Here's a dimension of keeping a healthy aquarium I never considered!

[The Madd Hatter]

Anyone have any experience w/ these conditions?


http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/research/hand_fish.html

[RedForeman ©®]

I can only imagine what shape the fish are, to 'need' gloves and to need to
seek medical attention promptly.... this is a University Study, so the
chances are there that they are working with specific diseases and such....

There used to be the TB problem, but whether that has any merit or not, is
beyond me.... just a surprise... Maybe I need to get some surgical gloves
out when I feed the clowns.... they could even poke me thru the gloves....
that's funny..


"The Madd Hatter" > wrote in message
e.rogers.com...
> Anyone have any experience w/ these conditions?
>
>
> http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/research/hand_fish.html
>
>

[Cichlidiot]

"RedForeman" > wrote:
> I can only imagine what shape the fish are, to 'need' gloves and to need to
> seek medical attention promptly.... this is a University Study, so the
> chances are there that they are working with specific diseases and such....

> There used to be the TB problem, but whether that has any merit or not, is
> beyond me.... just a surprise... Maybe I need to get some surgical gloves
> out when I feed the clowns.... they could even poke me thru the gloves....
> that's funny..

The fish hardly need to be in a bad state for one to get pathogens from
the water. If you had read the safety sheet more closely, you would have
noticed that most of these organisms are found in perfectly healthy fish
and/or aquatic ecosystems. A diseased ecosystem is not needed to make a
person sick or give them an infection. Many times there's a natural
balance in the ecosystem that keeps the organisms in check, whereas a
person may not be able to keep the organism in check, such as when they
are immune-compromised, as the handout says. Being that the page given by
the OP is an occupational safety flyer, they of course have to advocate
the wearing of safety gear. It covers the university legally that way
because they can say "we told them to do xyz".

Mycobacterium infections have happened to aquarists even in healthy tanks.
Just do a search or two on newsgroups and the web and I'm sure you'll find
some stories. Usually the aquarist had a cut or scrape of some sort that
got infected. This is why the safety sheet advocates using gloves and/or
hand washing, especially when you have hand/arm wounds. It's just simple
preventative measures that, if you think about it, aren't so far fetched.
After all, wearing powder-free gloves not only protects you from the fish,
it protects the fish from you (and anything your skin might have on it
like soap residuals, lotion, etc). Being a person with allergies, I
usually wear gloves when working in my tanks because my skin is rather
chapped and I use a lot of lotion. This protects me from getting any
infections in my chapped skin and the fish from getting any of my lotion
residual. When I don't use gloves, I always rinse my hands thoroughly
before to get off the lotion residual and wash up afterwards.