I've Gone And Done It Again...

[Kaidonni]

I don't believe myself, I honestly don't. I did that stupid thing again with those plastic gloves on so I didn't have to wash my hands thoroughly in cold water before messing with the tank, and I ended up dipping my right hand below the wristline into the water and filling the glove up...
 
I took my hand out as quickly as possible, but I'd used more than enough soap before dinner, and hadn't washed my hands in cold water since then. Now I'm terrified about what it will do to the fish, and I've already done my 50% water change earlier today... I don't use activated carbon in the filter, and I honestly don't feel like rushing to do a huge water change at 8pm of the night in case I have polluted the water.
 
I just want these fish taken off me, I really do. This was all for one defrosted brine shrimp the fish had missed, just one brine shrimp. I feared it rotting and polluting the water, and had the smart idea of using the gravel vac to get it out without dipping my hands in...I did not pay attention at all to where my hands were above the water... Part of my brain told me not to mess about, to take the risk...look where I got myself by not leaving it in there.
 
I really want it to be over with these fish, I'm fed up. If I'm not obsessing about one thing, it's another, and then I go and screw things up and make things worse trying to fix things...

 

[Akasha72]

is there some reason why you wear gloves to tinker with the tank? Do you have a skin condition? 
 
To try and put your mind at rest now. I'm always putting my hands in the tank .. I've even put my hands in the tank after applying hand cream and everything has been fine. Take a deep breath ... what will be will be ... and I'm certain what it will be is absolutely fine.
 
Have a drink, put your feet up and relax

 

[Fishmanic]

I put my hands in the tank all the times that it it necessary to do so.  Never wear gloves.   But I do believe in washing my hands after they were in the tank to prevent any fish infections  transferring to me.  I knew of someone that got a major infection from putting his hands in the tank so I always wash afterwards.   Unless my hands are  very dirty,  I usually don''t wash before putting them into the tank.
 
I don't see any problem from you putting your hands in the tank if your hands were fairly clean before doing so.

 

[Kaidonni]

is there some reason why you wear gloves to tinker with the tank? Do you have a skin condition? 
 
To try and put your mind at rest now. I'm always putting my hands in the tank .. I've even put my hands in the tank after applying hand cream and everything has been fine. Take a deep breath ... what will be will be ... and I'm certain what it will be is absolutely fine.
 
Have a drink, put your feet up and relax

 
I spend ages washing my hands thoroughly in cold water when I do my weekly tank maintenance since I use a lot of soap when I've seen to my business in the mornings. In order to avoid wasting time, whenever I have a relatively minor thing to tinker with - such as making sure the filter flow is directed properly, or removing a floating bit of plant - I've taken to using latex-free gloves so I don't need to wash my hands. The whole idea is that the tank water doesn't come into contact with my skin, and that I don't risk contaminating the tank with soap particles...
 

I put my hands in the tank all the times that it it necessary to do so.  Never wear gloves.   But I do believe in washing my hands after they were in the tank to prevent any fish infections  transferring to me.  I knew of someone that got a major infection from putting his hands in the tank so I always wash afterwards.   Unless my hands are  very dirty,  I usually don''t wash before putting them into the tank.
 
I don't see any problem from you putting your hands in the tank if your hands were fairly clean before doing so.

 
Oh, my hands were clean - that's the problem. Before dinner, at around 6.30pm, I'd had my bath and wash and used a lot of Dove soap...just rinsed very lightly in cold water, had dinner, did washing up (with marigolds on, not exposed to washing-up water), then decided that last brine shrimp had to go. Did not pay attention to how deep my hand was, and tank water went into the glove/my wrist was in contact with tank water. I'd even used Carex around 4.45pm (but all before my main wash, so probably not the issue here).
 
The tank is around 46-50 litres filled with three White Cloud Mountain Minnows present...
 
If I did another large water change now, it'd have to be at least 50%...25% seems insignificant, since any soap particles would have been diluted by now (an hour and twenty minutes on at least). 50% might not do enough. Since I've already done a 50% change today, it's also probably messing about too much doing another large clean - I'm probably going to stress the fish out more with that than leaving things alone. I hope, anyway - it's so tempting to do the water change. The last time I ignored my brain telling me to leave things, look what it got me...perhaps it's best to leave the tank alone now.

 

[Baccus]

Only if I know I have been mucking about with say poisons at work will I be extra vigilant with putting my hands/arms in my tanks, or if I have been gardening at home and my hands are dirty will I give them a rinse under running water before going to do stuff in the tanks. Honestly there is little chance of you contaminating the tank with soaps if you have rinsed and dried your hands thoroughly before working on the tank.
I know fish can transmit certain diseases to us, so after tank work I will wash my hands, but I figure there are far worse diseases I can catch just off somebody sneezing on me to worry about what the fish might or might not be carriers of.
Fish are relaxing to watch and I see no reason to make the otherwise fun and relaxing hobby stressful to yourself.
Personally I would leave the tank alone for now, enjoy watching the fish and if you do see signs of distress then worry about doing another water change, otherwise as the John Lennon said "let it be".

 

[Akasha72]

Like Fishmanic, I also take care to wash my hands after having them in the tank ... after-all the fish wee and poo in there and I wash my hands after I've done both so why not after the fish!! It's basic hygiene 
 
I had a bath about 2 hours ago, I'm clean and scented. I'm currently watching the MTS climbing their way up the glass and I'm considering going in with my hands and picking a few out - call it population control. I don't need to wear gloves or to wash my hands ... not until after.
 
I believe unless you have a skin condition (dermatitis, eczema etc) or serious cuts to your hands there is no need for the gloves. If the thought of the fishes water coming into contact with your skin upsets you then maybe fish keeping isn't the right hobby. I'd say the same to a person who finds the composty smell of a tank repulsive.... it's a bit like owning a dog and not being able to clean up their poo without retching. 

 

[Kaidonni]

Only if I know I have been mucking about with say poisons at work will I be extra vigilant with putting my hands/arms in my tanks, or if I have been gardening at home and my hands are dirty will I give them a rinse under running water before going to do stuff in the tanks. Honestly there is little chance of you contaminating the tank with soaps if you have rinsed and dried your hands thoroughly before working on the tank.
I know fish can transmit certain diseases to us, so after tank work I will wash my hands, but I figure there are far worse diseases I can catch just off somebody sneezing on me to worry about what the fish might or might not be carriers of.
Fish are relaxing to watch and I see no reason to make the otherwise fun and relaxing hobby stressful to yourself.
Personally I would leave the tank alone for now, enjoy watching the fish and if you do see signs of distress then worry about doing another water change, otherwise as the John Lennon said "let it be".

 
That's the thing, this evening I hadn't rinsed my hands thoroughly in cold water. The water entered the glove, but I couldn't say how much left it; I might have tilted my hand as I removed it from the water and some water went back into the tank (although tank water would have come into contact with my wrist also, which wasn't covered by the glove). Perhaps most of it remained on my hand/in the glove, and perhaps less came into contact with my skin than I feared. I've left the tank for now...it didn't hurt the fish last time, hopefully it doesn't this time.
 

Like Fishmanic, I also take care to wash my hands after having them in the tank ... after-all the fish wee and poo in there and I wash my hands after I've done both so why not after the fish!! It's basic hygiene 
 
I had a bath about 2 hours ago, I'm clean and scented. I'm currently watching the MTS climbing their way up the glass and I'm considering going in with my hands and picking a few out - call it population control. I don't need to wear gloves or to wash my hands ... not until after.
 
I believe unless you have a skin condition (dermatitis, eczema etc) or serious cuts to your hands there is no need for the gloves. If the thought of the fishes water coming into contact with your skin upsets you then maybe fish keeping isn't the right hobby. I'd say the same to a person who finds the composty smell of a tank repulsive.... it's a bit like owning a dog and not being able to clean up their poo without retching. 

 
I wear the gloves to protect the fish rather than myself; during normal tank maintenance, it's no gloves at all. It's just when I need to mess about for something small, and would rather not spend time making sure there aren't any contaminants on my hands that could enter the water column (for instance, when I remove frozen brine shrimp from the packaging - I have to scrape the foil away, and would rather not contaminate the food with anything from my hands). I do wash my hands after cleaning the tank...sometimes my lips too, since I have a knack for getting my face splashed with tank water every week.
 
I have no issues messing with dirty tank water, it's my concern of contaminating the tank water rather than catching anything.

 

[Baccus]

Because many people are allergic to the latex in disposable gloves most companies only put relatively inert unscented talcum powder inside the gloves. A filter would have no problem removing the small amount of talcum powder from a glove. But I find any powder inside the glove once wet tends to stick to your hands more than wash out of the glove.
I am sure your fish will be fine.

 

[Kaidonni]

Because many people are allergic to the latex in disposable gloves most companies only put relatively inert unscented talcum powder inside the gloves. A filter would have no problem removing the small amount of talcum powder from a glove. But I find any powder inside the glove once wet tends to stick to your hands more than wash out of the glove.
I am sure your fish will be fine.

 
It wasn't about the powder but potentially contaminating the tank with soap particles. I'd washed my hands last with soap (quite a bit of it) at least an hour and fifteen minutes prior to my muck-up, and had already worn a glove to remove the frozen brine shrimp from its packaging, as well as marigold gloves. My hands would definitely have had a strong scent to them, but I would have handled other things in the time between washing my hands and messing with the tank (obviously I washed my hands briefly in cold water after using soap). But - obvious from my posts - I don't have a realistic knowledge of how a tank might be contaminated, so I fear the worst; I'm simply assuming soap particles would have slid off my hand into the tank with any water, rather than adhered to my hand in spite of contact with water (or stayed with the water on my hands).
 
I refrained from performing a water change, although it has been killing me inside.

 

[fluttermoth]

You really need to stop worrying about this, buddy.

As long as your not dunking actual soapy hands in your tank, there's nothing to worry about, honestly

 

[Kaidonni]

You really need to stop worrying about this, buddy.

As long as your not dunking actual soapy hands in your tank, there's nothing to worry about, honestly

 
I know I need to stop worrying - I was tying myself in knots yesterday, debating whether to do a water change or not.
 
It doesn't seem to bother me when I'm performing my weekly maintenance: when filling up the fresh water bucket, I touch a stainless steel tap that family members have touched with Carex on their hands - and then I simply dip my hands in one of the dirty fish water buckets to 'cleanse' them of any potential soap particles, and I continue with the water change. I don't even dry my hands properly with kitchen towel before returning to dipping them in the tank... I'm assuming that anything that was transferred to my hands was removed (and I do it another two times as I have to fill a 10L bucket three times to perform a full 50% change). Nothing happens - or nothing has seemed to happen - as a consequence.
 
Thank you to everyone who has replied. Maybe it wasn't ideal that I posted since it's not really how to deal with OCD, but I was rather wound up and did it partly to take a jab at myself for my idiocy. It'll definitely teach me to not mess around so much with the tank to remove a brine shrimp or two that the fish didn't eat...

 

[Ch4rlie]

I usually wash my hands but with just plain tap water rather than using any soaps or hand gel/alcohol.
 
The only time i have not done a water change was when I did put down new silicon sealant that was used to seal a new bath panel. I smelled and felt the sealant on my hands despite washing a number of times.
 
So I played it safe and delayed doing the water change for a few days.
 
But all other times its just a case of washing hands under simple tap water then proceeding to do the changes or simple little things needed to do in tanks. I have even forgotten to wash hand once or twice with no ill effects at all.
 
Its not worth worrying yourself into knots about things like this, just go with the flow and keep an eye on your fish, they will be the first to let you know if anything is amiss then you re-assess the situation by taking a test or two of the tank water then acting accordingly

 

[StevenF]

I just want these fish taken off me, I really do. This was all for one defrosted brine shrimp the fish had missed, just one brine shrimp. I feared it rotting and polluting the water
 

Relax I have had fish die on me and I didn't notice for a month.  I have  Too many plants  (a lot of hiding places) which also soaked up the Ammonia and nitrites preventing me from seeing it in my water tests.  Many people have shrimp or snails in the aquarium to take care of excess food or the occasional dead fish. One dead brine shrimp will not do anything detectable in an aquarium.  As to my hands I typically don't wash them before putting my hand in (without gloves) and when I am done I typically just rinse my hands.  Remember you have an immune system that 99.99% of the time will protect you germs.  Our ancestors ran through fields covered in bison dung without shoes for centuries before we got smart enough to make shoes. 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

 

You really need to stop worrying about this, buddy.

As long as your not dunking actual soapy hands in your tank, there's nothing to worry about, honestly

 
I know I need to stop worrying - I was tying myself in knots yesterday, debating whether to do a water change or not.
 

 
 
No need to ever get worked up about a water change or not... there's very few times that a proper water change will cause you (or your fish) any problems.  So, the next time you are having this internal debate, stop and just do the water change.   Its much easier on you and the fish won't mind a bit.

 

[the_lock_man]

 
Thank you to everyone who has replied. Maybe it wasn't ideal that I posted since it's not really how to deal with OCD, but I was rather wound up and did it partly to take a jab at myself for my idiocy. It'll definitely teach me to not mess around so much with the tank to remove a brine shrimp or two that the fish didn't eat...
 

 
If you suffer from OCD, then it's not idiocy, it's just how your brain functions, and any reasonable person will take that into account. Believe it or not, there are one or two reasonable people on this site. (Somewhere....) Please be reassured by the sheer numbers of people, all saying the same thing, that your fish will be fine, and keep telling yourself. Hopefully, you'll succeed in convincing yourself.