Medusa worm chopped up in powerhead!!!

[Pete43]

My Medusa worm just got caught in my powerhead and the overall outcome is BAD!
They must release some sort of toxin into the water,because everyone of my fish is DEAD!
MY brand new beautiful sailfin tang,hippo tang an evil sixline(1st one to go)a mated pair of clowns.
How will this toxin affect my corals?I've never had this happen before.I've heard of this sort of thing with boxfish or cowfish,but did not know it could happen with a medusa worm.So,anyone with a medusa and a powerhead,you've been warned.
Should I run carbon?
I did a water change already(10 gal)and I'm waiting for the new batch of water to finish
mixing.
Any advise would be appreciated.Thanks a lot.
So long,Pete

 

[Hawkeye]

I just read this article and found this section (yes to carbon and yes to skimming and yes to water changes!)

In the most general terms, virtually any soft-bodied animal that would make easy prey on a coral reef, such as these sea cucumbers, will typically be defended in some way by distasteful chemicals or physical armament, and medusa worms are no exception. Like virtually all sea cucumbers, they are soft-bodied, lacking any real physical armament, and so they all tend to have a variety of nasty chemicals associated with their bodies to deter predators from feeding on them. Even without the Cuvierian tubules and their potent toxins, medusa worms have a variety of distasteful chemicals associated with the skin and body wall to protect them from being eaten by fishes, crabs and lobsters on the coral reef. Although the specific toxins associated with synaptid cucumbers are somewhat different from those of most other cucumbers studied to date (Kuznetsova et al. 1989; Ponomarenko et al. 2001), these animals are still reported to be highly toxic to fishes in marine aquaria if they are seriously injured (e.g., Delbeek and Sprung 1994; Fenner 2000; Michael undated online; Sprung 2001). In general, toxins are only released when the cucumbers are under severe stress (such as being chewed up after being sucked into a powerhead or overflow grate), and a diligent aquarist will usually prevent this from ever happening, and therefore never experience any problems with one of these animals. If however, and accident happens, and the cucumber is stressed severely enough to release its chemical defenses, then a good water change, together with an efficient skimmer and some activated carbon are usually sufficient to prevent any fish from asphyxiating from the soap-like holothurin.

full article here: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/invert.htm

 

[Pete43]

Hey,thanks a lot for the info and the link.What's done is done,though,and there's nothing I can do for the fish,hopefully I wont have anymore fatalities.
The corals seemed alright,for the most part.Some blastos were closed up and some leathers were sheading some skin,hopefully that's it. ???
You learn from your mistakes I guess,so I won't be getting a medusa worm any time soon.
So long,Pete

 

[beerfish]

Ouch... sorry to hear. I'd continue to do large water changes and if you have a place in your tank to do so (between sump baffles maybe), I'd get a polypad and put it in. Be careful not to leave the poly in too long (1 week at max), but they will remove toxins short term.

Skim heavy, carbon, and wait until the tank is stable and toxin free before adding any more livestock.