# Teen With Flesh-Eating Fish Tank Bacteria



## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

just saw this pretty crazy

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/28309389/detail.html


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

hmmm....one of my tanks makes my arm react when I clean it.


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

my tank is full of big predatory fish....

scary thought****


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

not the big fish you have to worry about.....it's the tiny bacteria.


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

but 

Wild Caught Predators carry many unknown bacteria and virus than captive bred fish



who knows what they have ate before going into my fish tank


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

yea kinda worried me, im a landscaper so i constantly have cuts and scrapes and ive always got my hands in the tank


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## Norman (Feb 13, 2011)

Yikes. I too keep getting a rash when I clean my 75G. I assumed I was allergic to either the Prime or Flourish...


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

That's why I'd always freak when my bird would bite me badly before I had to go to work. She'd always draw blood the days I had to work at the petstore no fail lol


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## tijuanatoad (May 17, 2010)

The news article is misleading, flesh eating disease is usually caused by a strep or staph bacteria which can literally eat away your tissue (skin+muscle) in a matter of a day or two. 
This article deals with fish tuberculosis in humans which is uncommon and a slow disease. Fish TB is supposedly common in fish but it is not very contagious. It may take years for a fish to die of TB and hence slowly infecting other fish. If you see any fish with non-healing ulcers or deformed spines it can be fish TB. 
The chances of contracting fish TB in humans is small. Think of all the people that are aquarium hobbyist, recreational and commercial fishermen, and people that handle fish as food.


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## MoonSun (Nov 11, 2010)

It's called Mycobacterium. A saltwater bacteria that enters your body from a wound/cut. This is not tuberculosis but it has similar symptoms as tuberculosis. 

I actually got this a long time ago when i was working at a fish store for the summer. I scraped my hand cleaning their saltwater tanks and didn't know that it would get that serious. The doctors put me on "HEAVY" antibotics for 3 months to remove the bacteria from my system.

There's a lot of wrong information in that news. It causes lumps to form. The bacteria just grows inside of you and keeps multiplying until you take antibotics. The girl in the news must've had this bacteria in her system for a very very long time to have it attack her bones. 

BTW you don't have to worry about this if you have a freshwater tank


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## MoonSun (Nov 11, 2010)

Oh yea I forgot to add that apparently I was the first ever to have this happen to them in CANADA. I made a little contribution to the hospital and allowed them to cut out one small lump for research. When they removed it looked like a little ball of pus. 

So now when you walk in the hospital with lumps on your arm/s they will know exactly what you have if you mention in happened after cleaning a saltwater tank thanks to me.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Gee, that's pretty scary. I always make sure to wash my hands after touching tank water (fresh or salt), but looks like I'll have to inspect for any lesions as well...


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