Caution In the Tank Old New Topic

[Agame43]

  Hello fellow reefers,

  Well, this is just a reminder about the hidden surprises that are present in all of our beautiful saltwater tanks. This message is probably not new for a lot of members and was not new to me but how fast this can happen surprised me. I have been traveling a lot lately and with the amazing help from my wife and my Apex system my 120gal Reef tank has been pretty much on Auto pilot and doing very well. So this past Tuesday evening I decided to go into my tank and move a piece of Froggspawn coral that had fallen and was out of place, we all do this task on a regular basis. Well I picked up the piece of coral at the base and had an instant very sharp, stinging, burning pain shoot up my right thumb. I dropped the coral and pull out, at first I thought a fish had gotten me so with no a do I go back in pick up the coral again. Dido, same sensation again, I place the coral on a rock and go to the kitchen and wash my hands. My thumb had a burning, very present tingling sensation, similar to a bad bee sting. While at the sink I looked closer and noticed that more than likely some type of slime or toxin had gotten into an open cut that I had on my thumb in that spot.  The coral tissue did lay on my finger as I was moving it so I had direct contact with the tissue.

 The next day my thumb is stiff and very sore, my wrist hurts, my forearm is stiff as well, I have red marks going up my forearm and I have some pain all the way up to my armpit. I end up going to my doctor of course and she puts me on Cipromax and Benadryl for two weeks. She tells me to monitor the cut very closely over the next week and call her if the cut looks any different over the next week or so. As I write this message my thumb is still somewhat stiff and tingling but doing better. I guess the word is to use some type of rubber or latex gloves, I had these below in my cabinet and had used them in the past, guess they will get more use now.

 Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what may have happened? Like I suggest, contact with the tissue and an open cut, not a great combination or maybe just the way my system reacted to the coral tissue/slime, not sure?

 I will close for now, happy / safe reefing, it's a great hobby!!!

Rick
 

[soldiers4christ50]

Very scary stuff. I'm glad you seem to be getting better.

[delta1190]

Good old palytoxin got to love them if you don't they could kill you be careful .

[Steve]

Got stung by a BTA and had the same basic reaction. The sting actually killed a small area of tissue on the end of my thumb. It was quite painful and even turned black on the very tip.

[muttley000]

Good luck with your continued recovery and I'm glad you posted it for others to see.  There is still a lot of "that won't happen to me" attitude in the hobby, every published story helps get the word out!

[Grymtooth]

I wouldn't think that would be palytoxin, given that it wasn't a Zoa that was being messed with. But definitely a good sting from the frogspawn. Lately I have always been wearing gloves in my tank if I'm messing with either the duncan, frogspawn, or the anemone. Then again, it also help taking some of the bite of my female clown, as she has been enjoying terrorizing me when working in the tank.

Jordan