fish tank granuloma ( fish TB )
I am not a biologist Just a hobbyist fish keeper with an experience to share . This article is therefore without any big words that might confuse the typical layman like myself .

Sometime in March or April of this year ( 2002 ) I learnt a hard lesson . NEVER REARRANGE YOUR SLEEPING CRAYFISH’S QUARTERS .Needless to say I got a painful bite . That tiny hole was the downfall of my thumb later on. The bite healed and I thought nothing of it . Just that I felt as though there was a tiny something that didn’t seem to go away .

Some weeks later I mentioned to my husband that the thumb felt sore . We noticed that a red bump like an unburst acne infection , had grown on that spot . I was thinking it was a wart or something initially and even posted on the fish forum about the possibility of corn or wart meds poisoning the fish water . I decided to see the Doctor after reading up abit . I had a nagging suspicion that it could have been Fish Tuberculosis .

Looking back now I can see why people could have delayed going to the Doctor thinking it was something minor . The spot was red , felt hot ( this is often an indication of an infection ) , and what upset me most was that it felt sore . I couldn’t put any pressure on it and even lifting something heavy that required the use of my thumb was out of the question . Reading off the web I realised that sometimes the lump may be painless so it would have been even easier to ignore the signs of an impending infection even more totally .

The GP that I visited was hesitant to agree with the self diagnosis of Fish TB and put me on a week’s antibiotics . Two types to be taken every couple of hours . This left a bitter aftertaste and my stomach churned no matter how carefully I timed the meds with food .

Now managing my tanks became a problem . I was instructed to keep my hands out of tank water but how could one vacuum the substrate them ? Even surgical gloves tied with a rubber band would leak water ad often I resigned myself to a soaking . I emailed the local zoo and they sent me some arm length disposable gloves . This kept the water out BUT only until I reached in to try and get the far end of the tank water poured in . I tried rubber bands . Sill I had a flood . My hand itched . Some of my tanks you see are on stands and with little bitty me it reaches up to my armpits so I have to tipy toe to get gunk from the other side .

It was next to impossible to tape the rim of the glove and keep it leak free . After the week of antibiotics was over I went in for a review . Because the hand was obviously still inflamed I was referred to the local skin centre. The Doctor was getting abit worried because I was apparently unresponsive to treatment .

I had to wait two weeks for the appointment . Then a strange thing happened .Four days before I was due to see the specialist the skin about the sore started flaking . The lump was peeling off ! Actually I almost freaked out thinking that my thumb was going . By the time I got to the specialist the thing was almost done peeling .

She diagnosed it as Fish Tank Granuloma and said that the reason why I got referred was because of the delayed reaction to the antibiotics . It seemed , she said , to be healing . I was informed that it could relapse and even today with all signs of it gone I am well aware that it may regrow .

I can understand though why people choose to go gloveless because even today now unless I have a very bad cut I don’t use gloves . I simply can’t manage to keep them up and out of the water . Long gloves aren’t easily available on the open market either . I wrote my thoughts out to share an experience with my fellow fish keepers and to let you know that while there is no need to be paranoid about every lump and bump that shows , it would be well worth a visit to the Doctor for an opinion .

Mei
The typo queen
Sunday, December 01, 2002
those pincers DO hurt creepy eh ?
crayfish
not clear but those pincers are menacing

click on the picture above to get to the page on bringing up the apple snail .. a journal from egg to adult
1