frozen blood worms

[dozer]

I occasionally like to treat my tiger barbs with frozen blood worms...I thaw a cube out and then feed them by dropping the worms in a little at a time with a toothpick....I've noticed that I often will lose a fish or 2 a week or to after...like they are getting sick from the worms...I lost two rosy barbs last time within days of eachother and right now I'm fighting to keep 2 of my tiger barbs alive. My youngest one seems to have won the battle and he's happily swimming around with the others and his colour is nice and bright again. My oldest (he's about 2 years old) is looking very black and swimming very zigzaggy. (like he gets startled). His breathing had been quite rapid but now seems to be getting better. The younger one was doing the same thing before he recovered.. I have been feeding him peas and he's eating them. I have him in the same tank still, just partitioned from the rest because I noticed his fins were a bit frayed from the others. Is is risky to feed them these frozen worms?

[QTOFFER]

Sounds like food poisoning - I'd ditch the worms you have and buy a fresh package. If the package is very old or was improperly stored before you bought it, it may have become contaminated. Fish can get food poisoning from outdated or improperly stored frozen foods just like us.

[Gillie]

How often do you feed the worms? How many Barbs? Some fish can't handle the large amount of protein the worms provide. I would try cutting back to what ever they eat in a few minutes blood worms spoil pretty quick,also if they are not bright red in the package and kind of brown in color throw them out immediately.

[coldmachineUK]

Also clean out any leftovers in the tank after feeding: if you've a pile of rotting bloodworm in the tank then this may cause an ammonia spike which won't help matters.

[lovemybarbs]

I have some in my freezer that thawed in a power outage and then froze back up again. I'm afraid to use them.

[dozer]

wow...who would have thought fish can get food poisoning...He's still hanging on...His breathing is definitely better and his colour is also a little better today...He's loving his peas, so as long as he's eating I'm happy... He is my favourite fish...He's one the original fish I had when I first set up my tank...He's survived ich, parasites, fungus and fin rot (I can tell him apart, 'cause when his top fin grew back it grew in crooked)...Hopefully he will also survive food poisoning.. I'll keep you posted.

[dozer]

woo hoo....it's almost been a month for my tiger barb, but I'm proud to say today, that I have released him to swim with his buddies...actually I set him free out of his ICU about 2 days ago, but I was still corralling him to feed him to make sure he was getting enough to eat...he's gotten really thin around his spine, but he is acting like a true tiger barb again...practically jumping out of the water come feeding time and following the danios around while they spawn...I have been feeding him with the gang for 2 days....I watch him like a hawk to make sure he's getting enough to eat. I think his muscles have atrophied, from not swimming much for 4 weeks, so I'll have to see if he thickens out along his spine again...geez, what he's been through...One day I came home and he was flopping around on his side...I thought, oh oh...there goes his swim bladder, but I let him be for a day and a half and when I came home from work, he was upright again. He's just amazing and my most favourite fish..... I love a challenge

[Lonewolfblue]

Bloodworms is about the only thing my fire eel will eat, so I feed it daily, as well as other foods. I do the other food during the day, and bloodworms at night for the eel, but the tiger barbs and loaches can't resist, even if I fed them right before, lol. I got myself a long, clear plastic tube which I pour the thawed bloodworms down so they don't scatter around the tank in the current that the filter makes. Now all my fish know exactly when and where to go to get their share of the bloodworms, lol. And the large yoyo loaches are just as much hogs as the fire eel is, lol.

[gu2high]

I have lost 3 panda cories in the past two months. I remember I had feed them frozen blood worms 2-4 days ago for each death case. I don't know whether it is related to the feeding or not, but is very likely. However, all other fish were ok, including platy fry.

For each case, I can recall one panda cory got sick and died in few days. To be on safe side, I will not feed them again.

[Lonewolfblue]

Or like mentioned above, get a new package of bloodworms. Some fish are more sensative to food poisoning than others as well. I've had no problems with my panda cories, green cories, and jullii cories eating bloodworms.