Worms - good or bad

[Steve Williams]

Hello,

I am very confused about whether I should be feeding frozen or live bloodworms to my discus. Some sites (and books) suggest that they are potentially a source of parasites. Others suggest that there are shells on them which the fish find it difficult to pass. Then there are others which strongly advocate the practice.

I would expect that the frozen discus brought into Australia needs to be irradiated and that this will kill the parasites.

What about the freeze dried black worms?

Thanks for your help

Steve W

[ILLUSN]

freeze drying kills everything, nothing survives once all the water has been striped out of it, these would be my choice, all frozen food has some risk, even gamma irradiated food still has risks, i dont feed frozen bloodworms to my fish anymore.

[Hollowman]

I feed frozen irradiated blood worm. I never now feed live bloodworm, too many risks. You are right about the skins, (not shells) they seem not to be digested by some fish and can cause blockages, but epsome salt will clear them out in 99% of cases.
I feed a lot of Mal's Aussie Blackworms, a great food and my fish love them.
hth
H

[swampy1972]

Mine get frozen bloodworms twice a week. They also get homemade beefheart mix (it also has Aussie freeze dried worms in it) and Tetra colour bits to keep it varied.

[AHC]

I stopped feeding frozen bloodworms but am all for mals feeze dried worms. They love them and I never had issues.

[goodoo]

Were do you get mals freeze dried worms.

[ILLUSN]

MAL'S WEBSITE IS HERE

http://www.blackworms.com.au/

[alenfort]

The Black Worms is Dry worm through the same procedures as the destination of trade do worms live, they capture the block frozen, and then into the freeze drying machine.

[taksan]

Mals worms are da bomb !!!!

[Merrilyn]

Yep, got to agree. A good, cleani Aussie product you can feed to your fish with confidence !

[goodoo]

get some, If you have trouble ordering them just call them and pay by credit. A day or two later you will have a bag of what looks like some kind of hard drug for fish.

[Old Dave]

freeze drying kills everything, nothing survives once all the water has been striped out of it, ....

So how come brine shrimp eggs still hatch after all the treatments?
Serious question.

Thanks
Dave

[karisdiscus]

did you have problems getting your discus to eat dried black worms? I am thinking of ordering some.

[ILLUSN]

Brine shrimp eggs army treated as such most are shipped in tins which block most of the gamma irradiation brine shrimp eggs evolved to cope with complete dessication for up to 20 years and still hatch not much kills encapsulated brine shrimp eggs


All my fish took to Aussie blackworms from the go never a problem

[goodoo]

I dont think freeze drying removes all the moisture. It says on the packet they contain 10% moisture.