How to feed frozen Bloodworms

[BEAUCASTLE]

I have read I should put them in water and thaw, and I have seen people throw a frozen block in the tank and let the fish chase it. What is correct?

[thesixis]

I have done it both ways, depending on what I was feeding. Large fish got chunks and fry or small fish(guppies) got thawed. I only buy 1lb. blocks, as the cubes cost too much per feeding.

[hbeth82]

Doesn't seem like there would be a 'right' way but I just toss them in whole, still frozen, both for my turtle & the fish. I would think a problem with letting them thaw before adding is that more would get sucked into the filter or dispersed to where the fish may not find it. Besides, it's cooler to watch the little guy can take off with the whole wad!

[sub ceroh]

I just toss them in as well.

[cabezon]

depends.

One big fish? let him have a chunk.

lots of little ones? melt it, it only takes a minute.

a mix? do both.

[dkpate]

Now, I am still a novice with this but when I feed bloodworms to my fish (he is just a little guy right now), I break of a small chunk (I have small bags of worms), set it on a paper plate till it thaws (only takes about 30 sec), scoop it up with a spoon, take the end off the syringe (aka kitten feeder), put it in the end of the syringe, put syringe back together. When I go to feed him, I suck up some water out of the tank, then push syringe up till there is not air in it, and then I put my arm all the way in there and either squirt some to him or let him suck them right out of the syringe. MUCH more fun that just dumping in a chunk!

[WhiteDevil]

I toss in a good sized chunk and let them tear it apart. it doesn't take long to thaw in the heated circulating tank water.


Even my guppies would rather mob the chunk then have thawed thrown in, the thawed stuff sinks quickly, while its frozen it stays in the upper water column and is usually gone before it gets within 4" of the bottom.

[portia]

Originally Posted by WhiteDevil

I toss in a good sized chunk and let them tear it apart. it doesn't take long to thaw in the heated circulating tank water.


Even my guppies would rather mob the chunk then have thawed thrown in, the thawed stuff sinks quickly, while its frozen it stays in the upper water column and is usually gone before it gets within 4" of the bottom.

I like to put a chunk of frozen brine shrimp in, but holding it with my fingers so they eat it right out of my hand as it thaws. The zebra danios and guppies are crazy, they'll come right up and nibble my fingers. The dwarf gourami will eat out of my hand too. The only hesitant one is the swordtail, so I shake it a little and let some shrimp drift over to him.

[WhiteDevil]

My hand hair is a magnet for the bigger gups and danios I got, my angels will do the same with the bloodworms but again the old man gets aggressive and has ripped hair out.

I am all for it, I actually was feeding spawning bluegills at work today, and managed to coax our big flathead up to take a 12" sucker from my hand today( thats an experience).

I prefer to feed them by hand, they are much more human friendly and that helps alot with little kids.

[tzar66]

I usually break a chunk off a 1lb block and toss it in as a treat.I leave it frozen and it's gone before it can hit bottom. In my 75gal tank is the offspring of my flowerhorn&convict cichlid.Interesting that they crossbred.Anyway, I have 3 spiny ells in there and all they eat is bloodworms. In order to make sure the eels don't starve because the young-uns are so greedy is this...An eel feeding station! I used a clear, thick plastic reusable beverage container(the kind that fits in a bicycle bottle cage) drilled some small holes on top to let the air out and drilled holes around the bottom big enough for the eels to get in but keep all but the smallest juvies out.Toss a med size stone in to keep it in place.Put frozen worms in and they float to the top of the bottle where the fish see it and the eels slide in the bottom and feed unmolested except for the few small enough to get in.When the eels leave, I take it out.The eels learned the routine and head right in now during feeding time.Smart eh the eels?

[Mark Hewitt]

I usually just toss it in frozen, the Black Skirt tetras are pretty agreesive feeders and it only takes a few seconds to start to thaw so they tear it apart pretty quickly. It's also quite fun to watch them tearing it apart!

[XimeD]

I toss it in frozen too.

[glassbird]

I use one of those cone-shaped tubifex feeders. I throw a cube of bloodworms (or brine shrimp, or whatever frozen cube of food I have at the moment) into the cone. It's suction cupped to the side of the tank. The food thaws pretty fast, but it is held in place and my fish can eat all of it over several minutes, and none gets blown around the tank or sucked into the filter. No waste, no mess.

[BillD]

I thaw them and rinse through a screen to remove all the debris. I used to feed them in frozen chunks until I saw how much junk was in them.

[adeebm]

I thaw it with a hairdryer :P Then I just pick the worms and drop them by hand. That way all the blood stuff doesn't go in the tank. I'm sure my tetras wouldn't mind it frozen though, they'll eat anything. Little pigs :P

--Adeeb

[coxyhammer]

Depends what type of fish you have/size and how many.

If a small number of larger sized fish - a block floating about on the surface.

If a number of fish including fish of different sizes, I would let the block melt down at room temperature in an egg cup then add to the tank, that way some bloodworm get to the bottom.

[cwt]

I must be cheaper than most folks here... I get the frozen cubes, and when I do break them out to feed with, I melt one down (sometimes two) in an old coffee cup (dousing it with water from one of the tanks) and let it melt naturally. Then I spoon it out to whoever's getting fed. btw, these are cups and utensils that I do not use for people food, just the fish.

[stevie1963]

Hi Guys, I don't know if I am doing something wrong or maybe my fish are just fussy eaters but I popped a block of frozen blood worms in the tank and after an initial inquisitive inspection and a few nibbles all my fish ignored it. The block de-frosted and the worms sank to the bottom. After 24 hours I thought I should remove them before they started to rot and had to spend a long time trying to find and remove all the worms.
I only have a small set-up, 3 Guppies and 7 Tetra Neon. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Newkeeperotis]

Defrost before putting them in the tank is a good ideas and maybe there just to big for them so maybe chop them up a bit

[Cactuspixie]

My embers and glass perch will only eat worms- so nights they get freeze dried black worms soaked in garlic guard, and in the mornings they have frozen blood worms. My mornings are busy, what with the dog, the cats, the tanks..... Lol. So I drop a couple of cubes into a small net, and run some boiling water over them then a quick douse with cold water. One upside is its trained my fish not to be afraid of the net!