interesting question

[Mike L]

 I recently was at a fellow OVAS members home looking at the booty he had just purchased at a great price from a fellow hobbyist who was getting out (crazy). In their conversations the seller mentioned that he never puts his hands in the tank directly. I'm assuming that he uses gloves I guess. His reasoning being that there are so many undesirable things we touch on a daily basis that could leave residuals on our hands that in turn would not be good for the fish. I have always washed before with soap and then rinsed very well but have always used my hands.

So today on the way home with the thought of doing a clean/water change on one of my tanks I stopped and got gas. I ended up getting some on my hands. When I got home I washed and still had "the smell". This got me thinking about the hobbyists advice. I have soaked my hand for 20 minutes to leach the gas/smell away and still a feint odour. So I have decided to wait but it left me wondering. What do you all do and is this taking things too far. As I said I have always washed first but what if something I introduced into the tank inadvertently was the cause of one of the many unexplained deaths that have happened over the years. Thoughts please

[lucius]

I usually do my water changes Saturday morning.  If I'm hungry, I take a quick bite but for the most part I usually don't eat anything beforehand.  I also don't put on any deodorant because I'm often armpit deep in water.

Weeknights, I do some minor maintenance and then do the dishes.  If I do need to stick my hand in then I wash up with anti-bacterial soap first.

Personally, I rather use my hand because I think gloves would scare the fish more and I can use my nails to scrape minor algae growth.

[sanny]

I have a spare bucket that is dechlorinized that I wash my hands in before putting my hand in the tank.

[robt18]

I wash my hand off with burning hot water, no soap. Although as long as you haven't done anything extreme within a few minutes of putting your hands in, you're probably fine. Ecosystems can be pretty tough!

[az]

I would change that soap that didn't do much after 20 minutes, also in this cold I try to buy gas at a full service place, that helps a bit, but you can only be so careful!