High Tide Aquatics

DBTC: Captain Jerk

Alexx

Supporting Member
I just added Captain Jerk to DBTC.

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Agree. I was joking at the swap that we probably would need a biohazard sticker on the container, but maybe we should actually take this seriously.

Captain Jerks made Ben sick multiple times.

Here's what @JVU is referencing: https://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/zoa-dangers.32815/

The common (and better looking) Zoanthus sp. many of us keep are far less dangerous. https://reefs.com/magazine/identify-this-zoanthids/

Compare at the end of that reefs.com article to true Palythoa sp. which are the troublesome ones we shouldn't keep or distribute. Nuclear greens I've seen have caused issues too (which look like the same species).

CDC recommends a 10% bleach solution to inactivate the toxin (outdoors of course). DO NOT BOIL/HEAT/AEROSOLIZE.
 
Crap, I pulled one at the Swap and have it in my tank and had no idea. :)
I was handling with bare hands but not dead yet. Its in my tank so if anyone wants it I can give up.
 

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Yes, Nirvana and picked it at the Swap. I did a couple Google searches and decided its best for me to get it out of my tank. My LFS now has the palythoa.
 
Yes, Nirvana and picked it at the Swap. I did a couple Google searches and decided its best for me to get it out of my tank. My LFS now has the palythoa.
I handle Nirvana palys all the time and have never had any symptoms. A lot of folks in the club have them and haven’t had issues. Not all palys are the same. I’m not telling you they are 100% safe because who could claim such a thing with the weak evidence we all have. But I wasn’t talking about Nirvanas when I was talking about Captain Jerks. Your replies give me the impression that you are thinking of them as the same or same risk, they are not.
 
I handle Nirvana palys all the time and have never had any symptoms. A lot of folks in the club have them and haven’t had issues. Not all palys are the same. I’m not telling you they are 100% safe because who could claim such a thing with the weak evidence we all have. But I wasn’t talking about Nirvanas when I was talking about Captain Jerks. Your replies give me the impression that you are thinking of them as the same or same risk, they are not.
Yes, very new in this hobby and re-searched a little and saw the video that was posted and decided it might not be a good idea. I loved how it looked and it was amazing to see them snatch mysis shrimp and devour them but with the youtube video and some reading decided to give it up to my LFS. Cramming all this inforamtion reminds me of my college days but appreciate all the information.
 
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Is this nirvana? Got this one from the fragging workshop few weeks ago
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Yes, Nirvanas, I brought those. I‘ve been handing them for years with no gloves and not had any issue. Definitely not as high a risk as the Captain Jerk palys we are mostly discussing here.

Not only is the difference between paly and zoa difficult to be sure of (and expert classification has changed as well), but also it isn’t only palys that can have the toxin, and many palys don’t have it anyway. Plus there is some evidence that the zoa/paly is not making the toxin but rather some commensural organism in them, likely a bacteria. Ostreopsis dinos also make palytoxin by the way.

The most conservative approach is to not have anything in this paly/zoa class, but that is a lot more restrictive than is probably necessary. What most of us do is avoid the ones that we know are bad. Anecdotally, the 2 I’ve seen most associated with palytoxin are Palythoa grandis and Captain Jerks. Both are kind of unattractive and overly aggressive towards other coral anyway so not much lost to just never have these, in my opinion.
 
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oh no, I picked those off the dbtc table at the swap at the end of the day. If we don’t want the risk of having these, but picked them up, is there any recommendation as to what to do with them? I don’t want to murder them, but I also don’t want a known danger in my tank either.
 
oh no, I picked those off the dbtc table at the swap at the end of the day. If we don’t want the risk of having these, but picked them up, is there any recommendation as to what to do with them? I don’t want to murder them, but I also don’t want a known danger in my tank either.
It’s either them or you

(to reiterate, talking about Captain Jerks, not Nirvanas)
 
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