Fish allergies

[tolstoy21]

Just curious, anyone else out there allergic to these darn things?! 

I’m not talking shellfish allergies; I mean allergies to the cute, colorful guys with gills and tails.

Mostly I have to avoid eating them. Last time I accidentally had something with salmon in it, I thought I was going to die on my bathroom floor.

As for the hobby, fish food gets me  — tetra flake and bloodworm especially — if I get my fingers near my eyes after feeding. Ugh. Misery! Mostly I use aquascaping tweezers to handle food as much as I can. But . . .now that I think about it,  Xtreme krill flake has thus far been good to me. So far, no insane eye itching mishaps. 

Anyone else in a similar boat? 
 

 

Edited November 6, 2020 by tolstoy21

[Daniel]

Many people have severe reactions to bloodworms:

Fishing for Allergens: Bloodworm-Induced Asthma

WWW.NCBI.NLM.NIH.GOV

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Hypersensitivity to bloodworms (chironomid larvae) leading to asthma and other related allergic disorders is becoming common in individuals who...

 

[Joshua14]

I would love to feed bloodworms. I've tried everything. I've avoided touching them, even had my wife feed them for me. If I am in the same room with an open container my eyes swell. I mean really swell to the point it's difficult to open them. Otherwise I'm pretty healthy overall, it's just such a random allergy to have, being that I'm not aware of any others.

Edited November 6, 2020 by Joshua14
Wording

[tolstoy21]

25 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Hypersensitivity to bloodworms (chironomid larvae) leading to asthma and other related allergic disorders is becoming common in individuals who...

Hmmmm . . . .  now that you say that, I've had a thought.

I've always been allergic to the ingestion of fish (finned fish not shellfish). I've had a mild or severe reaction to different species that I cant wrap my mind around. Like I'm pretty confident I can eat a moderate amount of sardines and anchovies (but I wont test those waters), but something like a sea bass or tilapia, even a small amount, would wreck my world. 

Anyway, when I was a kid I worked in my family's bait shop run by my grandfather -- packing fish, grinding and making chum, fishing for killies, eels and grass shrimp on the saltmarshes and bay. I was always around and handling fish -- live, frozen and ground up. Pretty much bathed in it daily--fish guts, fish scales, you name it. I was absolutely encrusted in the stuff for a huge chunk of my childhood. Blood worms, sand eels, all that kind of stuff too.

I wonder if that's a contributing factor, at least in terms of the bloodworms, because they don't fit the category of a finned fish.

I'm pretty sure i'll never know and I'm old enough now to not care to really dig too deep into this because it just is what it is. But ya got me thinking . . . . 

Edited November 6, 2020 by tolstoy21

[tolstoy21]

@Joshua14 Good to see I'm not alone. Im ok with bloodworms so long as i don't touch my face before washing my hands.

[Brandy]

I am so allergic to blood worms that I can't even be in the room while they are fed. It was a little terrifying until I figured out what was causing it, after I first fed them my face and throat swelled to the point that I was worried I would have trouble breathing or swallowing, and it happened fast, in seconds. I do not think this is one to try to "tough it out" over. I actually worry a bit about shopping in ACO. I just try to not touch anything, and I am really careful not to touch my face.

[yannachka]

just made a post about this cause i didnt see it! i have to wash my hands after doing anything in salt water tanks, my hands tend to break out in mild hives. bloodworms turn my hands red (ironic!) where they touch and it itches uncontrollably. eating fish makes me nauseous so aside from sushi every now and then i avoid it. 

[tolstoy21]

5 hours ago, yannachka said:

eating fish makes me nauseous

Yeah that’s the gist of my allergy to fish. But for me it’s absolutely debilitating when it’s bad, kind of like food poisoning.