Bloodworm kills tetra

[amosf]

Well, maybe.

The other day we lost several neons, all in the one morning. This was in an established tank with good parameters, although the pH and kH are always high here. It's also hot at the moment, with the tanks hanging around 30C (84F)

When it happened my wife came and told me, thought there was something wrong with the tank, so I checked the parameters, which were fine. She then asked if bloodworm would be a problem as she had recently fed them frozen bloodworm, which they quite liked (as they would). We haven't fed bloodworm in a while, but used to get it often for the rainbowfish. I said, no, bloodworm is fine, and obviously the gourami and the rainbowfish and cories and the goldfish were all fine and all had bloodworm that day...

So it was a mystery. The heat, or neon tetra disease, or whatever...

A couple of days pass, no problem. No deaths. So today I think I'll try bloodworm again. It should be fine. Everybody lapped it up.

Sure enough in a couple of hours I have another couple of dead neons, cardinals and glowlights. The old bloodfin tetra I've had for years is fine mind you, and he ate more than anyone. The remaining 4 glowlights look fine so far as well. The remaining neons I'm not so sure about. All non-tetra are fine.

It does seem a strange coincidence...

weird...

 

[liv2padl]

there's nothing intrinsically wrong with feeding bloodworms. it must be coincidental to something else going on. perhaps they're eating too much and getting intestinal bloat?

 

[amosf]

Well, no, I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with bloodworm either, but I still am a little hesitant to try it again at the moment.

What I fed today was a small amount that they ate in a couple of minutes. I've certainly never had any problem with bloodworm in the past. I can't even say it's something wrong with this particular batch either since the other fish are having no problems.

Still, I think I'll leave it a week or two before feeding again and see what happens with the guys between now and then.

We're going through a heat wave here at the moment and it's just as likely the heat is taking it's toll, but then the glowlights have been through previous summer heat...

We shall see.

 

[Star_Rider]

a bad batch is a possibility.
one of the LFS pulled a batch of blood worms recently.my understanding was the shipment had thawed.

 

[amosf]

Well, I think i'll toss what I have, just in case...

The bigger fish might just be coping with any toxins better then the smaller fish...

 

[mostlycichlids]

I have lost 4 tetras in the last couple of months to intestine bloat I was also feeding blood worms to them and I think it may have been the reason. They love them and may have ate too much Im pretty sure that is why mine died. Needless to say I have a 10 gallon full of female bettas now.

 

[webcricket]

Should be common sense...but you're thawing the worms before feeding, right?

Very weird that some fish get ill and not others.

 

[HiGhTiMeZ]

so sorry to hear that. thats weird yes.
but dont take the chance again, throw the remaining bw.

 

[amosf]

Update... Another couple of days with no bloodworm feeding and the remaining tetra are still alive and well... Left with a cardinal, 2 neons, 4 glowlights and my old bloodfin... So much for the school of neons we had before... sigh...

Now I don't know if I'll every feed bloodworm to tetra again. I'm thinking it was a bad batch that thawed or something, but it's a worry...

 

[amosf]

Still no more fatalities so I'm confident it was the bloodworm. I told the lfs guy about it. He thought it sounded like a bad batch as well, but he started backpeddling real quick when I said I bought it there... I mean, not real bright. It's a small town, so where the heck did he think I bought it... Sheesh.