Interesting post Dr. Caldwell, I never knew the TTX concentration varied so greatly in blue rings.
Neogonodactylus;134856 said:I would think the same level of protection typically applied to keeping a venomous snake would be about right. The cage/aquarium should be locked in an area without publick access and their should be warning information posted. In my laboratory the room is locked, everyone who has access to the area is instructed about the danger and what to do should an emergency occur, and there are signs on every tank containing a blue-ring. As a final bit of security, we now keep blue-rings in plastic jars with screen lids so escape is impossible/highly improbable. This way we can visually verify where the animal is before working with it.
My guess is that there is some bioaccumulation of TTX in blue-rings. It is not clear that the TTX is produced by bacteria in cultured in the posterior salivary glands. Properly controlled experiments have no been done to see if TTX is lost from blue-rings held for a long time in captivity.Until we know differently, I will continue to treat captive blue-rings the same way I do one just caught in the wild - I will assume that it can kill me.
I have written a few times about putting my hand into a shipping bag of water that contained a dead blue-ring. Within a few minutes I developed a tingling sensation that started to concern me. Fortunately the effects lasted only a few minutes. However, it is clear that the toxin can "leak" from dead animals.
Roy