Aquariums Around Children and Pets

Home-safety measures for aquariums with young children, cats and dogs: drowning and tip-over risk, lids, chemical and battery storage, hand hygiene and electrical safety.

Why aquariums need child and pet safety measures

A home aquarium combines several hazards that child-safety organisations treat separately: open water, a heavy object on furniture, mains electricity next to water, and bottles of water-treatment chemicals and medications. The US CDC reports that more children aged 1–4 die from drowning than from any other cause, and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) lists furniture and appliance tip-overs as a recurring cause of child deaths. None of the official sources used here gives aquarium-specific statistics; the measures below apply their general home-safety advice to a tank and its stand.

Drowning: open water and buckets

RoSPA states that children can drown in any amount of water and notes that, in the UK, garden ponds are involved in more than half of all toddler drownings. A CPSC review of in-home drownings of children under 5 in 2006–2010 counted 434 deaths, 82% of them in children younger than 2, involving bathtubs, buckets, toilets and landscaping features; the agency warns that a few inches of water is enough. Water changes put buckets of water on the floor, and an aquarium or pond without a cover is open water.

• Keep a fitted lid or cover on the tank so a child cannot reach into the water or lean over the open surface.
• Empty buckets immediately after a water change and store them where young children cannot reach them (CPSC, RoSPA).
• Supervise closely and constantly whenever a young child is near water; drowning happens in seconds (CDC).
• For garden ponds, RoSPA advises a fence at least 1.1 m high with a locked gate, a rigid metal grille, or filling the pond in until children are older.

Tip-over: anchoring the stand

CPSC data show 581 tip-over deaths involving furniture, TVs or appliances since 2000, 472 of them children; most victims were crushed. RoSPA warns that children use drawers as climbing frames and that furniture at risk of being pulled over should be secured to the wall. An aquarium stand or cabinet loaded with a tank, water, rock and substrate is tall, heavy furniture, so the same advice applies. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends metal anti-tip anchors (such as L-brackets) fixed into a wall stud rather than plastic, which can become brittle, and multiple anchors for heavier pieces. Keep toys and other objects that tempt children to climb away from the top of the tank, and never place a tank on furniture not designed to carry it. A separate guide covers aquarium weight and floor loading.

Chemicals, medications and button batteries

• Store water conditioners, test-kit reagents, fish medications and cleaning products out of sight and reach of children, preferably in a locked cupboard (RoSPA).
• Keep every product in its original container; Poison Control documents deaths after chemicals were decanted into drink bottles.
• Store chemicals separately from food, drinks and human medicines, and keep medicines in child-resistant containers (Poison Control).
• Battery-powered devices may contain button batteries. Poison Control warns that a battery lodged in the oesophagus can cause severe damage in as little as 2 hours; secure battery compartments with screws or strong tape and keep spare and used batteries out of reach.
• For pets, the ASPCA advises keeping cabinet doors closed or fitted with child-proof locks, and keeping cleaning products up and out of paws' reach.

Cats and dogs

A hood or lid reduces evaporation, keeps fish from leaving the aquarium and stops other things from entering it, including a cat's paw. Laboratory work on zebrafish shows that visual exposure to a predator triggers antipredator behaviour and a rise in cortisol, a stress hormone, and that alarmed fish pass the reaction on to tankmates. A cat perching beside or on top of the tank is a predator in view, which is a further reason to keep lids secured and to avoid furniture next to the tank that serves as a launch point. The ASPCA identifies electrical cords as the most dangerous household item for pets because chewing through them can cause electrocution, and advises trimming, binding or hiding cords.

Hand hygiene and germs

Tank water can carry germs such as Mycobacterium marinum, the cause of fish tank granuloma, and Salmonella. The CDC advises that children under 5 should not clean the aquarium or handle aquarium items, that everyone wash hands with soap and water after touching fish, food, equipment or tank water, and that tank water be emptied into a bathtub, laundry sink or outdoors rather than the kitchen sink. A separate guide on zoonoses in the aquarium hobby covers these infections in detail.

Electrical safety

Heaters, pumps and lights operate next to water within a child's or pet's reach. The CPSC explains that a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) cuts power when it detects a leakage as small as 0.006 A, fast enough to prevent a fatal shock, and recommends testing each GFCI at least once a month and after a power failure. The UK Health and Safety Executive recommends residual current devices (RCDs) with a tripping current no higher than 30 mA, notes that an RCD reduces but does not remove the risk of serious injury, and advises checking plugs and cables for damage and unplugging equipment before any checks. A separate guide covers aquarium electrical safety and GFCI protection.