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Originally Posted by reefer37 In my tanks at work i've got a foxfaced rabbitfish, seargent major damsels, and some tangs too. Never thought about eating them before. 
I've always wondered if there are psychedelic corals too. Whenever I touch my cat's eyes coral my fingers go numb and I get this "swishy" feeling in my hand. It feels kinda like a body trip high but localized in my hand. Most corals have some kind of defense toxin... |
Sorry to bring up an old topic, but I saw this, and it's got me really curious!
As reefer pointed out, almost all of the fish listed as containing this toxin are available in the aquarium trade for ornamental use.
Has anymore research been done on this that anyone is aware of? It'd be kind of messed up to eat a $90 Powder Blue Tang (what they run for in my area at a 3-4" size), but maybe a bunch of smaller damsels would do the trick too.
As far as corals are concerned, most of them are highly toxic. Like...kill you toxic. I'm sure reefer has heard stories of people touching Zooanthids or Palythoa with cuts on their hands, and having to be rushed to the hospital.
A gentleman in the DC area was fighting a flatworm infection, a species that preys on Zooanthids (button polyps), and saw one of the flatworms on the front glass of the tank. He used his finger to squish it to the glass. Some 10 seconds later he felt a rush of blood, and was feeling as if he would pass out. Smart-like (us saltwater enthusiats generally are), he told his co-worker that he needed to be rushed to the hospital before he actually passed out.
He was admitted with a very fluctuating blood pressure, and a very difficult time breathing.
Eventually he worked out of it, I think the story goes that he was in the hospital for a day or two.
The toxin was palytoxin, and was used in the Phillipines to hunt panthers or something large like that. The natives would coat a dart or speartip in the mucus produced by harming the coral, and it can kill a man in several minutes, and if not...make it very difficult for him to get away.
The LD50 is < 100ng/kg in mice. All of this information was pulled off
http://www.cbwinfo.com/Biological/Toxins/Palytoxin.html for those curious.
I couldn't find the story and pictures of the dude with palytoxin poisoning mentioned in my story, as reefcentral's search mode is down at the moment, and I couldn't get any google hits.
Other coral stings, I don't know much about. Generally it is just numbing, as it's a stinging cell (neomcyst?). Most corals don't effect people really (it's suprising that reefer can feel the numbing sensation). Corals that I am aware of that have numbed people I know or myself are would be hammer coral, anchor coral, or anything in that genus, anemones, and the fire coral (atlantic...good luck getting it).
I've never been stung by fire coral, but supposedly it is one of the most horrible experiences of your life if it happens.
One of the speakers at MACNA last year told a story of scuba diving, and there was a toilet underwater that had fallen from a shipwreck, and it was coated in fire coral. People would think it funny to go and sit on this particular toilet, until their skin reacted to the neomcyst from the fire coral, and then it wasn't funny anymore. And then of course, if you touch the stinged location, or rub it, it just transfers the pain to all locations that you touch after that. What a fun time!
Sorry for all the typing and what not, corals/saltwater are one of the few passions I have, and I got excited about the topic.