# Zoa feeding and zoa toxicity



## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

I know there's TONS of special foods, but I dont know if they all are worthwhile. I'm feeding baby brine shrimp to my zoas now.

I just have one little crappy colony of zoas, but it's a long road back from Katrina, that bitch.

And for toxicity, I've heard of all kinds of things from inflammation to cancer.







What's real? Do the zoas have to be ruptured for this? Anyone have any experiences with this?

Just jumping back in.


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## Coldfire (Aug 20, 2003)

I did some research for you, and here you go. Enjoy, and I hope this helps.

In marine reef aquariums, one of the most interesting, varied and colored species are the *Zooanthids* and the palythoya. These mini-anemones grow in mats onto a substrate, usually rocks, sand or other coral skeletons. They are connected by tissue between each polyp. Their growth pattern is to encrust over a substrate and then continue to grow until the edge polyps begin getting longer and longer. There are several methods of propagation of the Zooanthids. All of these methods require care and attention to detail.
ToxicityZooanthids are soft corals that contain many chemical defenses. These can seem benign, as they man not affect us, but it is best to avoid having release of these toxins into our aquarium. Thus, propagation of Zooanthids should be done outside the aquarium. *Open cuts or mucous membranes should not be all allowed to touch the cutting water or the "blood" that comes from the corals. Some of these toxins have been known to cause numbness and loss of feeling *(Calfo, 2001) *If you do have some cuts or wounds on the hands, a pair of latex gloves would be prudent*.

*Palytoxin* 
The crude ethanol extracts of the Palythoa toxica proved to be so toxic that an accurate LD50 was difficult to determine. More recently, the toxicity has been determined to be 50-100 ng/kg i.p. in mice. The compound is an intense vasoconstrictor; in dogs, it causes death within 5 min at 60 ng/kg. By extrapolation, a toxic dose in a human would be about 4 micrograms. It is the most toxic organic substance known!
Shimizu [27] and Moore [28] published the chemical structure of palytoxin and it was prepared synthetically in 1989 [29,30]. Palytoxin is a fabulously interesting compound, with a bizarre structure and many extraordinary signs (Fig. 6). Palytoxin is a large, very complex molecule with lipophilic and hydrophilic areas. The palytoxin molecule has the longest continuous chain of carbon atoms known to exist in a natural product. In the molecule of palytoxin, C129H223N3O54, 115 of the 129 carbons are in a continuous chain.. There are 54 atoms of oxygen, but only 3 atoms of nitrogen. Another unusual structure of palytoxin is that it contains 64 stereogenic centers, which means that palytoxin can have 264 stereoisomers! Added to this, the double bonds can exhibit cis/trans isomerism, which means that palytoxin can have more than 1021 (one sextilion) stereoisomers! This staggering molecular complexity should indicate the difficult nature of designing a stereocontrolled synthetic strategy that will produce just the one correct (natural) stereocenter out of >1021 possible stereoisomers. 
Palytoxin induces powerful membrane depolarization and ionic channeling [31,32]. Palytoxin is a potent hemolysin, histamine releaser, inhibitor of Na/K ATPase, and a cation ionophore [33]. It is also a non-TPA-type tumor promoter [34,35].

Some additional Articles on poison:

http://www.asanltr.com/newsletter/02-2/art...Neurotoxins.htm

http://www.cbwinfo.com/Biological/Toxins/Palytoxin.html

"Solubility : Very soluble in water. "

"Palytoxins are stable in seawater and lower alcohols"

"Onset of Symptoms : Rapid, with death occurring within minutes "

"Palytoxin acts at the cell membranes to make them permeable to cations - positively charged ions, typically sodium, potassium, and calcium. Many functions of cells depend upon controlling the flow of these ions in and out of the cell, so disrupting this traffic is very dangerous.

At the physiological level, the most sensitive target is the myocardium, or muscular component of the heart, and the primary effect is vasoconstriction or rapid narrowing of blood vessels in the heart and in the lungs. Another effect is hemolysis, or the destruction of the red blood cells. These three effects taken together cut off the oxygen supply and the victim suffocates. "

"Palytoxin was first isolated from the soft coral Palythoa toxica. Several species of Palythoa are used in aquariums, but do not produce the toxin. Originally, it was only found in a single tidal pool on the island of Maui in Hawaii and native Hawaiians used to coat spear points with a red seaweed from the pool. Toxin-containing corals appear to be randomly and sparingly distributed throughout the South Pacific and there is now a school of thought that suggests that the coral is simply concentrating the toxin made by a dinoflagellate (a small single-celled organism) called Ostreopis siamensis. "


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## acestro (Jul 7, 2003)

So awesome that someone is doing research for me for a change. Very very awesome!!!!









I guess the cancer rumors were crap, but I learned a lot there!


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## Alexraptor (Jan 30, 2003)

Palytoxin thou has yet to be found in the Zoanthids we keep in the trade, thers alot of debate about this, some beleive that the zoanthids get stressed when taken from the wild, and sort of purge all the toxins from its body in an attempt to deterr what could be an attacker, once brought into captivity it is beleived that the environmental factors needed to produce the palytoxin are absent.

still corals are cnidarians and alot of them can carry potentially dangerous toxins, large risk is alergic reactions.


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

if you are worried about potential problems with the toxins, and or the stings from other cnidarians that you may house in the future i would recomend some rubber gloves, i think corralife makes a model that goes up to the elbow. Alex is correct about the alergic reaction, i know of one person who had a pertty severe reaction to contact with an anemone.


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