Maybe you didn't know it, but unfortunately we can catch diseases through our aquariums. These are mainly skin diseases, transmissible from animals to humans.

Mycobacterium

The most severe of these diseases is Mycobacterium, which will be transmitted to humans by freshwater or seawater fish suffering from fish tuberculosis. Fish tuberculosis is an incurable disease in fish that will kill it slowly. It will cause lesions and ulcers on the skin and will take time to heal.

It's painful and it will leave you with more scars. A detail to note about this disease: immunocompromised people have a much higher chance of catching Mycobacterium compared to people who are immunocompetent.

This disease is therefore the worst we can catch in aquariums.

Salmonellosis or mycosis

You can also catch salmonellosis or mycosis, which are fairly standard illnesses. Fishmongers in particular often get fungal infections on their hands, simply because they touch a lot of fish. However, it is still much less serious than Mycobacterium

Don't worry though, there are drugs in pharmacies to treat yeast infections. And for salmonellosis, you will be left with a good big stomach ache. That being said, rest assured, by simply taking a few standard hygiene precautions, you can avoid catching something.

Precautions to take to avoid catching diseases

The first precaution is to systematically wash your hands with soap before and after any intervention in the aquarium.

Before, to prevent your hands from bringing germs to the fish and making them sick. And afterwards, to prevent you from carrying germs when you cook, go to eat, etc… So it is important to always wash your hands with soap before putting your hands in the water of your aquarium and afterwards.

Other precautions to consider: Avoid priming your siphon pipes by mouth, throwing your water change wheel down the kitchen sink. Prefer the toilet instead. And if you want to water your plants with water from your aquariums, which is quite possible, avoid using it to water plants that will then be edible such as strawberries, tomatoes, etc.

There may still be bacteria that will hold out. Many of them, by the way, tolerate the cold very easily. We must avoid thinking that because it is cold, they will certainly die. It is not a guarantee.

Finally, if you can and if you think about it, regularly disinfect your aquarium utensils: landing nets , tongs, spatulas, siphons , pipes... And then everything that may be in contact with the water in your aquarium, everything what you could use, they must be disinfected with bleach. This is how you will be able to limit the risk of spread.

Attention! It is preferable to use the utensils per aquarium if you have several aquariums in order to avoid the risk of cross contamination. You must therefore have one landing net per aquarium, one clamp per aquarium, etc.

In conclusion

You will therefore have understood that if you are an aquarist, you can catch skin diseases and it is most often your fish that will transmit them. However, this can be avoided by adopting good hygiene!