Palytoxic almost killed this family!

[MadMax]

Palytoxin put me in the hospital for three days last month. Never laid a hand on them, only tried to spray them off. By the time I reached the emergency room door I was in severe convulsions and barely able to breath. I was seriously fighting for my life. This is nothing to scoff about.

I've been in the hobby for 20 years and promoted shows for the last 10....if this can happen to me it can happen to anyone.

[Livinlocal]

Palytoxin put me in the hospital for three days last month. Never laid a hand on them, only tried to spray them off. By the time I reached the emergency room door I was in severe convulsions and barely able to breath. I was seriously fighting for my life. This is nothing to scoff about.

I've been in the hobby for 20 years and promoted shows for the last 10....if this can happen to me it can happen to anyone.

Thank you for sharing your experience, I don’t believe this is talked about, as much as it should be.

[sushi]

Palytoxin put me in the hospital for three days last month. Never laid a hand on them, only tried to spray them off. By the time I reached the emergency room door I was in severe convulsions and barely able to breath. I was seriously fighting for my life. This is nothing to scoff about.

I've been in the hobby for 20 years and promoted shows for the last 10....if this can happen to me it can happen to anyone.

That's crazy. Were you spraying the rock off with the hose outside? Pressure washer? That's insane. Please don't die again

[MadMax]

Our bath tub has a pin-spray sort of hand-held shower nozzle (similar to the kind on some kitchen sinks to wash dishes with) and so my intention was to sort of pressure wash them off with hot water. What I DID NOT know is that the fumes are just as harmful as the actual product, so standing over the work was enough exposure to cause the reaction. My lungs started to fill up with mucus within 15 minutes. Within the next 30 minutes I was not in control of my extremities as I was shaking so bad. Fortunately I had the foresight (in that 15 minutes between) to bring up medical journal accounts of previous poly-toxin victims on my computer and print them out. The vast majority of medical personnel have never heard of this, so I may have in fact saved myself from who-knows-what worse could have happened.

[sushi]

You are really lucky to be alive. Now that I think about it, I did the same thing with my live rock. I got some rock that someone had removed from their tank and let it dry out so all the algae and stuff was dried onto it. I soaked it in hot water in the bath and then sprayed it off with the shower sprayer just like you, with steaming hot water. That was when I first got my tank and didn't know anything, so I probably would have just died if there were toxins on my rocks. Insane.

[MadMax]

In probably 99% of the situations you have little to worry about albeit an errant bristle worm or two.
In my case, I had a few rocks that were literally coated in brown button polys (not a harm to other livestock but a nuisance since they multiply so fast, and are not particularly good looking) so I got the full brunt of the toxin. Ironically, since we are on a similar subject... about twelve year ago (if anyone remembers Chris/Sharkdude) I was tank sitting for him while he was away on business. He had this nano tank full of zoas but was also infiltrated with macro algae. I had thought it nice to surprise him by grooming the tank (by hand) of all the algae; it took me the better part of two hours, but he had a spectacular looking zoa tank when I was finished. ever since that day the skin on my hands crack open with the slightest irregularity (brushing up against drywall for instance is the worse) and I've had various neurological issues (restless legs syndrome, SLMS, insomnia, etc.) much of which I attribute to that one encounter. Mother nature packs a whollup of a punch in defense of its many creatures.....much of which we are prepared for but many of which we are just barely scratching the surface in understanding. I do not advocate fearing this hobby but for God's sake take the necessary precautions by A) researching the pros and cons of what livestock you are hosting, and B) wearing the necessary protective gear when being exposed. Do this for both you and your families' sake!

[Raptor72]

Happened again. This time to a friend out in Tucson.

http://www.kvoa.com/story/38215833/t...ednesday-night