[arkay]

This weekend I completely tore apart one of my tanks down to bare glass like new. Needless to say I had my hands all in the dirt and crap in the tank. I had a raised floor so had to ciphen out the water too (not something I havent done 100 times before).

2 days later I came down with what seems like food poisoning where no one else in my family did and we all ate basically the same stuff. I was wondering if it was possible to pick up a bacteria from the dirty water or dirt from clearing the tank? Like Giardiasis or Salmonellosis.

Anyone else have any experiences like this?

 

[skanderson]

possible yes but likely no. much more likely you picked it up from another human. things like giardia are transmitted from human fecal contamination of something that goes into your mouth. just assuming that nothing in your tank has been pooped on, its unlikely most GI parasites or disease causing bacteria have been introduced to your tank. just to correct a bit neither organism you listed is a virus.

 

[frogface]

My non-medical advice is to go to a doctor if your symptoms do not start improving, and tell them about sucking on frog siphoning tubes.

I manually siphon from my tanks, too, and yea, blech.

 

[mattolsen]

Yes, it's very possible that you could contract something from your frog tank. A virus, I'm not sure of the likelihood, but a bacterial infection or some sort of parasite is possible. It really depends on how you were in contact with any water, etc. If you used your lips to siphon the water you could obviously get some in your mouth. Overall, there's tons of stuff in frog tanks that could infect you. Bacteria, parasites, and other pathogens can be present very easily. For instance, if you have snails in your tank they can carry a parasite that's responsible for a lot of disease worldwide. Plus a tank that's generally wet and in the best temperature zone for bacteria growth can be full of bacteria.

I've looked into this as I had a similar experience but it turned out to be something else. Overall, it's probably not very likely but depending on how you were exposed would determine the likelihood of you contracting something from your tank. I'm a biologist and one day I was bored so I looked at several slides I prepared from a few frog tanks just to see what was swimming around. I found some really interesting organisms running around, from spirillum to flukes along with a ton of unidentified little creatures. Having a background in food sanitation I can tell you that if you were sick very quickly after you ate, and you hadn't just eaten seafood, it would not be likely it was because of what you ate. Generally salmonella and E. coli take 36-72 hours to make you sick. While the only food that will do so almost immediately after is seafood. If problems persist check with your doc but you should be fine. Hope this helped.

 

[suztor]

I got my self super sick when I was lazy, cheap and enierly stupid and used an old seriously molded 20 ft siphon hose and did it erm... manually? (sucking to get it going). Sore body, sore breathing and high fever for 2 days. Luckily I got better w/o going to doc but I learned my lesson! Scared the crap out of me!

 

[Ed]

possible yes but likely no. much more likely you picked it up from another human. things like giardia are transmitted from human fecal contamination of something that goes into your mouth. just assuming that nothing in your tank has been pooped on, its unlikely most GI parasites or disease causing bacteria have been introduced to your tank. just to correct a bit neither organism you listed is a virus.

Giardia is also carried by raccoons,beavers and a number of other mammals.. so basically you have a risk giardia from any unsanitized water that is in contact with wildlife....it doesn't have to be humans.

There are a lot of different bacteria that can inhabit the enclosure and be suspended in the water that can make you sick.. for example Listeria, Shigella ssp, Staphylococcus sp, Streptococcus sp, Proteus ssp.... If you have a good population of cyanobacteria in the enclosure, you could also have cyanobacterial poisoning..

Siphoning by mouth is a bad idea....

Ed

 

[Judy S]

guess I won't do that anymore...you all scared the BeJesus out of me...and here I thought it was the Big Mac....

 

[cbreon]

Giardia is also carried by raccoons,beavers and a number of other mammals.. so basically you have a risk giardia from any unsanitized water that is in contact with wildlife....it doesn't have to be humans.

There are a lot of different bacteria that can inhabit the enclosure and be suspended in the water that can make you sick.. for example Listeria, Shigella ssp, Staphylococcus sp, Streptococcus sp, Proteus ssp.... If you have a good population of cyanobacteria in the enclosure, you could also have cyanobacterial poisoning..

Siphoning by mouth is a bad idea....

Ed

Second that Ed. All I can think about is this show Monster Inside Me, I think its on NatGeo. I'm not a big TV watcher, but if its on I watch it. Very scary stuff, primarily about parsites that humans contract usually from exotic foods, animals, but sometimes very ordinary situations. Recently had one about Listeria and Acanthamoeba both seem possible in viv water. Anyway, after watching that show, I would strongly advise against manual siphoning frog water. You wouldn't drink water from a swamp or a pond or even most streams so...

either way, hope your OK Arkay

 

[D3monic]

I have gotten rather sick from detritus in a reef tank. I was trying to get a syphion going and got a nasty shot of ick down my throat. Ive seen what lives in that water I can only imagine what kind of nasties are in the stagnant filth of viv drainage. If only I didnt fry my digital microscope by accidently plugging in the wrong power supply.

 

[curlykid]

hey D3monic, did you ever heal from that polytoxin in the eye?

 

[Brotherly Monkey]

Second that Ed. All I can think about is this show Monster Inside Me, I think its on NatGeo. I'm not a big TV watcher, but if its on I watch it. Very scary stuff, primarily about parsites that humans contract usually from exotic foods, animals, but sometimes very ordinary situations. Recently had one about Listeria and Acanthamoeba both seem possible in viv water. Anyway, after watching that show, I would strongly advise against manual siphoning frog water. You wouldn't drink water from a swamp or a pond or even most streams so...

either way, hope your OK Arkay

check out hotzone.

http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Zone-Terrifying-True-Story/dp/0385479565

 

[itsott]

Im sure you could catch something from it. However, working at a hospital has taught me there is always a new bug, virus or infection going around. Infact sunday morning i woke up sick as all get out. I wont go into details to spare those with weak something but i had it rough. Stomach cramps and spent most of sunday in the bathroom and bed. Woke up monday and was fine. The only tank contact i had saturday was misting a few temp tanks. I also always sanitize my hands throughly after touching anything in my vivs. Might want to invest in an auto siphon. Its not overly expensive but it saves you mouthfuls of crap really crap.

 

[Eric Walker]

For anyone that doesn't know they do make a siphon that you don't need to use you mouth for. It looks like a turkey baster with a tube comeing out the side. All you do is squeez the top a few times to get it going. They are ment for fule and are sold at ace hardware for $5.

thinking about suck starting one just makes me gag

 

[gardennub]

I think a lot of reptiles and amphibians have a good chance of carrying salmonella. Correct me if im wrong

 

[frogface]

I found something for us, arkay. Only 5 bucks! Much better than a mouth full of frog poo water.

Custom® Siphon Pump (36668) - Funnels, Pans & Syphons - Ace Hardware

 

[tahir tareen]

for what its worth i manually siphon my aquariums(freshwater) weekly and have done so for quite awhile with no ill effects. I am always very cautious about not getting tank water in my mouth and promptly spitting it out and washing my mouth out if i do.

I will definitely be getting a hand-pump start siphon though... parasites are quite an unpleasant thought!

 

[D3monic]

hey D3monic, did you ever heal from that polytoxin in the eye?

Not sure that was what caused it but yes eventually I did. I went blind for several weeks due bilateral optic neuritis. Most likely from getting super baked during the peak of allergy season. My body started attacking my optic nerves. after weeks of tests from MRIs, cats, spinal taps ect they finally figured out what was wrong. My vision was at 20-2600 I couldnt even recognize faces everything was just a big color blur (also couldnt see the color orange. wierd I know) they started me on daily steroid infusions via IV for a week. Almost immediatly after the first day my visions started to improve. It got better but not back to 20-10. My right eye is fine but my left is a tiny bit blurry. Along with half the pics I take since thats my camera eye. My first MRIs returned with what they thought was a lesion but i got another one a few months back when i was having nerve problems and it was clean. Thanks for asking.

I have one of those crappy syphons with a check valve. You have to shake it up and down to get it to prime. Never really worked that good though.

 

[frogface]

Not sure that was what caused it but yes eventually I did. I went blind for several weeks due bilateral optic neuritis. Most likely from getting super baked during the peak of allergy season. My body started attacking my optic nerves. after weeks of tests from MRIs, cats, spinal taps ect they finally figured out what was wrong. My vision was at 20-2600 I couldnt even recognize faces everything was just a big color blur (also couldnt see the color orange. wierd I know) they started me on daily steroid infusions via IV for a week. Almost immediatly after the first day my visions started to improve. It got better but not back to 20-10. My right eye is fine but my left is a tiny bit blurry. Along with half the pics I take since thats my camera eye.

OMG! Very glad you improved. How frightening.

 

[frogface]

What about a removable mouth piece that you could stick on the end of a tube and then remove and sterilize between, umm, tank slurping?

 

[BethInAK]

My dad got a bad staph infection, the dr said most likely from his fish tank, although he does work in a medical building. When dealing with dirty tank water, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly.