does human blood hurt a fish tank

I was about to do a little clean up in my tank. right before I was going to start doing this, I wounded my hand and it is bloody. (don't worry, nothing major)

So I refrained from working on tank for now... but am wondering, would my blood hurt the tank?

I am not asking if the tank water will hurt me via my open wound... as I have no intention of putting my wounded hand in there... just curious about its possible implications to my tank had i put my hand in there.

 

It wouldn't impact your tank at all. If you have aggressive fish, they might get excited looking for food. Corals that use chemoreception will extend their polyps but blood won't do anything to (nor for) them. There are even a couple of coral foods out there that largely consist of dessicated cattle blood. You get good polyp extension but there's no nutrition to speak of. Polyp extension does NOT necessarily mean that a product is a good coral food.

No, working your question from the other way around. What could your tank do to YOU if you work on it with an open wound? Lots potentially. You can get Mycobacterium marinum (tuberculosis), palytoxin poisoning, minor infections, sick, etc. Gloves would be a good idea.

 

Plus an open wound, even a little scratch hurts when submerged in SW.

I cut my finger a little while doing my 193g build, and I forgot I had done so... until I stuck that hand in the tank. Then I remembered. It had stopped hurting a day or so before putting my hand in the water.

 

Salt and open wound=BURN!

 

Just to add on what has been said already, blood is mostly protein, so your skimmer would clean it right up in no time.



Luna

 

question, i was always told that the saltwater helps heal your wound. Whenever i would go to the beach when i was younger, my parents always said that the saltwater helps heal your sore *open wound* would this be true for a tank at home?

 

Yes, saltwater does heal. But going into saltwater (ocean or aquarium) will allow bacteria to enter your wound, which will infect it. Thats why people use table salt or epson salt with faucet water.

our water contains coral goop, fish poop, and a crap load of crap. So always be conscientious about dipping a sore in the tank.

 

ohh lol guess my parents were half wrong and half right then, cause they always encourged me to not worry about any cuts in the ocean water.

And i guess i have to be more careful then about my cuts i've been thinking about getting some gloves.

Ok, no more highjaking this thread, i'm done

 

I would not worry about any minor cuts if I was getting in the ocean... my tank is a lot dirtier (in general).

I would be worried about an actively bleeding wound attracting Jaws. ;D

 

I've had tons of cuts that appear to have healed alot quicker in sea water. I've also cut myself whilst i was in sea water hundreds of times. None have ever got infected etc.
I do find that cuts that have been exposed to sea water do tend to leave a deeper/darker scar on me though when they do heal. Which is strange.

But yeah..the only things i was worried about when bleeding in the sea was attracting unwanted attention from things with big teeth. I once had some cheeky little fish come up and pick at an open wound on my foot once when snorkeling. That was the most ticklish thing id ever felt. teheheheheheh. making me giggle just thinking about it again.


Here's another question to think about.

Do you sweat whilst underwater?

Hmmmm interesting