Hand in the cookie jar!!! err... I mean.. Tank.

SO... The only person, other than myself, that I've ever personally seen work with a saltwater tank at all, is the woman at my LFS. She puts her hands in all of her tanks, and advised me that it is an acceptable practice as long as you avoid any type of topical skin meds( i.e. Lotion, neosporin, etc. etc.). What is the general consensus on having one's hands in their fish/reef tank??

 

My hands are in all my tanks many times a day with no ill effects ever.

 

well my hands are in there all the time...but as someone on here told me......
"The worst thing for corals are the hand monsters"

I do break off bits and pieces of my corals inadvertently every time I have my hands in there!

Just make sure you dont have any type of hand lotions, soaps, perfumes, chemicals etc on your hands and skin. If you are on a lot of meds, I would also recommend keeping your hands out (my mom was killing her tank..only thing could figure out was all the meds she was on????) dont know about htat, but possibly. As soon as she used gloves the fish were fine

You should wear gloves in the tank period to prevent injuries to you etc....

 

yea.. im always doing something here and there. nothing bad has happened.

 

Ditto, the only reason I use gloves is to protect my hands from my vicious clownfish, who likes to sample my flesh from time to time . . .

 

I have coralline growing on my finger nails.

Jack

 

my hands are always wet. i heard that it was bad to go into your tank too much and tried to use tongs for everything but that lasted about an hour and a half. i do use gloves with my corals because i've been told that the oils from your hands can irritate them and i've been nailed by worms a few times.

 

same here.. always moving something around...

 

always shoulder deep ... I don't recommend digging in the sand though ... catching a bristleworm to the finger isn't fun. lol

 

Me too. I always have my hands in there. Especially with an urchin that likes to overturn things.