Anecdotal and "this happened to my friend" posts on palytoxin poisoning seem to abound. I spent some time on Google Scholar researching this and found only one medical article where palytoxin poisoning was attributed to exposure from an aquarium. This was an instance where the person had "skin injuries" on their fingers. Most cases were from eating fish! In the case where the person was exposed via their zoas they recovered in 3 days. Most anecdotal cases state that the person experienced numbness and tingling. Many of the "this happened to my friend" have people dying or almost dying.
I wear latex gloves and eye protection when fragging zoas. I don't worry about picking a colony up and moving them around in my aquarium. I DO avoid putting my hands in my tanks when I have an open wound. And, I always wash my hands and arms well with antibacterial soap after I have had them in the aquarium. Why antibacterial soap? I have to say I don't think the routine use of antibacterial soap, etc does much except create stronger bacteria. However I think that you are more likely to get a mycobacterium infection from your aquarium than anything else and scrubbing your hands with the antibacterial soap could help protect you against this.
Yes, I didn't mean to imply that keeping zoas and palys was any more dangerous than a tank without them, just wanted to address PapaMcEuin's question. I have lots and lots of zoas and palys and I have fragged them many times without taking any extra precautions. It IS a risk I guess, but not a big one IMO. As Carmie said, you're much more likely to get a bacterial infection.
how fast do they actually multiply? i've had fowlr tanks for a long time and just started to turn my 55 into a fish and softy tank. i got some nice corals but not sure of the names, they've been growning pretty well for the past 6 months. i purchased some LR rubble for my fuge and i notice a branch with coraline algae on it had some orange and green zoo's. i was suprised to find that they were still alve after having been burried in a tank loaded with rubble and not lit. they were very tiny when i first noticed them, now that they've been in the display tank for the better part of a month, i noticed that they seem much larger and brighter. does it take long for them to turn into a larger group? how do they multiply and is there anything i can do to help them along?
They're colonial animals, so they spread by growing the mat they're all attached to outwards.
Some gow relatively fast, some are considerably slower. It depends heavily on the variety and the tank conditions. Good water, decent flow and sufficient light are all they need.
antibacterial soap on hands and arms then I use that germ-x hand sanitizer... I do this after I stick my hands/arms in the tank...
FYI - Antibacterial soap has been shown to be no more effective at cleansing your hands than regular soap. The hand sanitizer is actually much better at sterilizing your hands than either type of soap for most microbes. The problem with the antibacterial soap is that you have to keep it on your hands for two minutes for it to kill anything, and it is a possible contributer to the growing public health problem of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria.
"Human subtelty will never devise an invention more beautiful,
more simple or more direct than does nature"
- Leonardo Da Vinci
"I am made of the dust of the stars, and the oceans flow in my veins"
-Neil Peart
"The strenuous and dogmatic are the moral enemy of the good. They demand that we believe the impossible and practice the unfeasible" - Christopher Hitchens
I went to BAYMAC yesterday in San Jose with y club Northern Valley Reefers and we had a Tubs blue colony that had 20-30 polyps, very pretty but even though we had probably th lowest price corals, were selling it for $100.
__________________ Brian
Man I am HOOKED on DIY...I'd build me a fish from scratch if I could
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