are live bloodworms bad for my fish?
- Thread starter firemouth
- Start date
-
- Tags
- bad bloodworms fish live
mscichlid
Founder
Nope. I usually find them at the bottom of my rain barrell in the summer. Promptly fed to the fish.
I wouldn't feed them to anything less than 1 inch in body length. The bloodworm has a chitinous exoskeleton that can be incompletely digested and then block the intestinal tract of smaller fish.
What could be worse is if you are allergic to the bloodworms. A small percentage of the population is sensitive to allergens within the species. Most people that are allergic don't know it until they try to feed them to their fish, at which time they start developing a rash, itching, sometimes trouble breathing, etc. It can be very dangerous if you are allergic.
Joel
UNCLERUCKUS
"THE ALL POWERFUL Q !!
MIGHT I SUGGEST LATEX OR NON LATEX GLOVES...ALLERGIES SOLVED BUT KEEP AN EPPY PEN CLOSE JUST IN CASE.
MIGHT I SUGGEST LATEX OR NON LATEX GLOVES...ALLERGIES SOLVED BUT KEEP AN EPPY PEN CLOSE JUST IN CASE.
Some people have been known to have reactions just by being close to the bloodies and not even touching them.
Jumbie
Members
I feed them to my fish, and I have had no problems.
Tony
Alligator Snapping Turtle/Past Pres
I read the other day that Konings recommends not feeding frozen ones to Lake Africans because a lot of them are harvested from acidic waters that will actually affect the pH of the worm, causing digestion issues in the fish. I believe that this may be more true for some of the cheaper brands though.
I don't really see a problem if you are feeding the frozen to more neutral/acidic water fish or live worms that can be rinsed/raised in neutral water. I also wouldn't be concerned with higher-quality frozen food (Hikari Bio-pure, etc).
Joel - I didn't know that about the exoskeleton. Thanks!
I don't really see a problem if you are feeding the frozen to more neutral/acidic water fish or live worms that can be rinsed/raised in neutral water. I also wouldn't be concerned with higher-quality frozen food (Hikari Bio-pure, etc).
Joel - I didn't know that about the exoskeleton. Thanks!
Jumbie
Members
I should clear up my answer, because I think Tony is correct. I feed live and frozen to all of my CA/SA fish and have had no problems. However I have just recently stopped feeding frozen bloodworms to my Africans. I have notice over a period of time that a few different sp. of African cichlids would die over night after feeding them frozen bloodworms. Now these are fish that have been healthy for months, and every time I would see a dead fish I would think to myself "what is going on these fish were just doing fine". Well I started to connect the dots and I realized that every time there was a death the day/night before I gave them some frozen BW. Now this all could be coincidental but I fell that it was the frozen food. I could be wrong it could very well be anything that could have caused the deaths but I must say I have had no further deaths sense I have stopped. :confused0083:
By the way it was a Hikari frozen food product and they are a great company, and again I still use this product with my CA/SA almost daily but no longer with Africans.
By the way it was a Hikari frozen food product and they are a great company, and again I still use this product with my CA/SA almost daily but no longer with Africans.