Woke up last night nearly choking to death with my throat closing, unable to speak or cough i was rushed to the hospital only to recieve no good explanation. Now i am watching this video moments before i go and feed my newts... thank you buddy this probably seemed like a normal, innaucious, video to film at the time which may have actually saved my life. I will be bringing a sample to an allergist when i get a chance.
@noahhh111 so glad to hear that you are okay! I had a similar event one day...after thousands of times with mild reactions to them if I touched them... suddenly one day my throat swelled and eyes were swelling shut within about 3 minutes of finishing feeding. Quite scary, I'm sorry you had to experience that, and I hope you can just use black worms
yeah kinda weird when he said when majority of people doesnt have tht problem and the misinfo he said on the vids i think it happens probably due to overfeed since he supplement other food. but yeah i kinda get Nick's frustration and meltdown, been there but in different situation.
@WoodlandsWorld happens to the best of us. It's hard to lose fish, i get being emotional and all. I just think it hit on a blind spot, maybe in Australia it's not as well known as up in the US and EU. He was speaking from observations, and no real research, when you do that, all based on experience without checking on the science or cause and effect, you can easily end up with one or two incorrect foundational thoughts or "facts", building a whole streak or chain of other incorrect concepts. I felt kinda bad, so I was hoping to address all these folks leaving me dms and emails etc. And tried to only correct a few things, and explain (hopefully) a whole lot more, while the topic was interesting to folks
Perfectly timed! Nailed it Alex, thanks for responding to an emotional concern with the logical and intelligent response we've come to look to you for. 🙏 You are an absolute gem 💎 in this hobby, thank you for everything you do.
Fly fisherman here. Midges are the most common aquatic insect in North America. They thrive in cold water clean streams. They are a major source of food for trout during the winter because they’re one of only a few insects that will hatch into adults during the winter.
came here to say this. Some of the best dry-fly fishing of the year is in the dead of winter when midges hatch in the afternoon. Good luck tying on a size 22 dry with cold fingers lol
@richardnystrom8756 ahhh very interesting. I fly fish a bit too, and i never put 2 and 2 together lol 😆 The species in the fish hobby is done by September, but with 7000 other non-biting midges, that doesn't surprise me at all. Especially when these survive child temps as larva so well. Thanks for the info!
@@Fishtory Oh, nice to hear you fly fish. I love it. At the moment I do not have a fly rod, so am throwing flies on my ultralight spinning gear. Still getting the trout, but using mostly wets for their weight.
Great video! Keeping Fish Simple had a recent video citing bloodworms as the culprit when a bunch of fish died after feeding. After a lot of feedback he released another video with corrections. Your video comes at the perfect time to address the debate. Thank you for always providing first rate content that is well researched and informative. Cheers! P.S. In the late 90’s/early 2000’s I was a bird keeper at a zoo and the flamingo exhibit was notorious for red midge larvae by the hundreds of thousands. I would collect jars and jars to feed my fish. I cannot recall one loss or illness but I always fed very sparingly. I fed them to cichlids and large barbs mostly. I can agree with you about allergies as I will break out in hives anytime I come into direct skin contact with bloodworms. It took many years before I drew the connection. Thanks Alex!
@@boebender Where did he release another video? I just looked up his channel and his last video is just saying stop feeding bloodworms all together and suggests that they’re parasites sucking turtle bloods. That’s the video that says most recent.
I believe the bloodworms could have been the issue for his few fish. However, when you have thousands of them, there will be individuals that differ from the majority. His fish could have choked on the worms or experienced gut problems. I took his video as a rant from someone who was very upset. I would have felt the same way, to be honest.
@@SpencerJ289 that's the goal on this channel. I try and get facts and evidence via scientifically vetted resources, then add the crazy emotive response WITH logic 😆
Thanks for posting this, absolutely heartbreaking what happened to our lil brother from across the pond, but you always have the straight dope. Adjusting my fishkeeping habits accordingly, learned a lot today
Glad I could help you let you decide if you want to slightly adjust your fishkeeping habits! I appreciate you watching and hope you found it useful. Happy new years!
Best all round explanation of bloodworms and their lifecycle I’ve seen. I like how you describe them as potato chips for fish. I give them as a treat to my main tank, and have learned to reduce them down from a daily food. I also have them show up in small numbers in my outdoor daphnia tubs along with mosquito larva. Live bloodworms really gets the fish feeding.
I have not watched this video yet but yesterday I watched a different creator from a different part of the world who scared me so bad. I am hoping your video either fixes my fear or validates it causing me to throw out a brand new pack of blood worms. Really hoping your video cures my fears like they usually do. Knowledge is power….. or a new fear.
Hopefullu- You’ll know what to do after this one! 😊... thaw em, feed in small amounts and wear gloves or avoid touching them... and you should be golden. Cheers my friend
@@Fishtory thank you so much. I always thawed them in dechlorinated water and my bettas get 3 blood worms each twice a week. 1 cube of blood worms goes into 7 aquariums. I would absolutely never toss a cube into 1 tank not even the tank with 20 Corydoras and 2 upside down catfish they get more of the cube but never a whole one. And again I count the blood worms and use scaping tweezers to handle the blood worms. Thank you kind sir. My fish thank you again.
Glad you put this together! I wanted to do something like it but it is definitely your niche! Just wanted to mention at 1:23 the image is a mosquito larva. The topic is interesting since I imagine chironomids are an important food source for fish like corydoras in nature but when we freeze and grow mass amounts of them, it is not that natural. Like any food, moderation is probably the best policy!
@Mrs.M-Aquatics so that photo is from a provincial Canadian aquaculture website originally from canadiannaturephotographer.com, in collaboration with an artist that took some cool photos of midges... now i see what you are saying thank you!, because it's listed as the last day before the final pupa... but it does appear to harry. Thank you. I need to check my work even when I get it from government sites lol.... that has actually been a theme with state fish and game website sources.
@@Fishtory It can be tricky to source good images for videos like this! I have done some invertebrate ID using a microscope and have taken some videos/pictures of mosquito larvae, so it just jumped out at me.
@@Fishtory is it a question of the time it takes? I have been learning DaVinci Resolve which is free and quite powerful for video editing. Does require some computing power though.
Thanks so much on the elaboration of the bloodworm allergy! I remember me and many others stating on a previous vid of your's that we were completely unaware that it even existed. As someone who keeps amphibians and had been doing so for years prior before getting into fish: I always understood the importance of the health and diet of your fodder. It has honestly been so fun creating curated diets while gut-filling my insects. I want to start getting more involved in breeding live feeders for my local aquarium club. Many of the previous local suppliers are pushing their late 80s or have died in the last two to three years, so there are many shoes that need filled.
Oh wow! I would get an allergic reaction when i fed my fish when i came home from work. I assumed that it was probably the plants in the tank, so i would be careful not to get any water on my person, but there were a few times that I am very sure that I did not touch water and was still besieged with an allergic reaction. I can be very analytical and after every reaction without touching water,the only thing that i had touched was bloodworms. I had speculated that it could be bloodworms,but the thought left my mind. And now you upload this video and i realized that I haven't had an allergic reaction in months. I also haven't fed my fish bloodworms. You're the Man, Alex
Glad you're back, Alex! So.. What would be a good alternative to blood worms that is available in frozen form? The target audience being Platies, Albino Cories, and maybe either some Neocaradina or Amano shrimp. I do like that Hikari adds supliments to their frozen blood worms and i've been a fan of their pellets and wafers for years. I haven't fed any of their frozen blood worms since I had oscars quite a few years ago so hoping to update my knowledge a bit on what's out there now.
@Trains-With-Shane tubifex, or black worms...especially live blackworms if you have a source. But also daphnia and brine shrimp ( baby , frozen , live or adult all work for daphnia and brine shrimp). Also fluval bug bites and cold pressed krill flakes via brine shrimp direct .com ... those are my favorites. Good luck!
I know I did and have been scared since yesterday with half a cube of blood worms in my fridge because I saw the video when I was thawing out blood worms. Good times. I do feel so bad for our Australian friend. My heart absolutely broke for him.
Yeah he stepped in it. It was an easy mistake to make ...but was also telling of his information gathering process and the depth of his experience ( like someone 15 or 20 years in the hobby would likely ever say 2 or 3 of the statements made, just out of caution and common sense. Anyhow, I didn't want to rub the guys face in it, but I had dozens and dozens of emails, comments and questions coming in ever since his video went up
He also has his own brand of fish food that is direct alternative to bloodworms. I'm not saying that was his motivation but there is definitely a conflict of interests which could influence his opinion.
This is much appreciated. It sounds like they just aren't worth the risks of using when there's other, better options. I'll feed from the briny depths instead.
Great video. I love that you put so much research and thought into your videos and put great effort into bringing us all the objective facts. My (relatively new) job is monitoring, diagnosing, and treating aquarium fish and we do feed a lot of bloodworms to many of our 300+ tanks. I will be on the lookout for any correlation to bloodworms in their diet and any health problems. We often have health problems with fish and can't find any parasites or signs of disease so we're unsure what course of action will help them.
Happy New Year from your fellow Seattleite Yank 🦌 🇺🇸 Aussie 🦘🇦🇺 important . Absolutely love your stuff Alex. Everyone needs to watch every video Alex makes if they want to understand the beauty of life. You’re a beautiful person Alex. You keep up the good work. Much love from down unda’.
Glad you enjoyed it! It's something I've obsessively researched for several different reasons ...the allergy, feeding wild ones from my pond and then comparing nutrients...all years apart. So this was a perfect time to dig up my notes and search new studies published recently to cover it on the channel. Thank you kindly for tuning in! Happy New Years!
I am so glad that you made this video, I have seen some of my prized angelfish drop dead days after feeding even freeze dried bloodworms. Anytime I accidentally had frozen bloodworms contact my hands I would break it in the worse rash and painful. Stay away from these things
firstly I really love your dives into any subject. Secondly I feel Nick at KFS really filmed himself having a meltdown and grieving the loss of his fish. I enjoy KFS content but he started talking about mammalian blood in the worms and it was really weird and ignorant. keep up the good work mate
"I can help you untangle all this" lmao I didn't think I needed a mental image of that hehe I love your topics and presentation man and the disguised giggles at the most unexpected places in most of them ❤
I always enjoy your content, never get bored always interesting topic and processing of info. Happy New Year to you and your wife. May it bring you all the great things and success you deserve. Cheers
I try not to feed the frozen form anymore, if i dont wash my hands after i tend to get swollen red irritated eyes from them. Also a few of my white clouds bloated up big time after eating them. May be coincidence but your explanation makes complete sense. This was a great breakdown of the blood worm Alex it was much appreciated
I rely on Alexander for all scientific explanations in the aquarium hobby. I rely on Fishtory and Father fish to keep healthy fish and make adjustments when I need to in the beginning I made a lot of mistakes. Then I found Fishtory which used to be the history living in your aquarium or something. His information has saved many fish.
I experienced the midge swarms off of lake Malawi, and it is wild. In the morning they are piled up like snow under lights, and if you walk around at night you can be engulfed in a cloud of flies. I didn’t intentionally eat any but they are an important seasonal food for some local folks.
Incredibly well made video as always! If there is one thing missing perhaps (edit: he does actually mention it lol) that I feel is often overlooked with frozen bloodworms, it's how dangerous they can be if they thaw-unthaw. I feel a lot of issues blamed on the worms themselves are just from a package that went bad. Just the car ride home from LFS can be enough to turn a whole pack into rotten nastiness that will kill anything you feed it to. Spoiled bloodworms can certainly kill lots of things in a single serving, and I would guess it might be what happened in Nick's case. The only time I had issues with bloodworms, I later realized the whole pack had gone bad from thawing. It was a total disaster... Always bring a cooler when buying frozen foods. Always unfreeze them before adding to the tank and ALWAYS DO A SNIFF test before feeding. The good news is, if they spoiled, you will immediately smell it. When taking a cube out of the freezer it should be a quick in and out, throw it immediately back in the freezer! I recommend everyone to be at least a little paranoid about keeping those thing frozen at ALL times!
I have severe allergies to soooo many things, and I’ve never fooled with bloodworms just on the assumption that I may more than likely react to them. I read one hobbyist say if a bag or container of bloodworms spilled around them, they were afraid they would have to go to the ER or die….
Never thought about bloat this in fish this way, but makes 100% sense about them soaking up water. I’ve had horses for a lot of my life and when you feed things like beet pulp (is dried and shredded) and dried/compressed feeds it has been proven time and time again to cause colic and the horse will die from it sometimes. If you watch these foods when soaked swell to 2-3x their normal size
My fish have a high quality dry pellet and granular diet I have a discus tank and an African tank feeding this way I don't have any of these issues great informative video 👍
Great timing, Alex! One young fishkeeper feeds his fish exclusively flake food for months, then gives them a giant feeding of bloodworms and wonders why they got impacted. Proceeds to tell the entire internet it was the bloodworms' fault 😂 Nick is a talented fish breeder, but he's young, and that can mean the first thing he thinks of is the only possible solution, and he runs too quickly to tell the world. Age will give him the patience to step back and analyse more before making a video that won't age well.
I agree with you and it shows that experience is leading the charge a bit above research... experience THEN decisions or proclaimations. , there's always a lot to learn in this hobby no matter how long we are in it :)
I am not done with the video yet, but on the positive side of things, the die-off of wild midges must provide an awesome source of fertilizer within the ecosystem. God, I love insects.
I've been really interested in this subject since I've personally had people asking me about why their fish died after feeding them blood worms, without watching fully my current information that I've told them is that they fed to many of them leading to overfeeding bloat or that they didn't soak freeze dried blood worms which also lead to bloat. I'm hoping to get more information to not only have it for myself but to share with others.
It's great to know you're also seeing these issues! I hope I can offer you more information to help your fish and bit perhaps... and maybe then others. Best of luck and happy new years
For years, I thought my skin was sensitive to aquarium water in general. Turns out, I'm allergic to bloodworms! I only figured it out this year, actually when Alex was telling us he has to use tongs/gloves to handle them. 😂😂
No need... thaw properly, feed sparingly in a syringe ot turkey baster with some small food like brine shrimp or daphnia as well and it spreads out the feeding frenzy and balances nutrition, but most of all, you can make sure one fish isn't eating like a whole cube or two
Whenever ive fed like frozen cube size amounts, ive seen that occur also.... so thanks for sharing more experiences... it helps to have a baseline of what folks are experiencing!
I work wholesale where we use live feeding does this still apply ? would there be more protein fresh? I second the allergy, started when I first work, I am still seeing doctors they can't figure it out I am blow away from your video this is very helpful. Thank You
So fresh they're a fine snack, but they're mostly water by mass, and can actually have septic detritus in their stomach if they are fed without time to purge their meals... ( 24 hours or so from the harvest time, and removal from possibly fouled water source or ponds. Tell your dr about an over-reactive histamine reaction to Chironomus riparius/ Blood Worm/ midge larvae and their hemoglobin. Good luck!
Correlation vs causation, icecreams cause sunburns. For all the fish to die or anything like that it sounds like pollution. Bloodworm arrive to stores in pretty much a state that's highly polluted and they really need cleaning. Tubifex has been much cleaner in comparison. Also Loricariids are really great at chewing, hence unlike fishes who aren't, you see any and all food processed pretty well. In terms of Hypostominae they aren't just rasping. It's likely more with bloodworms like any carnivorous diet they process it as well as humans process fibre but without the benefits, some will be digested but assimilation is limited. There does seem to be where there are large amounts fed in the short term or long term the fishes just bloat similar to lactose intolerance, a small amount of lactose to someone with it wont cause major issues but large amounts. And intestinal malocculation does seem to happen in fishes, particularly with such limited space and once so much gas is produced. Other genera are more prone to it like Ancistrus can really balloon up, others just wont eat it.
Alex , I thought I was the only person who had a reaction to these “worms” . My hands started going numb, then the next few times I started to have eye swelling, then asthma. I stopped using them
Maybe re-branding them as bloodworm "larva" could help people not mix them up with the dangerous ones. It's good to know that Hikari adds vitamins to theirs.
What is your opinion of black worms? Lumbriculus variegatus. I'm planning on ordering a culture from Carolina Biological Supply to culture as live food because I've read they are far more nutritious than blood worms and can even live in an aquarium's substrate.
Love them. I usually culture some and let another chunk, just float down to the bottom and at night they'll burrow in and sometimes a small population can survive in tanks as a never ending fish snack, here and there.
For the very same reason that you shouldn't text an ex-girlfriend when you are drunk you should also not publish a video when you're angry or frustrated, you will tend to say things off-the-cuff that with hindsight you'd be better off not saying. I enjoy the content from KFS even if the product placement for his own brand of fish food is a tad over the top but I did cringe a bit with the misinformation on his recent bloodworm episode.
I switched to new life spectrum range of fish foods a few years ago after about 30 years of using and breeding live foods and its worked out great, the only live food i use now is brine shrimp i hatch once a week
Top video. I wonder if there are several species of b"loodworms" because I found smooth red worms in the internal filter, and later same looking worms from water in a pond, the firsts finished in the waste basket, the poor seconds didn't survive in my tank...
Thats why I have a tank specifically for blackworms instead. 😅 Depending on the day they get that or frozen brine. Would love to do a baby brine tank, though.
I have 83 aquariums and tons of fish and I will never feed blood worms in my fish room. I’ve lost fish to bloat and obstructions to many times before after feeding them to various fish.
Makes sense Ive always fed bloodworms but normally from the waterbut or garden pond in summer and maybe once a week max I have used frozen ones but wasn't impressed they look more brown red and didn't strike me as as fresh looking as frozen brine shrimp,white worms or mosquito lavea so i have tended to avoid them frozen !
@@divineroadrunner they use "fly rooms" ( first pioneered for fruit fly research). But often they feed really bad quality food .... or minimal conditions needed for optimal output... with these flies that means nasty compost and likely industrial or agricultural waste.
Hi Alexander. Frozen bloodworms are the recommended fare for freshwater gobies. Anything more healthy they could be fed? Thank you for the great content :)
Yes, frozen bloodworms are a good staple for gobies... but you could add to the mix live or frozen brine shrimp, daphnia or blackworms to mix it up! Frozen Tubifex worms can work for larger species too
I feed blood worms daily to all my tanks "8 in total" never had an issues going on 4 years, I don't feed mass amounts and they get other foods as well, 4 cubes for 8 tanks, all large tanks filled with lots of fish
So they can only eat small small meals... I would say spiralina cyanobacteria is the ideal diet....then once they are dead you could buy reptile brands of cricket or meal worm enhancing vitamin dusts... so that dust on wet/gut loaded blood worms is probably ideal... buuuut HIKARI also does similar things with their frozen packs
Ive been feeding them for years, without any problems; but yeah i dont overfeed, i mix them with other frozen foods as well (brine shrimp and daphnea), and only a couple times a week. And yeah, i thaw all the frozen food together in tank water then distribute the mix throughout my tanks with a turkey baster.
I think what Nick had was one of two possible things a bacterial contamination of the blood worm cultures in the farm. Or when they’re shipping out the frozen product that they’ve been partially thawed and they started to rot inside the blister packs before being refrozen at either the transshippers or at a wholesaler Before hitting his store or some of the other stores in Brisbane which is led to this issue happening, because just like our food you can’t freeze defrost and freeze food again without risking food poisoning etc
Oh good. I has heard the blood worms are not very nutritious. I use a pack every week and they are expensive imo. I keep an earthworm bin as well. Curious how you feel about standard earthworms (NOT the red wrigglers)?
Earth worms... mostly water... but far more nutrient rich than these insects larval worms. Just Google "purge worms"... salt baths work well...but do that then feed em...or chop em up and feed em and mid size to large fish love them
The other worm explains where the “they’re parasitic” idea came from. I wondered about that. Probably being confused with the biting ones, I’d never actually heard of those and I was so confused whenever I heard about blood worm bites. I wondered if people thought the allergic reactions were from venom or something.
@juli6151 haha that image of Steve Irwin sitting in a fish room makes me chuckle. Yeah I dunno what that was about, but it sparked A nice learning opportunity I suppose
Decapsulated baby brine shrimp, daphnia, and spiralina or an algae water are ideal for nano fish ... but vinegar eels, blackworms, tubifex worms, mosquito larvae, fluval bugbites... oh and most protein and color enhancing is cold pressed krill flakes from brine shrimp direct!
Um weird. It is in stereo, but it has both icons for stero and mono...and then SD or HD on my end for the details... but also I stood still 100% of the audio was recorded with a mic basically on a stand in my lap while I was sitting. Can you select stereo perhaps? Thanks for letting me know...because it don't want that lol
Ive got a feeling all dried foods are bad for fish unless you rehydrate them before feeding. In my experience they can cause bloat and intestinal issues because they expand inside the fish.
My fish started having a bunch of blood worms coming out of their butts wiggling around. All 200+ fish eventually died. Even the ones that were born in the tank
@Fishtory I enjoy all of your deep dives, especially the live food ones! I have a pretty decent seed shrimp colony going now. :) knowledge is power, and I enjoy the way you ramble.
Hey Alex, great video. I too watched KFS's depressing video about the blood worms. I've heard many times that they are basically just a treat for your fish and not to be given too often. Do you have any experience with black worms? I have been feeding my 6ft tank stocked mainly with barb varieties with an Australian made dried black worm food. They love it and the company claims that it's a healthy food. It would be good to see you break down these worms in a similar fashion to what you've done here. The container says they're Tubifex worms. Cheers!
Blackworms are a great staple! I’d love to get some in the USA without leeches and parasites in them..... every company that started selling them has closed or recalled them dozens of times... to the point i only trust old aquarist folks with any blackworm cultures. I'd love a steady supply. All worms are super similar black, blood, and tubifex ... but true earth worms or night crawlers are more water per gram... buuut have more fatty acids and nutrients... like just earth worms from a garden... but only larger fish can eat them unfortunately
@Fishtory nice! Yeah this Aussie company claims they're disease and parasite free. I haven't had any troubles yet. But I have lost several Julii Cory's over the past 6 months. I've put it down to temperature (hard to keep tanks below 27°C [80°F] in an Aussie summer in a house without air conditioning) more than anything, but maybe some bloodworm bind up or bloat was to blame as well. They're the only fish I've lost in my 100G 6ft.
I had few problems in my tank since I set up (almost 2 years) that from time to time healthy fish just start dying and I can’t figure out why it is happening. Now I’m getting very suspicious of the blood worms I bought and in rare occasions remember to give to them. I will dispose of it just in case, it is old anyways
Yeah if you get fresh ones, just thaw and then feed sparingly or mixed with other foods. And never more than 3 days a week or 3 minutes of feeding per each fish.
With the fish i keep, bloodworms are fine as long as they are of decent quality (been fed nutritious stuff, not junk.) and frozen or fresh. Freeze dried ones tend to be of dubious quality, even within the same brands and cause intestinal issues, no matter what i have tried. I give whatever my smaller and more sensitive fish cannot take to angelfish and other bigger fish since they are a lot tougher.
@@kinglyzard yeah that was a bummer. I've heard it time and time again over the years... but it's usually over feeding and feeding too often, or still frozen. In small amounts, they're okay... not the best food nutritionally, but fish like them seemingly
The issue about bloodworm is it may not be inherently dangerous in frozen form but once we buy it from the shop drive back home, it may turn bad ,plus pulling the packet in and out of the freezer at home etc...personaly everytime i used frozen bloodworm I had issues with sickness and fish death.
Interesting to hear. Did you warm them to tank water temp thoroughly, also? And may I ask what brand you use if you recall? Just very curious by all this. Thank you
@Fishtory hi Alex,the brand is called nutris, it's available in most fish shop in Australia.When i used blood worm i dissolve and crush the cubes in my tank
Thanks
Hey thank you so kindly! Have a lovely start to 2025, my friend 🧡
Haha glad to see this discussion broadening out after watching KFS's video.
I wonder if some fish also have an allergic reaction
@CNR_ADMS yeah that's what I was saying about irritating their stomach lining .... maybe? But don't quote me on it lol
Woke up last night nearly choking to death with my throat closing, unable to speak or cough i was rushed to the hospital only to recieve no good explanation. Now i am watching this video moments before i go and feed my newts... thank you buddy this probably seemed like a normal, innaucious, video to film at the time which may have actually saved my life. I will be bringing a sample to an allergist when i get a chance.
@noahhh111 so glad to hear that you are okay! I had a similar event one day...after thousands of times with mild reactions to them if I touched them... suddenly one day my throat swelled and eyes were swelling shut within about 3 minutes of finishing feeding.
Quite scary, I'm sorry you had to experience that, and I hope you can just use black worms
I am a big fan of Nick, but had an eyebrow raised through his entire video. Thanks for the breakdown on the species this was valuable information.
yeah kinda weird when he said when majority of people doesnt have tht problem and the misinfo he said on the vids i think it happens probably due to overfeed since he supplement other food. but yeah i kinda get Nick's frustration and meltdown, been there but in different situation.
@WoodlandsWorld happens to the best of us. It's hard to lose fish, i get being emotional and all. I just think it hit on a blind spot, maybe in Australia it's not as well known as up in the US and EU. He was speaking from observations, and no real research, when you do that, all based on experience without checking on the science or cause and effect, you can easily end up with one or two incorrect foundational thoughts or "facts", building a whole streak or chain of other incorrect concepts.
I felt kinda bad, so I was hoping to address all these folks leaving me dms and emails etc. And tried to only correct a few things, and explain (hopefully) a whole lot more, while the topic was interesting to folks
Nick sends his love 😂😂😂
Nick really opened up a can of worms with that video
*rimshot* badadumcha!
😂😂😂
His experience is his truth. I continue using bloodworms.
Perfectly timed! Nailed it Alex, thanks for responding to an emotional concern with the logical and intelligent response we've come to look to you for. 🙏 You are an absolute gem 💎 in this hobby, thank you for everything you do.
I appreciate the kind words. 😊
If ever you want the facts come to fishtory ❤ always a wealth of knowledge ❤
Cheers and happy new years!
@@Fishtory back at ya! ❤️
This is what TH-cam is all about! Grateful for Fishtube being full of wonderful minds dedicated to this hobby. Alex is a fishkeeping encyclopedia 🙌
Thanks! I'm so glad I can help with a few hours of nerdy research and too many years of nerdy fishkeeping hahaha. Cheers !
Fly fisherman here. Midges are the most common aquatic insect in North America. They thrive in cold water clean streams. They are a major source of food for trout during the winter because they’re one of only a few insects that will hatch into adults during the winter.
Nothing like throwing imitations during a hatch or a die off.
came here to say this. Some of the best dry-fly fishing of the year is in the dead of winter when midges hatch in the afternoon. Good luck tying on a size 22 dry with cold fingers lol
@richardnystrom8756 ahhh very interesting. I fly fish a bit too, and i never put 2 and 2 together lol 😆
The species in the fish hobby is done by September, but with 7000 other non-biting midges, that doesn't surprise me at all. Especially when these survive child temps as larva so well. Thanks for the info!
@@Fishtory Oh, nice to hear you fly fish. I love it. At the moment I do not have a fly rod, so am throwing flies on my ultralight spinning gear. Still getting the trout, but using mostly wets for their weight.
You are the first TH-cam video I watched of 2025. I don’t know if you realise what an inspiration you are in peoples lives. Keep up the good work.
@dellseasandoval8187 awww happy new years my Seattle family down under!
Great video! Keeping Fish Simple had a recent video citing bloodworms as the culprit when a bunch of fish died after feeding. After a lot of feedback he released another video with corrections. Your video comes at the perfect time to address the debate. Thank you for always providing first rate content that is well researched and informative. Cheers! P.S. In the late 90’s/early 2000’s I was a bird keeper at a zoo and the flamingo exhibit was notorious for red midge larvae by the hundreds of thousands. I would collect jars and jars to feed my fish. I cannot recall one loss or illness but I always fed very sparingly. I fed them to cichlids and large barbs mostly. I can agree with you about allergies as I will break out in hives anytime I come into direct skin contact with bloodworms. It took many years before I drew the connection. Thanks Alex!
Thanks for sharing your experiences my friend!
@@boebender Where did he release another video? I just looked up his channel and his last video is just saying stop feeding bloodworms all together and suggests that they’re parasites sucking turtle bloods. That’s the video that says most recent.
I'm also allergic and it took me a while to make the connection too. 😂
I rash up even if I just put my hand in a tank that was fed bloodworms
I believe the bloodworms could have been the issue for his few fish. However, when you have thousands of them, there will be individuals that differ from the majority. His fish could have choked on the worms or experienced gut problems. I took his video as a rant from someone who was very upset. I would have felt the same way, to be honest.
Love how much research you do and the information you share. Solid facts over emotional responses to feeding bloodworms gone wrong
@@SpencerJ289 that's the goal on this channel. I try and get facts and evidence via scientifically vetted resources, then add the crazy emotive response WITH logic 😆
Thanks for posting this, absolutely heartbreaking what happened to our lil brother from across the pond, but you always have the straight dope. Adjusting my fishkeeping habits accordingly, learned a lot today
Glad I could help you let you decide if you want to slightly adjust your fishkeeping habits! I appreciate you watching and hope you found it useful. Happy new years!
I always thought blood worms were over-rated. i sometimes worry about the bloating. Regardless, thank you my friend and happy New year!
Yeah I'm with you on that. 😅
Best all round explanation of bloodworms and their lifecycle I’ve seen. I like how you describe them as potato chips for fish. I give them as a treat to my main tank, and have learned to reduce them down from a daily food.
I also have them show up in small numbers in my outdoor daphnia tubs along with mosquito larva. Live bloodworms really gets the fish feeding.
Totally! I do that same in summer and fall :)
I have not watched this video yet but yesterday I watched a different creator from a different part of the world who scared me so bad. I am hoping your video either fixes my fear or validates it causing me to throw out a brand new pack of blood worms. Really hoping your video cures my fears like they usually do. Knowledge is power….. or a new fear.
Don't throw them out. Just don't overfeed your fish, like any other fish food.
Hopefullu- You’ll know what to do after this one! 😊... thaw em, feed in small amounts and wear gloves or avoid touching them... and you should be golden. Cheers my friend
@@Fishtory thank you so much. I always thawed them in dechlorinated water and my bettas get 3 blood worms each twice a week. 1 cube of blood worms goes into 7 aquariums. I would absolutely never toss a cube into 1 tank not even the tank with 20 Corydoras and 2 upside down catfish they get more of the cube but never a whole one. And again I count the blood worms and use scaping tweezers to handle the blood worms. Thank you kind sir. My fish thank you again.
Glad you put this together! I wanted to do something like it but it is definitely your niche! Just wanted to mention at 1:23 the image is a mosquito larva. The topic is interesting since I imagine chironomids are an important food source for fish like corydoras in nature but when we freeze and grow mass amounts of them, it is not that natural. Like any food, moderation is probably the best policy!
@Mrs.M-Aquatics so that photo is from a provincial Canadian aquaculture website originally from canadiannaturephotographer.com, in collaboration with an artist that took some cool photos of midges... now i see what you are saying thank you!, because it's listed as the last day before the final pupa... but it does appear to harry. Thank you. I need to check my work even when I get it from government sites lol.... that has actually been a theme with state fish and game website sources.
@@Fishtory It can be tricky to source good images for videos like this! I have done some invertebrate ID using a microscope and have taken some videos/pictures of mosquito larvae, so it just jumped out at me.
@Mrs.M-Aquatics i appreciate it. I wish I could edit videos and not just blank out the screen and sound for snips.
@@Fishtory is it a question of the time it takes? I have been learning DaVinci Resolve which is free and quite powerful for video editing. Does require some computing power though.
Awesome deep dive Alex, thanks for all the priceless information.
@kurtbrutting5118 no problem my friend. Happy new years
Thanks! I always enjoy an Alex deep dive!
I try my best to give you the full story! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks so much on the elaboration of the bloodworm allergy! I remember me and many others stating on a previous vid of your's that we were completely unaware that it even existed.
As someone who keeps amphibians and had been doing so for years prior before getting into fish: I always understood the importance of the health and diet of your fodder. It has honestly been so fun creating curated diets while gut-filling my insects. I want to start getting more involved in breeding live feeders for my local aquarium club. Many of the previous local suppliers are pushing their late 80s or have died in the last two to three years, so there are many shoes that need filled.
It is really rewarding to create custom diets for your animals isn't it? You're going to be a great source of wisdom if you keep this up! Good for you
@Fishtory
Thank you very much!!
Oh wow!
I would get an allergic reaction when i fed my fish when i came home from work.
I assumed that it was probably the plants in the tank, so i would be careful not to get any water on my person, but there were a few times that I am very sure that I did not touch water and was still besieged with an allergic reaction.
I can be very analytical and after every reaction without touching water,the only thing that i had touched was bloodworms.
I had speculated that it could be bloodworms,but the thought left my mind.
And now you upload this video and i realized that I haven't had an allergic reaction in months.
I also haven't fed my fish bloodworms.
You're the Man, Alex
That is wild! Glad this video helped you connect the dots and I hope it can save you the trouble of more reactions! 🙏
Glad you're back, Alex! So.. What would be a good alternative to blood worms that is available in frozen form? The target audience being Platies, Albino Cories, and maybe either some Neocaradina or Amano shrimp. I do like that Hikari adds supliments to their frozen blood worms and i've been a fan of their pellets and wafers for years. I haven't fed any of their frozen blood worms since I had oscars quite a few years ago so hoping to update my knowledge a bit on what's out there now.
@Trains-With-Shane tubifex, or black worms...especially live blackworms if you have a source. But also daphnia and brine shrimp ( baby , frozen , live or adult all work for daphnia and brine shrimp). Also fluval bug bites and cold pressed krill flakes via brine shrimp direct .com ... those are my favorites. Good luck!
Glad we get a global discussion on this now
😆 it's something I've been covering for years now... live foods and culturing foods. Seemed like good timing
Great in-depth video Alex that I’m sure will help people make an informed choice on blood worm feeding 😊
I’m glad you found it helpful! 😊
Must be seen homeboys vid on bloodworms killing his fish huh?
I know I did and have been scared since yesterday with half a cube of blood worms in my fridge because I saw the video when I was thawing out blood worms. Good times. I do feel so bad for our Australian friend. My heart absolutely broke for him.
Yeah he stepped in it. It was an easy mistake to make ...but was also telling of his information gathering process and the depth of his experience ( like someone 15 or 20 years in the hobby would likely ever say 2 or 3 of the statements made, just out of caution and common sense.
Anyhow, I didn't want to rub the guys face in it, but I had dozens and dozens of emails, comments and questions coming in ever since his video went up
This video will be popular... Genius to make this vid right now
He also has his own brand of fish food that is direct alternative to bloodworms. I'm not saying that was his motivation but there is definitely a conflict of interests which could influence his opinion.
This is much appreciated. It sounds like they just aren't worth the risks of using when there's other, better options. I'll feed from the briny depths instead.
Great video. I love that you put so much research and thought into your videos and put great effort into bringing us all the objective facts. My (relatively new) job is monitoring, diagnosing, and treating aquarium fish and we do feed a lot of bloodworms to many of our 300+ tanks. I will be on the lookout for any correlation to bloodworms in their diet and any health problems. We often have health problems with fish and can't find any parasites or signs of disease so we're unsure what course of action will help them.
What an awesome new job. I would absolutely love to hear what you see and learn.
Thanks, that's very interesting! I'll be interested to see your findings
Happy New Year from your fellow Seattleite Yank 🦌 🇺🇸 Aussie 🦘🇦🇺 important . Absolutely love your stuff Alex. Everyone needs to watch every video Alex makes if they want to understand the beauty of life. You’re a beautiful person Alex. You keep up the good work. Much love from down unda’.
@@dellseasandoval8187 ❤️ 💙 ❤️
always interesting content! wow, thank you for this shockingly informative video!
Glad you enjoyed it! It's something I've obsessively researched for several different reasons ...the allergy, feeding wild ones from my pond and then comparing nutrients...all years apart. So this was a perfect time to dig up my notes and search new studies published recently to cover it on the channel. Thank you kindly for tuning in! Happy New Years!
I am so glad that you made this video, I have seen some of my prized angelfish drop dead days after feeding even freeze dried bloodworms. Anytime I accidentally had frozen bloodworms contact my hands I would break it in the worse rash and painful. Stay away from these things
Happy New Year Alex! Love your video's!! Wishing you the very best and especially good health!! ❤🇨🇦
Thank you kindly. Happy New Years!
Thank you for this video topic. I find it very helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
firstly I really love your dives into any subject. Secondly I feel Nick at KFS really filmed himself having a meltdown and grieving the loss of his fish. I enjoy KFS content but he started talking about mammalian blood in the worms and it was really weird and ignorant. keep up the good work mate
"I can help you untangle all this" lmao I didn't think I needed a mental image of that hehe
I love your topics and presentation man and the disguised giggles at the most unexpected places in most of them ❤
Haha I'm glad you enjoy them...and catch the humor i try and slip in without getting too far off topic
I always enjoy your content, never get bored always interesting topic and processing of info. Happy New Year to you and your wife. May it bring you all the great things and success you deserve. Cheers
I hope as many of your health issues as possible are addressed this year my friend.
Awesome. Thanks for the video.
Glad you dug it! Also... wonderful to see you again! Happy New Years!
Very informative and interesting.
Thanks for watching!
I try not to feed the frozen form anymore, if i dont wash my hands after i tend to get swollen red irritated eyes from them. Also a few of my white clouds bloated up big time after eating them. May be coincidence but your explanation makes complete sense. This was a great breakdown of the blood worm Alex it was much appreciated
Thank you. Also thanks for sharing more experiences... it helps to have a baseline of what folks are experiencing!
Thanks for the great info, man 😀
No problem, thanks for watching!
Second comment. Wohoo I’ve been a slow adopter into the aquarium hobby & the past year Alexander (great name lol) has been a huge help!
I rely on Alexander for all scientific explanations in the aquarium hobby. I rely on Fishtory and Father fish to keep healthy fish and make adjustments when I need to in the beginning I made a lot of mistakes. Then I found Fishtory which used to be the history living in your aquarium or something. His information has saved many fish.
Glad you're enjoying the hobby! And welcome my friend with the AWESOME name 🙏
Thanks Alex 😘 Blessings for the New Year 🎉
Thank you for sharing this knowledge and research!
My pleasure! Glad it was helpful!
Great video - and right down your ally 🤟🐟
You know it!
Great video 👍✌
Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you Alex, well done!
I’m glad you found it helpful! 🙏
I experienced the midge swarms off of lake Malawi, and it is wild. In the morning they are piled up like snow under lights, and if you walk around at night you can be engulfed in a cloud of flies. I didn’t intentionally eat any but they are an important seasonal food for some local folks.
Whoa!
@@Fishtory They literally catch them in nets and smush them into midge patties to fry on the grill, there, LOL.
Great information and advice…👍🏽👍🏽
Thank you so much for watching!
@ I enjoy your insightful vids on the hobby…👌🏽
Incredibly well made video as always!
If there is one thing missing perhaps (edit: he does actually mention it lol) that I feel is often overlooked with frozen bloodworms, it's how dangerous they can be if they thaw-unthaw. I feel a lot of issues blamed on the worms themselves are just from a package that went bad. Just the car ride home from LFS can be enough to turn a whole pack into rotten nastiness that will kill anything you feed it to.
Spoiled bloodworms can certainly kill lots of things in a single serving, and I would guess it might be what happened in Nick's case. The only time I had issues with bloodworms, I later realized the whole pack had gone bad from thawing. It was a total disaster...
Always bring a cooler when buying frozen foods. Always unfreeze them before adding to the tank and ALWAYS DO A SNIFF test before feeding. The good news is, if they spoiled, you will immediately smell it. When taking a cube out of the freezer it should be a quick in and out, throw it immediately back in the freezer!
I recommend everyone to be at least a little paranoid about keeping those thing frozen at ALL times!
I got to it eeeeventually lol
@Fishtory oops, I got busted 😂 cheers and happy new year!!
So we just all watched the same video 😂😂 That boy Nick went viral
I have severe allergies to soooo many things, and I’ve never fooled with bloodworms just on the assumption that I may more than likely react to them. I read one hobbyist say if a bag or container of bloodworms spilled around them, they were afraid they would have to go to the ER or die….
@@TCS_Aquatics good call
@@Fishtory Better safe than sorry!
Never thought about bloat this in fish this way, but makes 100% sense about them soaking up water.
I’ve had horses for a lot of my life and when you feed things like beet pulp (is dried and shredded) and dried/compressed feeds it has been proven time and time again to cause colic and the horse will die from it sometimes. If you watch these foods when soaked swell to 2-3x their normal size
Whoa thanks for sharing. I had no idea
i farm these every year, pea gravel and water in a small pot on the garden wall in the summer.
Me too!
My fish have a high quality dry pellet and granular diet I have a discus tank and an African tank feeding this way I don't have any of these issues great informative video 👍
That's fantastic to hear that you have such a high-quality diet for your fish! 👍
Iv stopped feeding frozen bloods awhile back as my rainbows were getting sick. havent watched video but lets see what happens!
I think it's good to be careful about what you feed your fish, and I'm glad you're doing your research!
Great timing, Alex!
One young fishkeeper feeds his fish exclusively flake food for months, then gives them a giant feeding of bloodworms and wonders why they got impacted. Proceeds to tell the entire internet it was the bloodworms' fault 😂
Nick is a talented fish breeder, but he's young, and that can mean the first thing he thinks of is the only possible solution, and he runs too quickly to tell the world.
Age will give him the patience to step back and analyse more before making a video that won't age well.
I agree with you and it shows that experience is leading the charge a bit above research... experience THEN decisions or proclaimations. , there's always a lot to learn in this hobby no matter how long we are in it :)
Very helpful thanks. I always get these and black worms muddled in my head.
I’m glad you found it helpful! Those two can definitely be confusing.
Great info. Now I get it.
Glad it was helpful! Cheers
Hope you're taking care of yourself!
Well done. I feed blood worms as treats. Not a daily diet.
@vampgaia awesome way to think of them! Cheers and happy new years sista!
I am not done with the video yet, but on the positive side of things, the die-off of wild midges must provide an awesome source of fertilizer within the ecosystem. God, I love insects.
For sure!
I've been really interested in this subject since I've personally had people asking me about why their fish died after feeding them blood worms, without watching fully my current information that I've told them is that they fed to many of them leading to overfeeding bloat or that they didn't soak freeze dried blood worms which also lead to bloat. I'm hoping to get more information to not only have it for myself but to share with others.
It's great to know you're also seeing these issues! I hope I can offer you more information to help your fish and bit perhaps... and maybe then others. Best of luck and happy new years
For years, I thought my skin was sensitive to aquarium water in general. Turns out, I'm allergic to bloodworms! I only figured it out this year, actually when Alex was telling us he has to use tongs/gloves to handle them. 😂😂
@hydrocooledcarrot oh whoa! Glad that got sorted though!
Thanks for making this video. I've been confused about this after watching the video. Do I throw out the worms in my freezer?
No need... thaw properly, feed sparingly in a syringe ot turkey baster with some small food like brine shrimp or daphnia as well and it spreads out the feeding frenzy and balances nutrition, but most of all, you can make sure one fish isn't eating like a whole cube or two
I’ve fed my fish live blood Worms which they love! The problem is in about 1 out of 3 bettas, they’ll get a bowel obstruction and sometimes die
Whenever ive fed like frozen cube size amounts, ive seen that occur also.... so thanks for sharing more experiences... it helps to have a baseline of what folks are experiencing!
I work wholesale where we use live feeding does this still apply ? would there be more protein fresh? I second the allergy, started when I first work, I am still seeing doctors they can't figure it out I am blow away from your video this is very helpful. Thank You
So fresh they're a fine snack, but they're mostly water by mass, and can actually have septic detritus in their stomach if they are fed without time to purge their meals... ( 24 hours or so from the harvest time, and removal from possibly fouled water source or ponds.
Tell your dr about an over-reactive histamine reaction to Chironomus riparius/ Blood Worm/ midge larvae and their hemoglobin. Good luck!
Correlation vs causation, icecreams cause sunburns. For all the fish to die or anything like that it sounds like pollution. Bloodworm arrive to stores in pretty much a state that's highly polluted and they really need cleaning. Tubifex has been much cleaner in comparison.
Also Loricariids are really great at chewing, hence unlike fishes who aren't, you see any and all food processed pretty well. In terms of Hypostominae they aren't just rasping. It's likely more with bloodworms like any carnivorous diet they process it as well as humans process fibre but without the benefits, some will be digested but assimilation is limited. There does seem to be where there are large amounts fed in the short term or long term the fishes just bloat similar to lactose intolerance, a small amount of lactose to someone with it wont cause major issues but large amounts. And intestinal malocculation does seem to happen in fishes, particularly with such limited space and once so much gas is produced. Other genera are more prone to it like Ancistrus can really balloon up, others just wont eat it.
Alex , I thought I was the only person who had a reaction to these “worms” . My hands started going numb, then the next few times I started to have eye swelling, then asthma. I stopped using them
Maybe re-branding them as bloodworm "larva" could help people not mix them up with the dangerous ones. It's good to know that Hikari adds vitamins to theirs.
Totally
What is your opinion of black worms? Lumbriculus variegatus. I'm planning on ordering a culture from Carolina Biological Supply to culture as live food because I've read they are far more nutritious than blood worms and can even live in an aquarium's substrate.
Love them. I usually culture some and let another chunk, just float down to the bottom and at night they'll burrow in and sometimes a small population can survive in tanks as a never ending fish snack, here and there.
For the very same reason that you shouldn't text an ex-girlfriend when you are drunk you should also not publish a video when you're angry or frustrated, you will tend to say things off-the-cuff that with hindsight you'd be better off not saying. I enjoy the content from KFS even if the product placement for his own brand of fish food is a tad over the top but I did cringe a bit with the misinformation on his recent bloodworm episode.
Yeah well I didn't want to call him out... just correct a topic of happen to have done a ton of research on
👍🏻😎 I do occasionally feed blood worms, but I prefer to feed black worms instead.
For sure!
Would they be safe coming from my garden tubs ,i find them in there with daphnia, my fish got sick off frozen store bought one,
Yes i feed my fish them... as always though, everything in moderation is ideal
I switched to new life spectrum range of fish foods a few years ago after about 30 years of using and breeding live foods and its worked out great, the only live food i use now is brine shrimp i hatch once a week
Very nice. Thanks for sharing!
Can we get one on tubifex worms too please? Maybe for comparative sakes? 🙏🏼
Sure I'll add it to my list..cheers
Top video. I wonder if there are several species of b"loodworms" because I found smooth red worms in the internal filter, and later same looking worms from water in a pond, the firsts finished in the waste basket, the poor seconds didn't survive in my tank...
@@AlinefromToulouse 7,000 freshwater "non biting midges" exist.... all with similar larvae. So 100% they're are. Good call
@@Fishtory ok, thank you.
I guess that with what I know now thanks to you, I'm happy that they didn't survive in my tank.
Thats why I have a tank specifically for blackworms instead. 😅 Depending on the day they get that or frozen brine. Would love to do a baby brine tank, though.
I have 83 aquariums and tons of fish and I will never feed blood worms in my fish room. I’ve lost fish to bloat and obstructions to many times before after feeding them to various fish.
It’s best to know your fish’s needs and their preferences, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Makes sense
Ive always fed bloodworms but normally from the waterbut or garden pond in summer and maybe once a week max
I have used frozen ones but wasn't impressed they look more brown red and didn't strike me as as fresh looking as frozen brine shrimp,white worms or mosquito lavea so i have tended to avoid them frozen !
@@adeptusmagi yes! The frozen ones look really bad, most the time
I stopped feeding them because my bettas kept getting dropsy. Problem went away
Well sounds like that's a total win! Do what works for you and your fish 😀
I’m rather confused, do the companies not breed their own bloodworms? Do they actually just harvest them from the wild somewhere
@@divineroadrunner they use "fly rooms" ( first pioneered for fruit fly research). But often they feed really bad quality food .... or minimal conditions needed for optimal output... with these flies that means nasty compost and likely industrial or agricultural waste.
Hi Alexander. Frozen bloodworms are the recommended fare for freshwater gobies. Anything more healthy they could be fed? Thank you for the great content :)
Yes, frozen bloodworms are a good staple for gobies... but you could add to the mix live or frozen brine shrimp, daphnia or blackworms to mix it up! Frozen Tubifex worms can work for larger species too
Thank you very much for the info 😊@@Fishtory
@@fabienneisore7831 Frozen Black Mosquito Larvae are excellent for most gobies also.
I feed blood worms daily to all my tanks "8 in total" never had an issues going on 4 years, I don't feed mass amounts and they get other foods as well, 4 cubes for 8 tanks, all large tanks filled with lots of fish
Thanks for sharing your personal experiences. It's really cool to read different opinions and then examine the facts in between hehe..cheers!
Hoe easy are they to breed, and how good are they as a live food/what would be the best things to feed to them before feeding them to your fish?
Great comment all questions I now have so I’m leaving a comment so when Alex answers you I get to find out too. Thank you
So they can only eat small small meals... I would say spiralina cyanobacteria is the ideal diet....then once they are dead you could buy reptile brands of cricket or meal worm enhancing vitamin dusts... so that dust on wet/gut loaded blood worms is probably ideal... buuuut HIKARI also does similar things with their frozen packs
Ive been feeding them for years, without any problems; but yeah i dont overfeed, i mix them with other frozen foods as well (brine shrimp and daphnea), and only a couple times a week.
And yeah, i thaw all the frozen food together in tank water then distribute the mix throughout my tanks with a turkey baster.
@@Wintersdark agreed 👍
I think what Nick had was one of two possible things a bacterial contamination of the blood worm cultures in the farm. Or when they’re shipping out the frozen product that they’ve been partially thawed and they started to rot inside the blister packs before being refrozen at either the transshippers or at a wholesaler Before hitting his store or some of the other stores in Brisbane which is led to this issue happening, because just like our food you can’t freeze defrost and freeze food again without risking food poisoning etc
100% what happened, makes perfect sense.
He was also talked about feeding blood worms heavily to those tanks as well and I think that was also an issue
@@TKaquatics I agree
Oh good. I has heard the blood worms are not very nutritious. I use a pack every week and they are expensive imo. I keep an earthworm bin as well. Curious how you feel about standard earthworms (NOT the red wrigglers)?
Earth worms... mostly water... but far more nutrient rich than these insects larval worms. Just Google "purge worms"... salt baths work well...but do that then feed em...or chop em up and feed em and mid size to large fish love them
The other worm explains where the “they’re parasitic” idea came from. I wondered about that. Probably being confused with the biting ones, I’d never actually heard of those and I was so confused whenever I heard about blood worm bites. I wondered if people thought the allergic reactions were from venom or something.
I was also curious about the same thing!
I think his Australianess makes him think he's Steve Irwin of fishkeeping while he's clearly clueless about what happened to his plecos
@juli6151 haha that image of Steve Irwin sitting in a fish room makes me chuckle. Yeah I dunno what that was about, but it sparked A nice learning opportunity I suppose
Well I just feel terrible. I think I give my zebra danios and loaches too much bloodworms. What is the most nutritious food for them?
Decapsulated baby brine shrimp, daphnia, and spiralina or an algae water are ideal for nano fish ... but vinegar eels, blackworms, tubifex worms, mosquito larvae, fluval bugbites... oh and most protein and color enhancing is cold pressed krill flakes from brine shrimp direct!
Suggestion: recording your voice in mono instead of stereo. It sounds like your voice is behind me plus the fact that you're moving around.
Um weird. It is in stereo, but it has both icons for stero and mono...and then SD or HD on my end for the details... but also I stood still 100% of the audio was recorded with a mic basically on a stand in my lap while I was sitting.
Can you select stereo perhaps? Thanks for letting me know...because it don't want that lol
@@Fishtory I meant set the mic to record in mono
@@LucianObsidian ahhh gotcha. Thanks
Ive got a feeling all dried foods are bad for fish unless you rehydrate them before feeding. In my experience they can cause bloat and intestinal issues because they expand inside the fish.
I believe this as well. I don't have 100% proof ...but i totally agree based on experience and my instinct
When I was doing reptiles we would feed the crickets high quality food. For what the insect eats is what the lizards eat. "You are what you eat".
@@radenawinsbury1562 Excellent policy
My fish started having a bunch of blood worms coming out of their butts wiggling around. All 200+ fish eventually died. Even the ones that were born in the tank
So this is actually a completely different organism, that looks very similar . Callamnarus Worms, a common aquarium hobby parasite.
Well I generally try not to touch them, but now I'm tempted to wear gloves while handling them, just in case. I eould live more food based deep dives!
Sure thing. I've done a few now on tannins or botanical stuff and live cultures of food...but ill keep going if yall like it 😀
@Fishtory I enjoy all of your deep dives, especially the live food ones! I have a pretty decent seed shrimp colony going now. :) knowledge is power, and I enjoy the way you ramble.
Hey Alex, great video. I too watched KFS's depressing video about the blood worms.
I've heard many times that they are basically just a treat for your fish and not to be given too often.
Do you have any experience with black worms? I have been feeding my 6ft tank stocked mainly with barb varieties with an Australian made dried black worm food. They love it and the company claims that it's a healthy food. It would be good to see you break down these worms in a similar fashion to what you've done here. The container says they're Tubifex worms.
Cheers!
Blackworms are a great staple! I’d love to get some in the USA without leeches and parasites in them..... every company that started selling them has closed or recalled them dozens of times... to the point i only trust old aquarist folks with any blackworm cultures. I'd love a steady supply.
All worms are super similar black, blood, and tubifex ... but true earth worms or night crawlers are more water per gram... buuut have more fatty acids and nutrients... like just earth worms from a garden... but only larger fish can eat them unfortunately
@Fishtory nice! Yeah this Aussie company claims they're disease and parasite free. I haven't had any troubles yet. But I have lost several Julii Cory's over the past 6 months. I've put it down to temperature (hard to keep tanks below 27°C [80°F] in an Aussie summer in a house without air conditioning) more than anything, but maybe some bloodworm bind up or bloat was to blame as well. They're the only fish I've lost in my 100G 6ft.
@toothpik00 thanks for explaining that info about Aussie shipping and thawing
ive been feeding frozen blood worms to fresh and salt water fish for decades... never had an issue.
Lol man you just gave us that aquarium prison spread for our fish.
Hahhah
I had few problems in my tank since I set up (almost 2 years) that from time to time healthy fish just start dying and I can’t figure out why it is happening. Now I’m getting very suspicious of the blood worms I bought and in rare occasions remember to give to them. I will dispose of it just in case, it is old anyways
Yeah if you get fresh ones, just thaw and then feed sparingly or mixed with other foods. And never more than 3 days a week or 3 minutes of feeding per each fish.
With the fish i keep, bloodworms are fine as long as they are of decent quality (been fed nutritious stuff, not junk.) and frozen or fresh. Freeze dried ones tend to be of dubious quality, even within the same brands and cause intestinal issues, no matter what i have tried.
I give whatever my smaller and more sensitive fish cannot take to angelfish and other bigger fish since they are a lot tougher.
Recently i watched a video about a guy who had lost breeding plecos by feeding bloodworms.
And, boy was he _pissed!!_
Ive thrown my bloodworms out.
@@kinglyzard yeah that was a bummer. I've heard it time and time again over the years... but it's usually over feeding and feeding too often, or still frozen. In small amounts, they're okay... not the best food nutritionally, but fish like them seemingly
The issue about bloodworm is it may not be inherently dangerous in frozen form but once we buy it from the shop drive back home, it may turn bad ,plus pulling the packet in and out of the freezer at home etc...personaly everytime i used frozen bloodworm I had issues with sickness and fish death.
Interesting to hear. Did you warm them to tank water temp thoroughly, also? And may I ask what brand you use if you recall? Just very curious by all this. Thank you
@Fishtory hi Alex,the brand is called nutris, it's available in most fish shop in Australia.When i used blood worm i dissolve and crush the cubes in my tank
I am very sensitive to blood worms. It got worse over 20 years working in stores and my fish room.
Oh wow, that's really interesting, thanks for sharing that! I'm scared I'll have a full anaphylaxis one of these days if I'm not super careful