You may not have known this, but unfortunately, we can catch diseases from our aquariums. These are mainly skin diseases, transmissible from animals to humans.

Mycobacterium

The most severe of these diseases is Mycobacterium, which is transmitted to humans by a freshwater or saltwater fish suffering from fish tuberculosis. Fish tuberculosis is an incurable disease in fish that will kill them slowly. It causes lesions and ulcers on the skin and takes a long time to heal.

It is painful and will also leave you with scars. One detail to note regarding this disease: immunocompromised people are much more likely to catch Mycobacterium compared to immunocompetent people.

This disease is therefore the worst thing we can catch in aquaristics.

Salmonellosis or a fungal infection

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

Don't worry, however; there are medications to treat fungal infections at the pharmacy. And for salmonellosis, you will just be left with a good, bad stomach ache. That said, rest assured that by simply taking a few standard hygiene precautions, you can avoid catching anything.

Precautions to take to avoid catching diseases

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

Before, to prevent your hands from bringing germs to the fish and making them sick. And after, to prevent you from carrying germs when you are cooking, going to eat, etc. So it is important to always wash your hands with soap before putting your hands in your aquarium water and after.

Other precautions to consider: avoid priming your siphon hoses by mouth; avoid throwing your water change water down the kitchen sink. Prefer the toilet instead. And if you want to water your plants with your aquarium water, which is perfectly possible, avoid using it to water plants that will later be edible, such as strawberries, tomatoes, etc.

There can always be bacteria that will hold up. Many of them, in fact, tolerate cold very easily. You should avoid thinking that because it is cold, they will certainly die. That is not a guarantee.

Finally, if you can and if you think about it, regularly disinfect your aquarium tools: nets, tongs, spatulas, siphons, hoses... And then everything that can come into contact with your aquarium water, everything you might use, must be cleaned with a product intended for aquarium equipment, then rinsed thoroughly. This is how you will be able to limit the risks of spread.

Caution! It is preferable to use specific tools for each aquarium if you have several aquariums in order to avoid the risks of cross-contamination. You must therefore have one net per aquarium, one pair of tongs per aquarium, etc.

In conclusion

As you will have understood, if you are an aquarium hobbyist, 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!