Fish tanks bad for your health

[Al G Blenny]

So a few people have asked me recently if I have ever had any rashes or something like a rash after working on my tank. Truthfully I have. I asked around and I found out that there are other people that have had the same symptoms (I will explain in a bit).
After the last Bay Area Coral Farmers Market I got home and noticed that my left arm had some strange red bumps on it. After an hour or so my left arm, from my upper forearm up, and my neck on the left side had this really bad outbreak of itchy red bumps. It looked like I was attacked by killer bees. It took about two weeks to recover from that. I figured I needed to talk to someone.
One of my customers is a surgeon at Stanford Hospital. I decided he would be a good person to ask. He told me that he has a dermatologist friend and he could take some pictures to send to her. He did that and gave me her email address. I wrote to her and we have had a couple of conversations since then.
Her conclusion is that it is a Mycobacteria. Specifically Mycobacterium marinum. Now I haven't had anything like that one break out since that day but I still have signs of something. My left pinky finger ocasionally gets red and irritated. It also developes tons of tiny clear blisters just under the skin. It doesn't hurt or itch much. It doesn't seem to spread anywhere but on that one finger. The three people I talked to which happen to be local (two of them are BAR members) have the same symptoms. Here is a article about this
http://www.emedicine.com/DERM/topic281.htm
I have wanted to have it checked out but it seems to go away so fast. I don't want to set up an apointment when it starts and by the time I go in it is gone.
If you have been having the same sort of problem then this might be the reason why. It's a shame that we can contract this from our tanks. Dr. Tang (yes that is her name) said the bacteria lives on the corals. I will be using rubber gloves every time I frag from now on.
I don't want to "out" the other people that have this but if you feel like you want to share your experiences with others so we can learn more about it go ahead. I think we should all be aware of the risks involved with this hobby.

[ViPeR_930]

Here's some info about it on reefkeeping mag from a while ago too.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php

[Al G Blenny]

It seems every time I post about something unusual it turns out that it was featured in reefkeeping. Oh well. Those pics are scary.

[sidog1]

wow matt, that is scary. i guess i'll be wearing gloves or something from here on...

[tuberider]

I had a small scrape go from a mere flesh wound to black lines into my armpit in eight hours. It is not something to take lightly. Also, shipments can come from parts of the world with some pretty nasty bugs..

[Allyson]

Yeah this is nasty stuff.

Steven Pro talked about it at one of the Seabay meetings a few months ago. He was really recommending to use gloves (not that we do).

Matt: hope things are going well, haven't seen you for a long time.


Allyson and Rich

[smellyfish]

Thanks for sharing your story Matt, this will help many of us to take the necessary precautions in the future.

[GreshamH]

I'm one of the ones Matt speaks of. It's happenned to me a few times now, but I didn't think it was that. I knew about M.M., but what I had I thought wasn't it, until now

[sfsuphysics]

I know of atleast one LFS owner as well who has had rashes on their arms as a result. Now granted everyone who has mentioned probably has put arms in tanks many more times than anyone else, however I wouldn't use that as to mean its a continuous exposure issue.

Also you can get tuberculosis from your fish tank too

Safety first

[GreshamH]

Fish TB is pretty rare. I've seen thousands upon thousands of fish, and only 1 case of confirmed fish TB.

[GreshamH]

Also, what Matt speaks of is not the commopn salt rash from cleaning a tank. This has small bumps and leaves scabs.

[fishnfst]

I worked on fishing boats for 20 years.. I've seen some kind of skin infection that seems very similar to what you are describing.. The deckhands had always called it blood poisoning.. We'd soak in a solution using epson salt in the hottest water you could stand for 10-15 minutes a day for 4-5 days directly followed by copious amounts of hydrogen peroxide... The rash that looked like a bunch of pimples all over your arms would dry up and go away after a couple of days of this treatment... One guy ended up with a pretty serious infection in his thumb from it. He almost lost his thumb...

Now I'm going to go and buy some long rubber gloves....

[shutiny]

Wow Matt! I am sorry about your infections. I hope you are doing better, now. I had a few similar experiences and it is progressively getting worse every time I am in my tank. Boy, this is a risky hobby
Take care

Shu Tin

[DarkXerox]

Originally posted by Al G Blenny
It seems every time I post about something unusual it turns out that it was featured in reefkeeping. Oh well. Those pics are scary.

Yeah I was going to mention that. I think that guy (or someone else) posted here a few months ago with an update, and turns out he still cant get his fingernail to grow back. If you have a compromised immune system (flu, cold, smoker, etc), it might be a good idea to wear something to keep yourself from getting cuts underwater.

I get the same irritation sometimes from bristleworm spines when I'm moving rocks, and I've used latex gloves (like when I was moving my dad's tank--I offered you a pair to use ) . But I for sure get the same clear bumps and it causes my skin to peel afterwards. However I haven't touched a tank in 4 months so I can't speak of anything recent. Although those big orange arm-gloves they sell might be good to use while working on heavy movement.

But remember when I got stabbed by that urchin? I'm just glad it didn't get infected, but it is out of the tank now for sure. Palythoas, urchins, rabbitfish, etc. --all things that people I know personally that have had problems with.

I'm not sure what the resistance is on this type of bacteria, but have they put you on any antibiotics?