Are Bloodworms actually bad for your fish?

[sly2kusa]

Someone out on Yahoo Q&A is claiming that Bloodworms do more harm than good as a food source. Is this true?????

 

[ljse]

Some cichlids have trouble digesting them. When I used to feed them to my dwarfs, they kept dying until I completely gave up on bloodworms.

 

[sly2kusa]

Some cichlids have trouble digesting them. When I used to feed them to my dwarfs, they kept dying until I completely gave up on bloodworms.

Any ideas on what would be a better alternative to live feeders if Bloodworms don't do the trick? The fish in question is a Clown Knife.

 

[oscar83]

ive been feeding my fish bloodworms for years now and never have had a problem. ive fed them to oscars, jd's, silver dollars, leporinus, parrot fish, betta, the list goes on.

 

[plah831]

Some cichlids have trouble digesting them. When I used to feed them to my dwarfs, they kept dying until I completely gave up on bloodworms.

hmm, I did not know that. I'll keep that in mind for when I start a dwarf cichlid tank. None of my current fish have ever had problems with them, though.

I haven't heard about bloodworms being huge carriers of disease like tubifex worms. It's because tubifex worms are found in sewage runoff and runoff from fish farms, so they're full of crap and diseases transferable to fish. So I steer clear of tubifex worms in any form, live, freeze-dried, whatever.

Blackworms are also healthier because they are often farmed, and naturally come from clean coldwater streams.

You know what I've wondered about bloodworms and glassworms? Since they're both forms of mosquito larvae, does that mean people are raising huge ponds of mosquitoes? Could the fish food industry be contributing to mosquito populations and helping spread mosquito-borne diseases? Or are they raising only males somehow? Are they a benign species of mosquito?

 

[ljse]

I think bloodworms are midge fly larva.
I usually feed my fish flakes or frozen daphnia.

 

[Cathy G]

Some cichlids have trouble digesting them. When I used to feed them to my dwarfs, they kept dying until I completely gave up on bloodworms.

I am curious about this, where did you find this out? I do feed my rams bloodworms once every 3-4 days along with their pellets. Did your rams exhibit any symptoms that you could see?

I know various brands of bloodworms are out there, the most recommended brand being Hikari. If there was any article you read, or link you have to support your statement I'd love to see it. (Just want to do right by my fish!)

Cathy

 

[Rowangel]

Some cichlids have trouble digesting them. When I used to feed them to my dwarfs, they kept dying until I completely gave up on bloodworms.

Never heard this either, my rams and angels love Bloodworms and I've never seem them have any issues with them. Now I, on the other hand, have issues with them...yuck, and I'm allergic. :

 

[Star_Rider]

actually I believe that some cichlids need more vegetation . not sure but they may be the african cichlids some of which are dwarves.

they are prone to bloat if they get too much protein in their diet.

many of the SA cichlids angels, rams etc are omnivores/carnivorous and need plenty of meat in their diets.

 

[ljse]

I used to feed live bloodworms daily and after a while my rams would become very bloated and then die. It could have been parasites, but all of my other fish were fine.

Here is a thread on apistogramma.comLink

When I had the rams a while ago and posted about what the possible problems could be, I got a lot of conflicting replies about bloodworms so to be safe I stopped using them.