wrote:
Is it ok to waer rubber gloves when cleaning an aquarium or fish tank?
It's the type you use for dishwishing, but the gloves are new (not used
in detergent or anything), and I've rinsed it under running water for
about 5 minutes. Just want to check that it is ok to use.

Thanks,
Petre

Hi there Petre.
As long as you've rinsed any powder from the inside of the gloves off,
it'll be fine.
It's actually a wise thing to do if you have any small cuts, abrasions,
punctures or even cracked, dry skin in your hands, or arms.
Piscine TB is actually quite common in fish all across the world.
This can go from fish to human. Usually it just appears as a rash that
doesn't want to go away. Other times it can look blistered, or even
worse, what happened to a fish buddy of mine just last year.
They had a cut and did stuff in the tank. It got infected. Was on
antibiotics for a while and it kept getting worse. She almost lost her
arm over this.
I think it was her that kept telling them to check for fish TB and sure
enough, she had it and that's what was causing the infection. It was
very painful as well.
It took months of tests and meds before she was ok.
I used to think I was a little over cautious with using rubber gloves
when I had a cut or cracked dry skin, (I had fish TB in my tanks at
least once that I know for sure), but after hearing what *can* happen
in rare cases, I keep rubber gloves around.
Now when I'm doing a full tank cleaning with gravel vacuuming and algae
scrubbing on the 75g,I am up to my arm pits (really! I'm short, hehe)
in tank water and I will wait until cuts heal to do anything other than
a water change. Thank goodness for Pythons!
A lot of folks think that piscine TB is open soars or bent spines.
However, it mimics many other diseases. It doesn't have to be the same
symptoms per fish either....or an individual fish may show more than
one symptom. It's crazy, I know.
But you are wise to be careful. Glove on Petre! = )~