Blood Worms Killed Fish

[fish wrangler]

Hi, I fed my fish blood worms every three days and flake food in between. After two weeks of feeding the worms I noticed my 5 inch rainbow shark belly up, he was my favorite because of how bright red his fins were compared to his black body. The next day I found one of my yellow lab cichlids dead . I did a major water change and everything went back to normal. I don't know if the shark and cichlid fought over the log that the shark had claimed, or if they both died from the worms. My dad thought that they were sick from the worms, they fought and the cichlid won, but the shark had done damage to the cichlid that, along with it being sick, killed it. What I am asking is can I feed my fish (6 rosy barbs, 1 electric yellow cichlid, and 1 plecostomus) the blood worms with out them dying? Thank you all for your time.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

I would advise feeding the worms maybe once a week or every other week. Your cichlids especially aren't meant to have that much protein in their diet. What size tank do you have them in? What is your filtration? How are your water parameters?

 

[fish wrangler]

I have one in a 29 gallon tank with 6 rosy barbs and a plecostomus. I have a TopFin 30 Gallon filter that came with the tank as a starter tank, and I know that I should be ding this but I have not been keeping up on my water parameters. I am looking into getting the Marineland Magnum 350 or 350 Pro. I had three cichlid to start but lost one to fighting the shark and the other one recently to being attacked by the last cichlid that I have who gets along peacefully with my barbs. He even follows them in the school.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

I don't think the worms are the problem. I would bet there is something with your water parameters. Either high ammonia or nitrates.

 

[fish wrangler]

Ok , I just found it weird that the fish died after I added something something to their diet because before this everyone was acting normal.