THE bizarre poisoning of an Aldinga Beach family by toxins released from coral from a fish tank is so rare it stunned one of Australia’s leading authorities on tropical reefs.

Head of Sydney University of Technology’s Future Reefs research program Associate Professor David Suggett told The Advertiser he had only “anecdotal knowledge’’ of toxins from coral affecting people and that such cases were “very rare indeed’’.

Two adults and five children from the Sunday Boulevard home were admitted for treatment at Flinders Medical Centre on Tuesday after ingesting airborne “spores’’ released from coral taken from a home aquarium. All were reported as being in a stable condition.

Country Fire Service officers found several pieces of coral, that had earlier been scrubbed and cleaned, outside the aquarium after being called by the family about 2am on Tuesday.

The home was on Tuesday quarantined and is likely to remain off limits for several days while CFS experts conduct a clean up.

CFS regional officer Peter Phillips said he understood that cleaning coral had “liberated the (toxic) spores”, which the family then breathed in.

media_camera CFS volunteers in hazmat suits outside the Aldinga Beach home. Picture: Doug Robertson

Professor Suggett said the blame could not yet be levelled totally at coral and suggested the aquarium water should be analysed at a laboratory.

“It depends what they had in their tank (because) a close relative of coral, called Zoanthids, are known to release toxins,’’ he said.

“I have heard of incidents of aquarists fragmenting coral, breaking it into small pieces, and similarly, they’ve been exposed to toxins but that’s anecdotal, I’ve never seen actual evidence.

“When we work with (Zoanthids) we are very cautious indeed.

“Another factor to think about is the water quality in tanks can sometimes promote the formation of micro-algae ... that are also prolific toxin producers. So we can’t completely point the smoking gun to the corals.’’

Officers in protective suits treated one dog inside the house but another in the rear yard was unaffected by the spores.

media_camera Emergency services volunteers prepare to enter the home. Picture: Doug Robertson

Officers at the scene consulted marine biologists with expertise in coral by phone during the decontamination.

“It’s a very unusual job for us, we haven’t come across something like this in South Australia,” CFS hazardous materials (hazmat) specialist Sam Quigley said.