Fish Keeping & Pregnancy?

[Flowerfairy13]

Ok so, I am aware this is a very random question! And I am not even sure that this is the place to post it. But I said if anyone will know, it is the geniuses on this forum!
I have recently found out I am pregnant, very early days. My first thought was the fish and the tanks!!!
Does anyone on here have any experience with fish keeping while pregnant? How did you manage water changes? Did you wear gloves while you had your hands in the tank? I have read that the API Nitrate test is damaging for pregnant women - but is that ok to use with gloves or should it be completely avoided? I suppose my biggest fear is some sort of bacteria or infection or something passing to me or baby.

 

[davros]

I remember getting all the cat litter tasks during pregnancies but don't recall anything with respect to aquaria. Possibly we were less aware. Congrats. You will worry about absolutely everything with your first and may be astounded how relaxed you are with 2,3,4,5

 

[Flowerfairy13]

I remember getting all the cat litter tasks during pregnancies but don't recall anything with respect to aquaria. Possibly we were less aware. Congrats. You will worry about absolutely everything with your first and may be astounded how relaxed you are with 2,3,4,5

Thank you so much this is actually my second baby, but with my first I only had one tank and was definitely more negligent with maintaining the tank than I am now! The research is very conflicting, most people are saying wear gloves and it should be fine!

 

[Colin_T]

We had a number of staff that became pregnant whilst working in the pet shop. None of them bothered to wear gloves. However, care should be taken when using any test kit because the reagents in most of them are poisonous, so wearing rubber gloves whilst testing water is not a bad idea. It's probably not necessary unless you spill the chemicals on your skin and don't wash them off, but if you want to err on the side of caution, geta new pr of rubber gloves to use when testing.

Washing your hands and arms with warm soapy water should be all you need to do after working in the tank, regardless of if you are pregnant or not.

If you have opens wounds or cuts in the skin, then wear rubber globes or just avoid getting aquarium water on the wounds until they have healed. This is just in case the fish have Fish Tuberculosis (Fish TB), because that can get into open wounds and cause localised infections called granulomas. You can't tell if fish have Fish TB unless they develop symptoms just before dying and there's no cure for it anyway. So just avoid getting aquarium water on open wounds.

------------------

As for water changes, get a garden hose and run it out the door onto the lawn. Attach the gravel cleaner to the garden hose and gravel clean the tank and let the water go outside onto the lawn or garden.

To fill the tank, get a large plastic storage container and put it near the aquarium. Use the garden hose to fill the container. Add dechlorinater to the water and aerate it vigorously for at least 5 (preferably 30) minutes. Then use a small water pump and plastic hose to pump the water from the container into the aquarium. you can make a U out of pvc pipe and attach that (with a hose clamp) to the outlet of the hose and hang the U over the side of the tank so it doesn't fall off.

If you do regular water changes leading up to the birth, the tank can go a few weeks without water changes so you can have the baby, come home and spend a few weeks recovering. Then the other half can do water changes for a bit.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Congratulations!

I carried on as normal during mine, never bothered with gloves and I wasn't worried about test kits etc either...I'm not in the habit of spilling or drinking those so I didn't feel the need to be overly cautious. And I only really use mine when there are issues in the tank.

The only thing I'd advise against is the heavy lifting for obvious reasons, that and the sickness! the smell of the water always had me heaving and so did the fish food but otherwise it was business as usual

 

[emeraldking]

Congratulations...
And sorry, but I don't have any experience being pregnant (biological not possible in my case... ) and maintaining my tanks at the same time.

 

[rebe]

Your Irish bud here, ready to help with maintenance and stinky frozen foods!

 

[Naughts]

Congratulations!!!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Aaawww, congratulations!!

Some gloves and covering any wounds and washing hands/forearms thoroughly before and after is sensible because of the TB/risk of other potential bacterial infections in an open wound, for everyone, pregnant or not. I haven't done it myself, but I'm sure you'll manage fine!

Be good to train partner up in how to do water changes etc now, while you're still more mobile, and yep, avoid the heavy lifting of course. But mainly, try not to fret too much, and congrats on another bundle of joy!

 

[Myrkk]

If it’s going to worry you, wear gloves. Do small buckets of water and delegate anything too strenuous.

Congratulations

 

[Essjay]

Congratulation on the forthcoming event

Not the same I know, but when I had cataract surgery I wasn't allowed to lift anything for 4 weeks afterwards so my husband carried the buckets for me. I did the siphoning and adding water conditioner to the buckets of new water, he did the heavy bits. The surgeon said I was allowed to lift a litre jug of water (to ladle the new water from the bucket to the tank) but nothing heavier.

 

[Flowerfairy13]

We had a number of staff that became pregnant whilst working in the pet shop. None of them bothered to wear gloves. However, care should be taken when using any test kit because the reagents in most of them are poisonous, so wearing rubber gloves whilst testing water is not a bad idea. It's probably not necessary unless you spill the chemicals on your skin and don't wash them off, but if you want to err on the side of caution, geta new pr of rubber gloves to use when testing.

Washing your hands and arms with warm soapy water should be all you need to do after working in the tank, regardless of if you are pregnant or not.

If you have opens wounds or cuts in the skin, then wear rubber globes or just avoid getting aquarium water on the wounds until they have healed. This is just in case the fish have Fish Tuberculosis (Fish TB), because that can get into open wounds and cause localised infections called granulomas. You can't tell if fish have Fish TB unless they develop symptoms just before dying and there's no cure for it anyway. So just avoid getting aquarium water on open wounds.

------------------

As for water changes, get a garden hose and run it out the door onto the lawn. Attach the gravel cleaner to the garden hose and gravel clean the tank and let the water go outside onto the lawn or garden.

To fill the tank, get a large plastic storage container and put it near the aquarium. Use the garden hose to fill the container. Add dechlorinater to the water and aerate it vigorously for at least 5 (preferably 30) minutes. Then use a small water pump and plastic hose to pump the water from the container into the aquarium. you can make a U out of pvc pipe and attach that (with a hose clamp) to the outlet of the hose and hang the U over the side of the tank so it doesn't fall off.

If you do regular water changes leading up to the birth, the tank can go a few weeks without water changes so you can have the baby, come home and spend a few weeks recovering. Then the other half can do water changes for a bit.

Thank you so much Colin super helpful as always!!!! The only thing I have a question mark over is the other half doing water changes for a bit - hell is more likely to freeze over

 

[Flowerfairy13]

Congratulations!

I carried on as normal during mine, never bothered with gloves and I wasn't worried about test kits etc either...I'm not in the habit of spilling or drinking those so I didn't feel the need to be overly cautious. And I only really use mine when there are issues in the tank.

The only thing I'd advise against is the heavy lifting for obvious reasons, that and the sickness! the smell of the water always had me heaving and so did the fish food but otherwise it was business as usual

Thank you so much! thankfully I don’t seem to be as sick this time around!!! The only thing that is repulsing me at the moment is the worms I started my own black worm tank a few weeks back before I knew and now the thoughts of them makes me sick but the fish love them so I will have to just carry on and get over it

 

[Flowerfairy13]

Congratulations...
And sorry, but I don't have any experience being pregnant (biological not possible in my case... ) and maintaining my tanks at the same time.

Thanks you very much!

 

[Flowerfairy13]

Your Irish bud here, ready to help with maintenance and stinky frozen foods!

I would be so lost without you