ghostdart

hi there

just a question someone may be able to answer for me

i have been told not to let any water from my fish tank get near my mouth (accidently of course) as it can make humans sick.

is this correct

Goshtdart

Dino

Fish can transmit TB to humans.
This is so rare that I have yet to see a case in 27 years of keeping fish.

However, it is best not to swallow any aquarium water, if you can help it.

armadillo

Would it give humans TB, or would it give some other disease. I heard that it gave you that disease that made you lethargic.

Luniyn

Forget the diseases, you do understand where the ammonia is coming from in the tank right? Yeah you can get sick if you drank some of the tank water... about as sick as you would get if you drank from the bowl of your toilet. And let me just say.... Ewwwwwwww!

armadillo

Seriously though. Sometimes you have to syphon the vaccuum pipe with your mouth, and sometimes you can't help but some water touches your mouth. What was that human disease that could be caught from fish TB that way again? I forget now.

Luniyn

No you don't

mlinden84

ok so I gotta side w/ armadilo... haha i gotta admit I've done that...very gross and i'll never do it again! (i went and bought a different vacuum that actually would start without sucking on the other end of the hose.)

0morrokh

Just to clear things up... yes you could probably get sick from drinking tank water (or maybe not, but I'm not planning on trying it ), but you can't get TB that way. Pescine TB spreads to humans as a skin infection. It is caused by putting your hand in an infected tank with an open wound (and you'd probably also need an immune deficiency to catch it), not by drinking tank water.

darkwolf29a

Not if you'ce careful. I think I've done that twice, maybe.

vin

If anyone caught TB, they would never have been vaccinated against it....In the US all infants/children have to have TB vaccines......Chances of catching TB are very rare....

0morrokh

I'm not sure if human TB vaccines would prevent against pescine TB. The TB that fish get is a whole different disease. Generally it doesn't like humans...the bacteria find us too warm...but it can occasionally infect humans as a skin infection.

But yeah it's extremely rare for someone to get pescine TB...like I said before you have to have a large open wound on your hand, and probably also an immune deficiency (and then if you dunk your hand into a severely infected tank you might get it....)

vin

you may be right.

capekate

Good moring, reading about your reply here and thought Id give you alittle tip that was given to me. When I siphon the water from the tank this is what I do.
1)lay the vacumn across the top of the water and let it fill up totally.
2) raise the tip of the vacumn ( the plastic part) veritcally so that the water slowly starts to go down the tube while closing off the tube opening with your finger.
3) once the water has engulfed the whole tube,( you can watch the water as it fills the tube) slowly lower the plastic vacumn horizontally back to the tank trying not to loose any water if you can. You will loose alittle.
4) At this point, let the water fill the plastic vacumn end again, still holding onto the end of the plastic tube, that should be right over your bucket.
5)now slowly put the vacumn totally under water and let go of the tube hose end where you had your finger blocking.
The water should now rush down the tube and into your bucket. No need to do that up and down swishing to try and siphon the water up the hose. All it ever did for me was cause waves in the tank and disturb everything. It works everytime for me...
Hope this was some help! ~ kate

armadillo

Thanks, Kate! I am soooo not a practical person. It took me 5 reads of your explanation to understand it and am still not sure I get it. Tell me to touch my nose and wriggle my toes and am lost already! It's not you, it's just that I cannot process spatial/positioning information for some unknown reason. You can imagine the atmosphere when I'm in charge of putting together our Ikea cupboards!

I think what you're describing is what my man does, and reading you has propped it back up in my mind again. I'll ask him to show me in person so I stop doing it the neanderthal way. Thanks for saving me from pescian TB, which always ruins a week-end!

capekate

LOL... good luck an im glad that I saved you from a bout of TB. I guess the thought of someone siphoning the mouth method really gave me the willies!!!

armadillo

Gavinie

I don't understand how starting a siphon by sucking results in a mouthful of fishy water. There is no need to suck the water all the way to the end of the tube!

Just start the siphon by carefully and slowly sucking until the advancing water level in the tube is lower than the top of the water level in the tank, then let physics run its course. Make sure that when you stop the suction the outlet end is always held lower than the top of the tank water. Make sure no air (or danios) enters the inlet end.

I'm not an expert by any means, but fish water can indeed transfer TB, and yes an open sore increases the probability of cross-species transfer -- see http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html#TB . See also http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...ture/index.php.

If TB can be transfered then I wouldn't put bets that other problems couldn't be transfered as well -- ie worms, louse, fungi. I would definitely reserve the fish water for the garden rather than drink mix.

armadillo

Well I have this really awkward aquarium vaccuum: it's basically a flexible rubber tube ending with a wider, hard plastic part. Getting a vaccuum going in that is practicaly impossible for some reason and you always get loads of air in between, which means that you need to suck the water in the tank, then again and again until you are rid of all air areas. Difficult to explain but I assure you it's not possible otherwise.