dried bloodworms -disease carriers?

[sammigold]

Hi, I am new to this forum and was wondering what peoples views are on things such as dried bloodworms and dried tubifex worms...
I myself have never used these as food sources for my fish.. I tend to stick to flakes, pellets, algae tabs and frozen beefheart and brine shrimp...

Just wondering whether these worms in dried form would still be able to harbour disease as they can in live form...
Has anybody got any thoughts on this.. have been thinking about expanding to using these types of food as well.

I currently have 4 tanks... one with guppies, one with discus/angel/bolivian rams/cardinal and rummy nosetetras/clown loaches/bristlenose/pleco and black widow tetras, one with oscars and synodontis eupterus and one with a scat and silver dollar.

am thinking of these foods as an expansion of my guppys diet...

any suggestions.... thanks.... :dive:

[test4echo]

I'll use freeze-dried bloodworms every once in a while, but have realized that I am allergic to them and get hives whenever I take a pinch out of the container. :D

[sammigold]

I have heard of that happening to people....the things we do for our fish we wouldnt even do for our partners... :D ;)

[Pufferpoison]

since they are freeze dried, and most probably uv sterilized, that would kill off any diseases. it's the choice of food over live any day.

[justintoxicated]

Interesting, my fish seem to like live food the best, my toads and Newts won't eat it if it is not moving, so i use live bloodworms. Been feeding my newts live bloodworms for over 14 years without any problems.

What is the big issue with them?

[sammigold]

I dont have an issue with them I have just heard that they can carry parasites or diseases I have never used them myself... so I cant really have an opinion...

I was just wondering what others thought.... I hadnt thought of them being uv sterilised but that does make sense... so they should be fairly safe...

[KingOfTheDeep]

every living food item can carry disease

being freeze dried, parasites are not able to live through that

frozen bloods and brine shrimp moved through the water almost like they are live, my discus and angels dont know thge difference..

why take the chance with live? especially if you think they may harbor parasites

[sammigold]

I currently feed my discus frozen beefheart and brine shrimp and would never contemplate feeding them live foods...
however my oscars are a different story... I feed them bugs that I find crawling around and they Loooooove them! But totally different fish with much different immune systems I think...

[vaderbanger]

frozen foods can carry bacteria
its best to rinse them first and dont add the juice to your tank. the juice they are packed in is really really bad
freeze dried is parasite free but in cheaper brands i have noticed a decline in health once, i linked it to the freeze dried tubifex, so maybe it can harbor bacteria still
ill only use hikari freeze dried, its the only label that says free of bacteria and parasites, and its the freshest, you can tell as soon as you touch the cube how soft it is, other brands the cubes are hard and appear stale

[mooman]

the issue with blood worms is that they are often collected from severely polluted waters. I still feed them, but I do rinse them and drain the "juice" before adding to my tank. I believe this is an issue with blackworms and tubifex as well.

[Gunnie]

The Omega One (http://www.omegasea.net) brand also says on their cans of freeze dried bloodworms and tubifex:

"As nutritious as live food without the risk of bacteria or parasites"

I started with the tubifex made by wardley and my fish wouldn't touch them. I then tried the Hikari brand, and the fish went apey. They also go apey for the Omega One freeze dried products.

[RTR]

From The Krib: http://www.thekrib.com/Food/bloodworms.html

"According to Carolina Biological Supply, the blackworm"

"...is a common freshwater annelid, Lumbriculus variegatus. Also known as a
California blackworm, or mudworm, _Lumbriculus variegatus_ is a member of
the Order _Lumbriculida_, a small subgroup of oligochaetes that includes
neither earthworms nor freshwater tubifex worms..."

Personally I use live California blackworms regularly and have had no problems.

Tubifex can live and grow in sewage, there you can get problem no matter what the packaging.

Bloodworms are midge larvae and require well oxygented clean water. I have never had any pronlems from feeding these live (when available) or frozen/thawed.rinsed. They are however excellent antigens and folks with known allergies should use caution if they are used by them at all.

[vaderbanger]

As nutritious as live food without the risk of bacteria or parasites"

yep thats what hikari says too :)
the stale batch i got was wardley...ill use their cichlid pellets but not there freeze dried stuff. also i think their shrimp pellets are tainted lol...no fish will touch them but other brands are eagerly gobbled up

guess im old school but i still swear by tetra flakes :joe:

[mtiller]

i normally use frozen bloodworms for my ADFs, neon tetras (they love em), albino corydoras but my two white cloud mountain minnows don't really care for them and that's where the freeze dried bloodworms comes in. the female eats em like crazy but the male picks at em. back when i had bettas they both would eat the freeze dried bloodworms as soon as i put them in.

[Pufferpoison]

i've used several brands of bloodworms and i have found the reddest and most appealing (to the fish) seems to be hakari and san francisco bay brand.

[gravy]

I used to feed a Discus only Tubiflex worms, it was all he would eat. After a while i noticed very small white elongated things moving on the glass. Turns out I inoculated my tank with Planaria. Don't think they would hurt the fish but finda freaky!!

[mooman]

No offence, but I think you were just overfeeding a discus with tubfex. I would bet that we all have a few planaria in our tanks. They get out of control when we slack off on the gravel vacing or overfeed.

[vaderbanger]

oh i got a live tubifex story lol
when i was 15 i had a 10" black ghost fish. he would only eat live tubifex that i used to feed him in one of those triangle basket worm holders ya know they looked like strainers, not sure if they even sell them still but anyway..
i had an undergravel filter (i was still young i didnt know any better)
after about a year the black ghost died of a fungus disease, i tried to save him with meds but nothing worked.
i drained the water and lifted out the base plate of the undergravel filter and whoa and behold i had my very own tubifex farm! the whole bottom tank was a tubifex mat, wall to wall about an inch thick. they were all alive and healthy i could have sold them lol
i then realized that was the reason my poor black ghost got sick
while scooping them out they formed a gigantic ball lol....the hole mess of them had to be a few pounds
i think that was dummy mistake number 162 :)

[gravy]

It probably was my fault, I didn't take care of the tank well, that was when I thought tanks took care of themselves!!! It is kinda strange though to see ~50 planaria/square inch of aquarium glass.