THE Killer in my fish tank
Cleaning aquarium left OAP with rare infection
BRIGHTENING up your living room with a tropical aquarium is a hobby intended to induce relaxation and tranquillity.
Therefore it came as a terrifying shock to enthusiast Alex Cunnison when he discovered his beloved fish tank nearly cost him his life.
The 70-year-old contracted an incredibly rare disease that baffled doctors and left him struggling to breathe.
Last night, the retired bus driver – whose illness was so unusual it had never been reported in Scotland before – told how cleaning his aquarium slowly rotted away at his lung.
As part of his fish-keeping routine, Mr Cunnison, of Livingston, West Lothian, would place one end of a hose in the tank then suck on the other end to start siphoning out the dirty water into a bucket.
Although the father of four never swallowed the water, he inhaled bacteria, which then infected his lung with a potentially fatal ‘fish tank granuloma’ – a type of lesion.
He became sicker and sicker, but at first had no idea that his aquarium was to blame.
Instead, he feared he had cancer when he started losing weight and developed a persistent cough that left him struggling to breathe.
He was forced to cancel a sunshine holiday as mystified doctors struggled to find the cause of his symptoms. After months of tests, medics revealed the astonishing truth.
His infection was so rare the Scottish Medical Journal said it was only the third of its kind ever reported worldwide.
Yesterday, Mr Cunnison spoke of the life-threatening ordeal caused by the 20 small tropical fish, including guppies, he kept in a 4ft x 3ft tank in his living room.
He said: ‘I could have died. It was taking over my whole lung.
‘I enjoyed looking after the fish. They were really nice to look at, pretty bright colours and relaxing. If I’d only known. Now I wish I’d got a pump to clean the tank, but people have siphoned fish tanks like that for years.’
After about six years, he and partner Kathline Bellard, 65, decided to redecorate and gave the fish to his grand-daughter Millie, now 12.
But months later Mr Cunnison developed a cough that left him struggling to breathe and he eventually went to a doctor.
He said: ‘I was finding it hard to catch my breath and was lightheaded and dizzy. It’s frightening.’ After doctors sent him for an x-ray, he was told that he did not have cancer – but he might have tuberculosis.
Over the following months, further tests identified the bacterium that was slowly destroying Mr Cunnison’s lung as Mycobacterium marinum.
Found in water, it typically causes cuts or scratches on the skin, although this is rare. To find it in the lungs is rarer still.
Mr Cunnison said: ‘They said it was an infection fishermen get. We mentioned I used to siphon the fish tank with my mouth.
‘But I hadn’t had them for a year-and-a-half – the lesions must have just been there, growing all that time.’
Dr Donald Noble, consultant physician at St John’s Hospital, Livingston, said: ‘This is the only reported case of lung infection due to M. marinum in Scotland and there are only a few case reports reported in the medical literature worldwide.
‘These infections cause progressive destruction of lung tissue and are often difficult to treat.’
Mr Cunnison is now free of infection after a year of treatment with antibiotics.
Colin Pannell, of the Federation of British Aquatic Societies, said: ‘I’ve been keeping fish for 45 years and I’ve never heard of anything like this.
‘The chances of anything like that happening have got to be millions to one. If you want to be absolutely safe, use a pump.’
‘I’ve never heard of anything like this’