I know what you mean about the allergy thing...sheesh. Freeze dried blood
worms make me sneeze violently and my eyes water and itch severely. If I
feed frozen bloodworms, I cant touch the inside of the bag nor the frozen
worms with my hands/fingers. If I do, they swell up for about an hour.


Good thing the little lady dont mind....lol




"Mean_Chlorine" wrote in message
om...
While the fish love both, and while I make every effort to provide a
varied diet (ie I have three dry feeds, two pelleted, five frozen...)
I never, ever, feed live tubifex or frozen bloodworms (chironomid
larvae).

Two reasons, firstly fish safety:
Live tubifex is brimming with parasites. There's always tapeworm and
sporozoa cysts in them, just waiting to get into the digestive tract
of a fish. Most fish can handle it, but if the fish immunosystem gets
depressed, from e.g. stress or high temperature, then the parasites
may kill it.
Frozen bloodworms (chironomid larvae) don't carry parasites in the
same way, but it's a fatty food, and if the manufacturer and or LFS
hasn't handled the food well (ie thawed the worms in a refrigerated
room prior to packing and re-freezing) then they may well gone bad.
And bad bloodworms cause dropsy. In fact I'd say it's the number one
cause of dropsy, by a wide margin.
If the bloodworms have been handled properly, it's good food, if
they've not, they're pure death. Everyone is of course free to do as
they please, but personally I don't take that gamble anymore, not
after killing $150 worth of fish with bloodworms less than a year ago.

There is also another reason not to use bloodworms: they may cause
allergies in humans. This goes doubly for dried bloodworms, since the
allergenic substances may then be inhaled as dust.

Instead of these foods, when I want to condition fish, I feed shrimp
meat, chopped earthworm, beefheart, and mosquito larvae. Neither live
tubifex or frozen bloodworms are indispensible.


(Also there is a confusion in this thread about what bloodworms _are_.
Tubifex is NOT the same as bloodworms; tubifex are small aquatic
earthworms, long and thin, while bloodworms are larvae of non-biting
midges, shorter and plumper.
Tubifex:
http://www.akvariumas.lt/straipsniai...as/tubifex.jpg
Bloodworms: http://www.ocean-adventures.org/imag...t/bloodwms.gif

To add to this, the marine glycerid worms used for bait are often also
called bloodworms:
http://www.mainebait.com/bloodworm.html
These are however much larger worms than either tubifex or chironomid
larvae.)

"Bucky" wrote in message ...
I know what you mean about the allergy thing...sheesh. Freeze dried blood
worms make me sneeze violently and my eyes water and itch severely. If I
feed frozen bloodworms, I cant touch the inside of the bag nor the frozen
worms with my hands/fingers. If I do, they swell up for about an hour.

I'd stay away from bloodworms if I were you: you're clearly sensitive,
and may become allergic to other things apart from the bloodworms, or
the allergy may become more severe. You may get to the point that you
can't even be close to bodies of water where bloodworms are common.

Bloodworms are quite strongly allergenic; perhaps as many as 1 in 5
exposed to bloodworms develop an allergy (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...tool=iconabstr
).
If bloodworms were, say, a dye or a foodstuff, they'd likely be
banned.

Yea, I've been collecting mosquito larvae all summer and freezing it.
Hopefully, I wont have to fool w/ bloodworms this winter.



"Mean_Chlorine" wrote in message
om...
"Bucky" wrote in message
...
I know what you mean about the allergy thing...sheesh. Freeze dried
blood
worms make me sneeze violently and my eyes water and itch severely. If I
feed frozen bloodworms, I cant touch the inside of the bag nor the
frozen
worms with my hands/fingers. If I do, they swell up for about an hour.

I'd stay away from bloodworms if I were you: you're clearly sensitive,
and may become allergic to other things apart from the bloodworms, or
the allergy may become more severe. You may get to the point that you
can't even be close to bodies of water where bloodworms are common.

Bloodworms are quite strongly allergenic; perhaps as many as 1 in 5
exposed to bloodworms develop an allergy (
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...tool=iconabstr
).
If bloodworms were, say, a dye or a foodstuff, they'd likely be
banned.

Ever since fed my fish bloodworms I have had not been able get rid of some
cloudiness in the water. It is whitish in color and returns within couple
of days after each water change. I have also been finding worms in the
bottom of the tank during cleanings. The tank has been setup for about a
year and I did not have this problem until I introduced the worms about 6
months ago. I used them off and on for about a week, and have not tried
them since.

I'm fairly confident the cloudiness is caused by the worms. Does anyone
have any suggestions on how to get rid of them, or clear up the water?

Thanks.

"Mean_Chlorine" wrote in message
om...
While the fish love both, and while I make every effort to provide a
varied diet (ie I have three dry feeds, two pelleted, five frozen...)
I never, ever, feed live tubifex or frozen bloodworms (chironomid
larvae).

Two reasons, firstly fish safety:
Live tubifex is brimming with parasites. There's always tapeworm and
sporozoa cysts in them, just waiting to get into the digestive tract
of a fish. Most fish can handle it, but if the fish immunosystem gets
depressed, from e.g. stress or high temperature, then the parasites
may kill it.
Frozen bloodworms (chironomid larvae) don't carry parasites in the
same way, but it's a fatty food, and if the manufacturer and or LFS
hasn't handled the food well (ie thawed the worms in a refrigerated
room prior to packing and re-freezing) then they may well gone bad.
And bad bloodworms cause dropsy. In fact I'd say it's the number one
cause of dropsy, by a wide margin.
If the bloodworms have been handled properly, it's good food, if
they've not, they're pure death. Everyone is of course free to do as
they please, but personally I don't take that gamble anymore, not
after killing $150 worth of fish with bloodworms less than a year ago.

There is also another reason not to use bloodworms: they may cause
allergies in humans. This goes doubly for dried bloodworms, since the
allergenic substances may then be inhaled as dust.

Instead of these foods, when I want to condition fish, I feed shrimp
meat, chopped earthworm, beefheart, and mosquito larvae. Neither live
tubifex or frozen bloodworms are indispensible.


(Also there is a confusion in this thread about what bloodworms _are_.
Tubifex is NOT the same as bloodworms; tubifex are small aquatic
earthworms, long and thin, while bloodworms are larvae of non-biting
midges, shorter and plumper.
Tubifex:
http://www.akvariumas.lt/straipsniai...as/tubifex.jpg
Bloodworms: http://www.ocean-adventures.org/imag...t/bloodwms.gif

To add to this, the marine glycerid worms used for bait are often also
called bloodworms:
http://www.mainebait.com/bloodworm.html
These are however much larger worms than either tubifex or chironomid
larvae.)