Al G Blenny
New member
So a few people have asked me recently if I have ever had any rashes or something like a rash after working on my tank. Truthfully I have. I asked around and I found out that there are other people that have had the same symptoms (I will explain in a bit).
After the last Bay Area Coral Farmers Market I got home and noticed that my left arm had some strange red bumps on it. After an hour or so my left arm, from my upper forearm up, and my neck on the left side had this really bad outbreak of itchy red bumps. It looked like I was attacked by killer bees. It took about two weeks to recover from that. I figured I needed to talk to someone.
One of my customers is a surgeon at Stanford Hospital. I decided he would be a good person to ask. He told me that he has a dermatologist friend and he could take some pictures to send to her. He did that and gave me her email address. I wrote to her and we have had a couple of conversations since then.
Her conclusion is that it is a Mycobacteria. Specifically Mycobacterium marinum. Now I haven't had anything like that one break out since that day but I still have signs of something. My left pinky finger ocasionally gets red and irritated. It also developes tons of tiny clear blisters just under the skin. It doesn't hurt or itch much. It doesn't seem to spread anywhere but on that one finger. The three people I talked to which happen to be local (two of them are BAR members) have the same symptoms. Here is a article about this
http://www.emedicine.com/DERM/topic281.htm
I have wanted to have it checked out but it seems to go away so fast. I don't want to set up an apointment when it starts and by the time I go in it is gone.
If you have been having the same sort of problem then this might be the reason why. It's a shame that we can contract this from our tanks. Dr. Tang (yes that is her name) said the bacteria lives on the corals. I will be using rubber gloves every time I frag from now on.
I don't want to "out" the other people that have this but if you feel like you want to share your experiences with others so we can learn more about it go ahead. I think we should all be aware of the risks involved with this hobby.
After the last Bay Area Coral Farmers Market I got home and noticed that my left arm had some strange red bumps on it. After an hour or so my left arm, from my upper forearm up, and my neck on the left side had this really bad outbreak of itchy red bumps. It looked like I was attacked by killer bees. It took about two weeks to recover from that. I figured I needed to talk to someone.
One of my customers is a surgeon at Stanford Hospital. I decided he would be a good person to ask. He told me that he has a dermatologist friend and he could take some pictures to send to her. He did that and gave me her email address. I wrote to her and we have had a couple of conversations since then.
Her conclusion is that it is a Mycobacteria. Specifically Mycobacterium marinum. Now I haven't had anything like that one break out since that day but I still have signs of something. My left pinky finger ocasionally gets red and irritated. It also developes tons of tiny clear blisters just under the skin. It doesn't hurt or itch much. It doesn't seem to spread anywhere but on that one finger. The three people I talked to which happen to be local (two of them are BAR members) have the same symptoms. Here is a article about this
http://www.emedicine.com/DERM/topic281.htm
I have wanted to have it checked out but it seems to go away so fast. I don't want to set up an apointment when it starts and by the time I go in it is gone.
If you have been having the same sort of problem then this might be the reason why. It's a shame that we can contract this from our tanks. Dr. Tang (yes that is her name) said the bacteria lives on the corals. I will be using rubber gloves every time I frag from now on.
I don't want to "out" the other people that have this but if you feel like you want to share your experiences with others so we can learn more about it go ahead. I think we should all be aware of the risks involved with this hobby.
) . But I for sure get the same clear bumps and it causes my skin to peel afterwards. However I haven't touched a tank in 4 months so I can't speak of anything recent. Although those big orange arm-gloves they sell might be good to use while working on heavy movement.
