine, some are not - there are no distinct features of various Zoas that can tell you whether or not it is capable of a lethal palytoxin dose.

Simple touching, splashing of water in the eye or mouth, or "steam" if your cleaning will definitely tell you - but that's something you never want to find out.

Palytoxin is the worlds second deadliest poison - I was a little surprised myself to find this out after the fact of purchasing a zoa.

define zoa??

I still have no idea what got me and while it was extremely painful lesson for me I will not let that stop me from getting more coral but it does prove no matter how careful you are the chance of something happening will always be there.

However I do have a new respect for coral

glad to see you are ok this happened to a friend of mine as well not to long ago. theres a thread on here about reef cautions everyone should read

when someone says zoas they are talking about zoanthids which does include palythoa sp. which is whats belived to be the zoanthid in question that is dangerous but there are also many more that are not.