Essential oils and fish?

[Orange Crush]

Hi all, the longer I am on this earth, the more I try to live my life respecting it, the health of myself and others. As such, I no longer use products with artificial fragrances (they negativity disrupt the hormones in our bodies and some cause cancer). I really like wearing essential oils and was thinking about buying a diffuser for the home. I wonder thou, might that get into the fish tank, and if it did, what would that do to the fish?

One website I was looking at actually had essential oils for fish tanks.???http://www.animaleo.info/aqua-add.html
I am not going to try this thou and I am not suggesting anyone should, but what about oils in the air?

[brewmaster15]

Thats a tough call on whether it will hurt the fish or not. Even essential oils that are good for humans in small amounts are often bad at higher levels. Fish living in fishtank are captive kritters and with limited water reservoirs around them to dilute toxins, they can build up fast and bio-accumulate. Id be worried about that foremost. I also would worry that the oils could bind to, react with or simplycoat the gill tissues and prevent them from functioning . A real world example of this might be the tragedy of when a child inhales mineral oil accidentally and it gets into their lungs. When ingested Mineral oil is used as a laxative when inhaled.. it can cause a form of pneumonia (lipid Pneumonia) and inflammation and difficulty breathing and possibly death.

Call me overly cautious but its best to err on the side of caution when it comes to chemicals getting into your tank.

hth,
al

ps.. great seeing you online OC :)