If you've properly washed and dried your hands, it shouldn't hurt anything for you to reach in there and do what you need to do. All my bettas have a hammock. They love those suckers. I feed them over them and they like to hang out on the leaf. I would suggest that you snip off the plastic on the end that goes into the suction cup and pull out the metal inside with pliers. That's what I did with mine- the metal inside will rust and could potentially poison your fish. Also- no question is silly! :-D Welcome to the fishy world, BTW!