CrayonBox Posted May 2, 2012 Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 OK i've been reading alot of posts lately and all of you seem to be saying that blood worm is really bad to feed to your fish. Why is that? and would it be considered bad for my american cichlids? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matmatmat Posted May 2, 2012 Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 It because it is, a lot of the time bred in filthy conditions and Carrys the risk of infecting your fish. if you buy quality frozen bloodworm that is sterilized it reduces the risk.. Also it is a dirty food I.E if you use it do more water changes.. I have used cheap frozen and live with bad results in the past but now I get the stuff (brand?) that they have in the new freezer at pet city and it's great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenswimmers Posted May 2, 2012 Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 I always use bloodworm and have never had issues...just have to be weary of the source....frozen should be fine(if your source is unreliable)...and they boost the frozen ones with vitamins...I feed bloodworms to americans and they love it but thats just my experience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goneself Posted May 2, 2012 Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 Uh..it's mostly because bloodworm have a chitinous exoskeleton, which can damage a fishes digestive system. They also contain haemoglobin, which many fish struggle to pass. Dwarf americans especially seem to be susceptible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benno22 Posted May 2, 2012 Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 I swear by this stuff. I feed my Gt's it all the time and the other day I purposely put in extra and the next day they were breeding. I know its not good to overfeed fish and I don't usually but just a one off and they were breeding. Coincidence or not? Either way bloodworm is good stuff from my experience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the German Posted May 2, 2012 Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 Frozen bloodworms are ok but try live fresh free ( when you gro your own ) compost worms ! There the best! I feed my fish once a week minimum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azedenkae Posted May 2, 2012 Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 Bloodworms in and of itself is not bad for your fish. On the contrary, they have a lot of protein etc. etc. good for getting your fish to produce eggs. It's when it's not properly prepared that's a problem. Though that goes for pretty much everything else out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbeer Posted May 2, 2012 Report Share Posted May 2, 2012 Bloodworms are bad for dwarfs. There has been anecdotal evidence for this for as long as I have talked to people about dwarfs. More recently there was an autopsy done that showed the gut lining ripped to peices. This 'may' be due to feeding them frozen? I don't know and hence just don;t feed them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samo Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 I was feeding my american's blood worms and they loved them however I've just switched to Brine (brill??) Shrimp as suggested by my LFS today. And they work a treat. I had noticed that the blood worms were leaving and oily residue on the surface of the water which bugged me. But fed them the shrip today and no problem at all :)HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott95 Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 Personally I think no fish should be fed fresh or frozen foods for their staple diet. It's just not healthy. Fresh or frozen foods should be given to your fish as a treat, every once in a while. For Americans I don't really see why you would feed it (it's expensive for what you get, and they just gobble it down) a far better option for large americans would be fresh (uncooked) market shrimp that you can get from woollies. The shrimp I have found is susbtantial and will tide them over to another meal, it also helps a lot with the colour of the fish in my experience. Bottom line is no fish should be fed fresh or frozen foods as a staple, but opt for hikari cichlid/bio gold and you can treat them every so often Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jester Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 Even better is catching your own shrimp, I do it while I fish in the Logan Or Albert river. It's a win-win. I feed my bloodworms 1-2 times a week if that, just as a treat. Earthworms are great, high in protein. I feed them With those whenever I have any. I agree with beaker, a good quality pellet like the ones he mentioned are great, but if you are after something with extra protein use hikari massivore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrayonBox Posted May 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 Just to set this straight for everyone. We feed our americans on pellets and then every now and again (was about once a week but has become less regular) we would feed them some blood worm and few pellets (have some really hungry fish). But after seeing some peoples horror experiences with blood worm i just wanted to know peoples thoughts on the matter. Beaker do you mean uncooked prawns? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azedenkae Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Just a random tidbit, but my convict once swallowed an entire cube of bloodworms before it could melt (yes I just drop it in, my fish like it that way). >_> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrayonBox Posted May 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 I use to do that aswell, because my riv just smashed it as soon as it hit the water and then it all spread out. But now i prefer to just put the tablet in a little bit of tank water so i can spread it around a bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor4551 Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Personally I think no fish should be fed fresh or frozen foods for their staple diet. It's just not healthy. Fresh or frozen foods should be given to your fish as a treat, every once in a while. For Americans I don't really see why you would feed it (it's expensive for what you get, and they just gobble it down) a far better option for large americans would be fresh (uncooked) market shrimp that you can get from woollies. The shrimp I have found is susbtantial and will tide them over to another meal, it also helps a lot with the colour of the fish in my experience. Bottom line is no fish should be fed fresh or frozen foods as a staple, but opt for hikari cichlid/bio gold and you can treat them every so often Wow, i wonder where fish in the wild can find hikari pallets ? i would have thought a more natural diet would have been much better than some manufactured pallet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goneself Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 They'e not in the wild. I wonder where a fish in the wild could find medication and t5 lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrayonBox Posted May 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Wow, i wonder where fish in the wild can find hikari pallets ? i would have thought a more natural diet would have been much better than some manufactured pallet. Geez trevor fish just go to there local supermarket and buy some pellets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor4551 Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 They'e not in the wild. I wonder where a fish in the wild could find medication and t5 lighting. Why would a fish that lives in natural light like the sun need a t5 ? Medication? wouldn't you think that if a wild fish got sick it would just become a part of the food chain ? Nature looks after it's own just like a fish not feed on proceed food will always be more healthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azedenkae Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Actually trevor, the manufactured foods ARE more healthy because it was manufactured to contain more nutrients (and balanced at that). Obviously fish can survive fine on natural stuff, but hikari (for example) promotes growth, improves color, etc etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor4551 Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Actually trevor, the manufactured foods ARE more healthy because it was manufactured to contain more nutrients (and balanced at that). Obviously fish can survive fine on natural stuff, but hikari (for example) promotes growth, improves color, etc etc. Not to mention the artificial additives like hormone colour enhancers, food coluors and whatever they add to bulk up the product. Damn wish i had of known this information earlier, i would have given up the fruit and veg and just lived on food like McDonald's and other proceed rubbish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrayonBox Posted May 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 I have to be honest i wouldnt go and brand bloodworm as natural. I mean these worms are probably farmed and have growth homrones and stuff added to them anyway so its probably 6 one half a dozen the other Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trevor4551 Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 I have to be honest i wouldnt go and brand bloodworm as natural. I mean these worms are probably farmed and have growth homrones and stuff added to them anyway so its probably 6 one half a dozen the other Yes they do but if your buying the better quality brands they don't, there also probably not the natural food for your fish but unless your keeping natives it's probably as close as your going to get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbeer Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Wow, i wonder where fish in the wild can find hikari pallets ? i would have thought a more natural diet would have been much better than some manufactured pallet. I think the problem is providing the full range of the natural diet. The truth is while most fish don't eat pellets in the wild, they also don;t just eat bloodworms, and indeed it may be a different species of bloodworm that is a different size. An interesting read is the field research published in Mergus "Cichlid Atlas Book 2". It is a report on the finding in the intestine of Apistogramma Pertensis. The first thing to notice is that the intestine is relatively short. This indicates highly absorbable foods, typically being animal. (By comparison herbivores have a relatively long intestine). In the analysis of the fish almost 20% of the material was seeds. It is also acknowleded that this varies over the year as fruits become ripe in season. The insect larvae eaten is a variety of types. The difficulty of providing this variation in our artificial enviroments means that we must practicaly rely on a high quality feed such as a pellet. I am all for using lives/frozen in addition to a good quality pellet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrayonBox Posted May 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 Thats interetsing that 20% is seed. I wonder if americans would take any fruit? depending on where they came from that could be an interesting thing to mix into the diet that we feed our fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blade87 Posted May 4, 2012 Report Share Posted May 4, 2012 I wont use bllodworms as i lost two not cheap fish to internal worms from feeding them bloodworms and it was two seperate occasions easy 8 months apart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
