A man has revealed that he and his family were hospitalised after being poisoned by coral in a fish tank he was cleaning.
After breathing in the toxic fumes, Chris Matthews was taken to hospital along with his girlfriend, mum, dad, sister and her boyfriend - and four firefighters.
Chris, 27, was in the process of cleaning out his fish tank and was moving the contents to another container when the incident happened.
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He had taken out a rock covered in coral and scraped it clean - inadvertently releasing a deadly substance called palytoxin into the atmosphere.
He then closed the door and he and his family went to sleep, only to wake up the next day with flu-like symptoms. Their two dogs also became ill.
Chris said he was breathless, coughing and had a fever, which felt 'as bad as pneumonia'. His mother, sister and her boyfriend then also came down with some degree of illness, which was when Chris clocked that something was wrong.
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Realising that the family had been poisoned, he dialled 999.
Chris' father, Ian, returned from home and was also then taken to hospital.
Chris explained: "It was worse than flu, we couldn't concentrate on anything.
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"We couldn't regulate our temperature, we were struggling to breathe and coughing.
"We woke up the next morning feeling groggy but initially put it down to flu.
"It was when we noticed our two dogs had similar symptoms that we knew something wasn't right."
He added: "If we had spent another night in that bedroom our lives would have been in danger.
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"Certainly our dogs would have been in a very bad way according to the vet.
"That is what is so worrying, what if there had been a young child or someone elderly in the house?"
Ambulances, fire crews and police all arrived at the house, which is in Steventon, Oxon, and road was closed off.
Firefighters who had arrived first on the scene were also rushed to hospital, but were released after a few hours along with three of the family members. Others, meanwhile, had to be kept in overnight for blood tests.
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Chris said: "I knew about palytoxin, which can kill you if ingested, and that coral can cause things like rashes if you don't handle it carefully but I had no idea taking the pulsing xenia out of the water could make the toxin airborne.
"The information is not readily available online in a way people can easily understand and more needs to be done when people are buying these corals.
"I want to use this experience to educate people about the risks and the measures people need to take."
Chris' home was ventilated overnight while chemical officers from Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue worked alongside Public Health England to remove the rest of the coral.
Chris added: "I've seen the coral described as 'exotic' but it is actually one of the most common around.
"It's a pest coral called pulsing xenia that you grow in areas where you can't get anything else to thrive.
"It's not expensive and a lot of people have it."
Having kept tropical fish for 12 years, Chris has said the experience would not put him off.
He said: "We've put more safety precautions in place, making sure we properly ventilate the room, but I love having fish and it's something that both sides of my family have always done.
"I'll be a lot more cautious in the future though."
Featured Image Credit: SWNS