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Allergic reaction to Riccia


mcrudd

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Hi all, I had a major tank working yesterday and last night I noticed my arm being warm and aching, this morning I looked like someone with measles, I am covered in burning little red bumps. Only thing different in my tank is riccia and duckweed, since I had duckweed only before I suppose it could be the riccia that caused this. I am allergic to grass, so could riccia be family of grass? Has anyone else had this happen before. I always wash my whole arm before and after a waterchange, before with only warm water and afterwards with warm water and dettol antibacterial handwash.

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Got a picture of the rash? ( include a mm ruler ) Is it everywhere or just the exposed arm? Since you presumably didn't drink the water, then a contact dermatitis would be confined to the skin exposed. But if the eruption is wide spread, and papular, maybe it is just a coincidence and you have got a viral exanthem.

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I get that sometimes and have no riccia (but who knows what different people are allergic to). I thought it was possibly small bugs living in the plants and biting me as it does not happen all the time and, when it does, seems to be mainly the part of the arm that was near the surface.

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I also get in and only ever on the arm that is in the tank. I get a major rash which takes several days to go down if I have my arm in the tank for hours (when doing all my tanks in a single day) and to a lesser degree if only in the tank for an hour or so.

I put it down to either rubbing my arm on the edge of the glass but have wondered about bloodworms but think its more likely to long expose to water and not drying it off properly in between times.

I find if I wash up properly at the end using soap and dry my arm well it seems to help.

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Thanks everyone for your advice :thup: I do feed bloodworms every second night and brine shirmp as well. Then I feed hikari algae wafers and jbl nova tabs. I will take better care next time I do a waterchange and see how it goes, this time however I did take much longer than usual by re landscaping most of the tank. I might invest in those long gloves, only problem is my tank is quite deep and usually it is my whole arm LOL. Atleast my fish love me for keeping their house clean for them.

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I am sure your tank is not as deep as a cow's behind :wink:

You can buy extra long gloves from farm supply stores (or probably vets too).

Bloodworm allergy is common although not a factor in my case as I do not feed bloodworm to my fish.

Knock off the blood worms a few days before you plan to have your arm in the tank and see if it makes a difference.

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longarmglove.jpg

My dairy farming friend assures me he can stick his arm up a cow's behind, up to his armpit, and still not reach the other end. :facepalm: :roll:

The questions I ask to confirm the accuracy of statements! :rotf:

He says to try farm stores or vets but Mitre 10 might have them cheaper. Try giving them a ring.

Not only would long sleeved gloves protect you but it will also protect your fish from anything you may have on your hands - soap, moisturiser, sanitiser etc that may be toxic to them or form a film on the water surface.

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Mcrudd, do you work? Do you like taking sick days? That rashy allergic arm looks like a sick day whenever you want one to me.... :roey:

Sorry, can't come into work today, you'll have to find someone to cover for me, I've got a spot on my arm.

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LOL, What about I just dip my whole upper body including face into the tank :nilly: But then I will just take it easy at home as I am a stay at home Mom :wink: But Hey if it gave any of you out there an idea, then go for it :thup: Me on the other hand, fed my fishies a bit earlier and managed to find some gloves I bought earlier to do some serious housecleaning, but little zombie was not a fan. He is probably used to my hands feeding him, he kept on swimming past the brineshrimp, so eventually I took the glove off so he could know where I was. But I only used my two pinching fingers, I scrubbed them immidiately after feeding him. I use pinchers to feed the bloodworms to the puffers, so that was not a problem. My arm was flarring up, so I took some of my husbands anti allergy tablets and that seemed to help a little, but for now it feels boiling hot and very itchy :facepalm:

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now i feel really bad i hope its not the riccia if so just get rid of it and the duckweed and then just add the duck weed i hope it gets better soon but then it could have been all tat kiwi food u just ate [haha]

LOL :rotf:

Dont feel bad, I am going to thoroughly test my water today, every thing I can possibly test with what I have, then I am going to stick my ohter half of my arm in the water and see what happens. If it happens again I will remove the riccia and duckweed (don't think I can split it) and try to get just duckweed by itself, cause I deffinetly had that before :wink:

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LOL :rotf:

Dont feel bad, I am going to thoroughly test my water today, every thing I can possibly test with what I have, then I am going to stick my ohter half of my arm in the water and see what happens. If it happens again I will remove the riccia and duckweed (don't think I can split it) and try to get just duckweed by itself, cause I deffinetly had that before :wink:

Draw out about half a dozen 1" squares on your arm then pull some riccia and duckweed out of the tank. Rinse it well because you don't want to test the water too. Then rub each firmly for a minute on a square. Then try just straight tank water on another, bloodworms on another and whatever common fishfood you use on another.

What's that? Five? Find something else for the last square. :)

And wash your hands/change gloves between them so you don't get any transfer between the tests.

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