Here is my $0.05 about the topic. These are solely my views on the recent swarm of posts about Palytoxin. I am not a scientist myself. The information I have is from several public laboratory databases including National Institutes of Health -> National Center for Biotechnology Information. Do not be afraid of palys and zoas. Do not rush out and panic. You and your family will be fine.
Palytoxin History
Palytoxin, from a Palythoa zoanthid, was isolated in 1971 by scientists in Hawai‘i.
P. toxica is currently said to carry one of the most toxic natural substances known to man—and coincidentally, zoanthids are some of the most common marine invertebrates kept by reef aquarists.
The Legend of Palytoxin
This organism was found by native Hawai‘ians and used for its unique toxic properties some years prior to the discovery of palytoxin, and a bit of mythology surrounded it. The legend said that before warriors collected limu make ‘o Hana, falsely called “the deadly seaweed of Hana,” from that same tidepool to create lethal poison-tipped spears, it was believed that a mysterious murderer inhabited the area. When fishermen began to disappear, some of the locals began to suspect a lone, hump-backed farmer.
What you need to know.
Palytoxin is not specific to zoanthid corals. It has also been found in a species of sea snail and a species of beetle from Hawai‘ as well as sea anemones, crabs, and dinoflagellate (one-celled organism). It can also be a dangerous food contaminant. In the span of a week in 2000, 11 people who ate fish in Japan were treated for palytoxin exposure. In some instances their urine turned black. The toxin was also implicated in the death of an East Timorese man who became sick after eating a tainted crab. Ingestion through tainted fish is the only documented deaths related to palytoxin that I have found on record.
When it comes to zoanthid corals, while the particular species that house palytoxin may not be widely available in the trade, there are around 60 species (likely more are that are undescribed) of Palythoa (most popular ones being Palythoa grandis, which is the largest of the button polyps with some approaching 1.5" - 2" in diameter. Their color and pattern change drastically depending on the type of light given.) , Protopalythoa (aka green button, but can be brown and even deep red), Zoanthus (covers all zoas), and Parazoanthus (yellow star polyps), so the difficulty in identifying toxic individual species makes this impossible to verify.
Breathing the toxin leads to high fever, conjunctivitis, difficulty breathing, cough and a runny nose. In testing with mice, there is a 10% survival rate is for injections of the toxin. No fatalities were noted from aerosol. The compound was also noted as having a half-life of 55 to 85 minutes (Moore and Scheuer, 1971)
CBC is printing fake news about Palytoxin
CBC has taken it upon itself to start a war against the hobby. They are pushing for restrictions, even a total ban on the sale of zoanthid corals or anything that can contain palytoxin. They are taking information out of context and misquoting interviews with several people including Marinescape Aquarium. Marinescape has responded to CBC’s "Report Typo or Error section" and hope that the information will be corrected. Seeing that the toxin has been found in sea snails, sea anemones, crabs, and dinoflagellate, it will lead to restrictions up to and including a complete ban on owning coral or fish completely. Fish in our hobby eat dinoflagellate or other benthic species that may contain palytoxin. Meaning that any fish could have palytoxin as well as pods or algae’s. This hobby is already heavily regulated through environmental services. If CBC has their way, they will increase regulations across the board to any livestock that will be added to tanks. Fish/coral/inverts/algae will need to be treated and quarantined before being sold/imported/exported which will astronomically increase the expenses and therefore our cost. At that, current means of decontamination will kill any living organism meaning that currently any treatment will kill the fish. To add to that, these regulations will be of coarse government controlled.
Please educate yourselves on palytoxin. Also to put into perspective, there are more calls to poison control in 1 month about laundry pod ingestion then there has been in the last decade on Palytoxin.
Most should know, but in-case you do not. NEVER boil or use HOT water when cleaning live rock or anything in your tank. Not only can the steam contain the toxin, the rocks contain air pockets that can build up pressure and explode. NEVER scub rock with a brush that may flick or spray fluids from on the rock into the air. NEVER lick your live rock or zoanthid corals. They are not aloe vera, do not rub zoas or coral on open cuts. NEVER add them to a blender and make a smoothy. DO be smart and if you decide that you do not want them in your tank, call me and I will come remove them at no cost to you. I could use some more to add to my collections.
