Yeah I never ever touch the polyps for the corals sake and mine. Of course I just got home with some new corals and after letting them settle in I decided to move one of them (colony of zoanthids) and got some slime on me. I was using one of those dishwahing type gloves on my nano but on my big tank it's too deep and ends up filling with water. FYI my arm is feeling squirrely now after brushing up against them.


I have first hand experience with fire coral (I was actually told it was a sponge) from snorkeling in the keys many years ago. Managed to brush into some with my ankle and it stung pretty bad the rest of the day; I apparently got only mild exposure too. To top it off I got the worst sunburn of my life on my legs and ankles as well (was wearing aquabooties) so the rest of my vacation was kind of unpleasant.


One thing you might try other than the obvious of washing the affected area fully if you touch it is run hot hot hot water over the place you touched the slime. Many marine animal toxins will break down / cycle out faster under high heat. Do a search for what is used to treat jellyfish stings (been stung by them too as a curious kid in massachusets too) some people say put meat tenderizer on it? Toxins are neat to read about but not in my body! Kind of makes you respect those pretty lumps of goo even more.

-Mike