"Jonathan Wood" wrote in message link.net...
Were the bloodworms that gave you trouble frozen? Have you tried live
blackworms or are you avoiding those as well?

They were frozen, and had probably died, and started to rot, before
being frozen. I know they smelled slightly, but not very, 'funky', and
the water the worms were thawed in turned red, but like an idiot I
thought "it's probably nothing" and fed them to the fish. You'd think
I'd have learned not to feed things I'm uncertain of the quality of,
but no. Basically I think the fish got food poisoning, always a risk
with fatty foods.

I don't think it was the bloodworms in themselves that caused the
dropsy, I think that with live worms, my fish would still be alive.

However, even the live worms are, AFAIK, allergenic to humans, and
since I already have one allergy (birch pollen) I would personally
avoid exposure also to live worms.