Sensitive Skin - Gloves?

[alexyay]

Icky and unpleasant :nilly: I now have 2 different skin issues on my hands from the fish tanks + likely washing my hands more frequently (eg after handling certain fish stuff) and I am likely going to need to wear gloves for the treatments for them.

- Do you take any precautions to prevent skin irritation with fish, any particular chemicals you wear gloves around? Do you just suck it up and watch your skin deteriorate as it's part of the hobby (I kinda handle diseased fish relatively often and would prefer not to have too many open wounds around them)?

- What kind of gloves are safe to use in the tanks? May use them predominantly around things that I'd usually wash my hands after handling eg bloodworms/foods/etc but will for now need to use them for WCs too.

:sick: I would like these problems to go away and to fish-keep in peace, please!

[livingart]

http://www.hygienedirect.co.nz/product/gloves-7/

artificial insemination gloves

[alanmin4304]

It is a requirement with fish quarantine to wear suitable long gloves. The main reason is the spread of piscine TB. You may find that your skin problems are caused or worsened by what you are using or how you are washing your hands. Liquid soaps only work properly if you wet your hands first and many disinfectant type soaps are pretty strong. I get dermatitis and the alcohol based hand cleaners bring me out really quickly.

[Ira]

- Do you take any precautions to prevent skin irritation with fish, any particular chemicals you wear gloves around?

Nope...Well, stopped stirring up bloodworms with my fingers and then rubbing my eyes.

Do you just suck it up and watch your skin deteriorate as it's part of the hobby (I kinda handle diseased fish relatively often and would prefer not to have too many open wounds around them)?

Nope, skin is fine.

- What kind of gloves are safe to use in the tanks?

All of them are safe, long ones are best not much point in wearing short ones unless you have a tiny tank.

[Adrienne]

Don't use powdered gloves, use food grade gloves and use gloves that are water tight - so up to your shoulders. If the water can get in then there's no point (in your case). I wear gloves in my marine tank as some of the corals I work around/with are highly toxic if you touch them, but I don't worry about long length ones as they are not necessary.

The fact of the matter is that fish keepers should not have their hands in the fish tanks all the time - they should only be in there when cleaning the glass or doing a tidy up along with a water change so maybe one or two times a week. Apart from a person reacting to the water, arms and hands etc in the water will be opening up the fish to all sorts of toxins and infections.