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Warning Zoas

JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I know first hand about zoathid toxins. A lot of people may not know this but I ran around the first Frag Swap (2007) just about completely blind! I had moved a big colony of palys into the raffle tank on Friday night and then took out my contact lenses a little while later. I put them back in on Saturday morning and my vision immediately deteriorated. At first there were little halos around all of the lights but by the end of the day, everything was a big blur. I went to my optomitrist and was given a combination of steriods and antibiotics to clear it. It took about 3 days to be able to see properly again. That was not fun! I avoid those things like the plague now!
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
My fiancee refuses to touch them anymore after her hand went numb after moving some around. I now do everything, just make sure to wash my hands afterwards.
 
adesimone1

adesimone1

I do most of the aquascaping and reaquascaping in my tanks. And I can tell you 95% of the time by the time I'm finished I feel queezy and quite dizzy. The feeling passes after awhile. I'm going to be buying gloves. We do lock up the dogs when we are working with the tanks
 
R

Rbu1

adesimone1 said:
I do most of the aquascaping and reaquascaping in my tanks. And I can tell you 95% of the time by the time I'm finished I feel queezy and quite dizzy. The feeling passes after awhile. I'm going to be buying gloves. We do lock up the dogs when we are working with the tanks
Click to expand...

The dizzy part has nothing to do with the zoo's.... ;D ;D ;D
 
Y

ynotme4886

I had to go to the doctor because of my own stupidity.

Had a cut on my finger and was moving some Zoa frags from my frag shelf to their perm location on the live rock.

The cut had split open slightly and it got something in it from the water I had the frags sitting in....the vein from my fingertip and up the back of my hand and into my forearm swelled up and changed colour.

Thought I had poisoned myself..Turned out to be a nasty infection...was not a fun experience....am much more careful now and check my hands for cuts before I put them in the tank and play with the zoos.
 
J

john90009

NJRC Member
Im happy nothing happened to me when i first touch zoas and palythoas the first time i started up my reef and was unaware about toxins, from now on i go the extra mile, eye site would be a horrible thing to lose.
 
C

chazotte

I was moving some rock, corals and zoos yesterday, and cut my thumb. Didn't think much of it...but now my thumb is swollen. Should I be concerned? Is there anything to do do clear this up? Or, do I just need to wait this out?
 
C

chazotte

Thanks Guys!

About 40 hours out...the swelling has gone down a little...but certainly not getting worse. If it continues to go down, I'll consider this a painful reminder to be extra careful when handling zoas. If it get worse...off to the Dr.

Ken.
 
W

Whitebird1

I posted this awhile back in emergency and for a update I am still being treated after 4 months and I am about to go back to the doctor for a new round of treatment. Here is a quote and a link to the original post. RECOMMENDED READING.
GregH
Follow up- Finally went to the Doctor, been about 5 weeks, never healed. He knew exactly what it was and how to treat it! Three day into it and I am healing nicely. Heavy oral steroids, 37 tabs of 10MG Prednisone in 9 days and clobetasol ointment, topical, twice a day,(Super High Potency).
This is more commonly known as Coral contact dermatitis and Nonhealing pruritic rash.
Link-http://www.cortlandtforum.com/Nonhealing-pruritic-rash-after-a-visit-to-the-Caribbean/article/118799/2/
Note-This cannot be treated at home, nosporin, Cortizone ect. are useless.
At the unofficial meeting at the Trop, Harlequin introduced me to a reefer with the same burns, he has had them for six months and his son has the same thing, I think he ran to the Doctor after our talk.
Anyway, posted this here so members would read it and learn. I am working on a post on this, lots of info to sort thu, most from surfing sites and medial papers.
GregH
Click to expand...

ORIGINAL POST LINK
http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=19482.msg175539#msg175539
 
C

chazotte

OK, for the record:

I had a pretty active day yesterday and by 8:00pm my hand was even more swollen and the infection spread into my arm. Enough playing around...I went to the doctor.

By 7:00 am, after a round of antiboitics and some anti inflamatory medicine the swelling and redness had decreased.

As of 6:00 pm the redness in my arm is almost gone and the swelling in my thumb is half of what it was yesterday.

Thanks for the help! Had I not read some of your posts...I might have been tempted to 'tough this one out'.
 
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