Allergic to Fish Tank??!!

[Swayde]

Thanks for all the info guys. I will check into long gloves, I did not realize they made any that would go up the whole arm.

I have not been tested for many allergies, just a few from a blood test, however, I have had reactions to seafood dip before so I suppose it could be entirely possible for it to be the snails or the crustaceans in the fish food.

The quantity of snails in my tank is actually the only thing that has changed since the last time I cleaned my tank and it never occured to me that I could be allergic to them or react to them. I'll definitely be sure to let me doctor know of all the things in my tank. Hopefully it IS the snails because then I will jsut have my son pluck them all out every day until they go away.

There is definitely something else that is triggering my allergies too because I went 15 years without having hives and recently I've been getting hives almost daily. And it's not just in my own house. I got them pretty much every day at my brother's brand new house in another state during the week I spent there =/

 

[spirals]

i think sometimes your resistance to the chemicals in the water may break down. both my boss and one of my coworkers have the same problem (my boss can only have her hand in the water for about 5 minutes before breaking out) so i get stuck doing the tank cleaning. now i'm starting to get itchy if i've been cleaning tanks for longer than 20 minutes, although i don't break out in hives (and hopefully won't get this bad!). The only time it gets bad is if theres contact with the water and then with fish food (ouch!).
long gloves are amazing! do you have a long handled algae scrubber? those are also really good and cover the depth of most tanks.

 

[Swayde]

i think sometimes your resistance to the chemicals in the water may break down. both my boss and one of my coworkers have the same problem (my boss can only have her hand in the water for about 5 minutes before breaking out) so i get stuck doing the tank cleaning. now i'm starting to get itchy if i've been cleaning tanks for longer than 20 minutes, although i don't break out in hives (and hopefully won't get this bad!). The only time it gets bad is if theres contact with the water and then with fish food (ouch!).
long gloves are amazing! do you have a long handled algae scrubber? those are also really good and cover the depth of most tanks.

Yes I do have one of the long handled aglae scrubbers. I am going to look for long gloves too otherwise I'll have to teach my son how to do the gravel vac.

 

[Udtmike]

Thanks for all the info guys. I will check into long gloves, I did not realize they made any that would go up the whole arm.

I have not been tested for many allergies, just a few from a blood test, however, I have had reactions to seafood dip before so I suppose it could be entirely possible for it to be the snails or the crustaceans in the fish food.

The quantity of snails in my tank is actually the only thing that has changed since the last time I cleaned my tank and it never occured to me that I could be allergic to them or react to them. I'll definitely be sure to let me doctor know of all the things in my tank. Hopefully it IS the snails because then I will jsut have my son pluck them all out every day until they go away.

There is definitely something else that is triggering my allergies too because I went 15 years without having hives and recently I've been getting hives almost daily. And it's not just in my own house. I got them pretty much every day at my brother's brand new house in another state during the week I spent there =/

Hmmm... Seems like the question everyone avoids asking and/or answering is, whether you can actually be having an allergic reaction directly to the fish in your aquarium?

Not what you are feeding the fish or bacteria, mold, algae or fungus generated by the tank.

As a person who has came up positive to fish protein on a wide spectrum allergy panel and a person who has three aquariums in his home, I've often wondered myself, whether once I have reached a fish protein allergen-load, I suffer allergic reactions that cause me health problems as a result.

When you have fish tanks, you are sharing a confined living space and therefore, airspace with fish that you may simply have an undiagnosed sensitivity to. Just as you could be allergic to a cat, dogs or peanuts...

I have been thinking about this alot and have noticed a spike in health issues, when I do a lot of tank maintenance or, when I spend extended periods in the house, especially in the winter; when everything is closed.

Thoughts?

 

[myswtsins]

U Udtmike This thread is almost 11 years old. The topic sounds very interesting though so I advise you to create a new thread to avoid confusion and to better facilitate a discussion centered around you and your experience with this, you can always link back to this thread too. Thanks.