# who sells live bloodworms



## bulldog73 (Mar 3, 2009)

the local fish stores don't carry them just frozen?or can you grow your own?


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

bulldog73 said:


> the local fish stores don't carry them just frozen?or can you grow your own?


Believe me, you don't wanna grow your own. It isn't worth it IMO, plus, you do know they eventually grow to be free roaming, flying adults. I also try avoid feeding live foods, especially to fish (not saying you're feeding them to fish).

I've also noticed two different kinds of worms listed as bloodworms, which confuses me a bit. There's one that's very long and I believe the adults also fly but they bite and suck blood. I'll have to look into that.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Natty said:


> Believe me, you don't wanna grow your own. It isn't worth it IMO, plus, you do know they eventually grow to be free roaming, flying adults. I also try avoid feeding live foods, especially to fish (not saying you're feeding them to fish).
> 
> I've also noticed two different kinds of worms listed as bloodworms, which confuses me a bit. There's one that's very long and I believe the adults also fly but they bite and suck blood. I'll have to look into that.



Why do you avoid feeding live foods?


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## theemon (May 22, 2008)

Kuz Live Food Bites?


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## Ebichua (May 13, 2008)

Some live foods are bad, others are good.

Ones that I would considered bad are the live foods that have the potential to grow into flying pests, like mosquito larvae. The nutritional value is good but the cons of raising these and opening possibilities of danger makes me stray away from using them. 

Good live foods are ones that stay in one form and don't have a very high success rate in escaping. These would be things like microworms, blackworms and such.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Off topic, but I have to share this. When I was a kid, I tried to grow sea monkeys and never kept them alive very long. One summer at my grandparents, I found a whole bucket of squiggly sea monkeys! So happy, I brought home a big plastic cup full of them and carefully poured them into my sea castle. I fed them the growth food and happily set back and admired my find. A little while later, I thought they all died and went to take off the lid. Out swarmed dozens of mosquitoes! Needless to say, my mom banned me from grandma's "sea monkeys" from then on!

My advice? Stay away from live blood worms. Itchy buggers.....


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

epicfish said:


> Why do you avoid feeding live foods?


Dealing with certain things like the probability of introducing ich. No use quarantining fish if you're going to feed them live fresh water foods like bloodworms and especially those nasty, parasite infested feeder goldfish or guppies to your meat eating pet fish.

I know stuff like ich are sometimes already found in the water and only become a problem due to bad water conditions, but I've had a few experiences where I've had good, clean, well filtered tank with small fish. Never had a problem until I started feeding live bloodworms. Ich is a pain, especially if you have shrimps in the tank as well. Some fish won't have a problem, some will. My pleco is a good example, that thing is immortal :hihi:. 

And bloodworms also become adults and I've had at least one experience where they fall between the rocks and down into the substrate and eventually becoming adults, which makes them A LOT more annoying, buzzing around your ear at night. What's worse is that it doesn't stop because I think the adults just come back to reproduce and so the cycle starts over and over again.

My fish doesn't seem to have a problem eating freeze dried foods and such, so why not? I agree with Ebichua, the negative outweighs the positive imo as well.


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

sewingalot said:


> Off topic, but I have to share this. When I was a kid, I tried to grow sea monkeys and never kept them alive very long. One summer at my grandparents, I found a whole bucket of squiggly sea monkeys! So happy, I brought home a big plastic cup full of them and carefully poured them into my sea castle. I fed them the growth food and happily set back and admired my find. A little while later, I thought they all died and went to take off the lid. Out swarmed dozens of mosquitoes! Needless to say, my mom banned me from grandma's "sea monkeys" from then on!
> 
> My advice? Stay away from live blood worms. Itchy buggers.....


Um, I think the term sea monkey stands for brine shrimps, at least that's what I thought. Like the sea monkeys on South Park. I believe they were brine shrimps. Kids, don't watch south park for the sake of your innocence if you still have any haha!

But I get where you came up with that mentality, it still makes sense since they do dance around like monkeys as well :tongue:

See? Read down a bit on this link.
http://www.sea-monkeys.com/html/aboutsm/whatarethey.html

I think that place is BSing though lmao! The kinda brine shrimp they have is the type petstores are selling more often now. They are able to tolerate warmer conditions and come from a more tropic location, I forgot where though.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

any live foods grown without contact with fish is pretty safe from fish parasites.

But, you never really know where your live food comes from without growing it yourself.


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## ER9 (Aug 2, 2008)

Natty said:


> Dealing with certain things like the probability of introducing ich. No use quarantining fish if you're going to feed them live fresh water foods like bloodworms and especially those nasty, parasite infested feeder goldfish or guppies to your meat eating pet fish.
> 
> I know stuff like ich are sometimes already found in the water and only become a problem due to bad water conditions, but I've had a few experiences where I've had good, clean, well filtered tank with small fish. Never had a problem until I started feeding live bloodworms. Ich is a pain, especially if you have shrimps in the tank as well. Some fish won't have a problem, some will. My pleco is a good example, that thing is immortal :hihi:.
> 
> ...


unfortunatelly some fish will not eat anything but live food...especially live caught that has been maintained on live foods at the fish shop. my puffer and scarlet badis would literally starve to death if i didnt feed them live blackworms. i almost lost my puffer when i first got him for this reason. i agree though its a pain in the arse and i have regular parasite outbreaks in my tank i can only attribute to the worms. if i didnt have to i would rarely feed them live food.

OP look into blackworms if you have to raise live food. they are pretty easy to raise and can be bought online. unfortunatelly you will buy two years supply (minimum) but it will give you plenty of starter stock. most fish i have encountered that will eat bloodworms wil eat blackworms.


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

ER9 said:


> unfortunatelly some fish will not eat anything but live food...especially live caught that has been maintained on live foods at the fish shop. my puffer and scarlet badis would literally starve to death if i didnt feed them live blackworms. i almost lost my puffer when i first got him for this reason.


Yeah, I heard that about puffers. It is either a hit or miss with fish like them. Have you tried frozen bloodworms? I've fed my puffers successfully with hikari frozen bloodworms, but they refuse to eat anything else that's not alive. Puffers are cute so I put up with it :tongue:, but if they weren't....:icon_lol: jk.

:hihi: the things we go through for our pets.

EDIT
Oh yeah, I heard puffers are immune to stuff like ich, I wonder if that is true.


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## mgamer20o0 (Mar 8, 2007)

why not something like black worms you can buy those live.


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## ultasol (Jun 27, 2005)

A few of my favorite live foods, and why I love them:

1) flightless fruit flies
a) easy to culture: I use baby oatmeal made very thickly and long thin strips of newspaper for the adults to crawl on and the maggots to transform on. 
b) easy to feed: I shake adults out 2x daily for my charadodons, limias, halfbeaks, goldfish.

I used to feed flighted fruitflies after I noticed them in my barrel composters. Midwinter I was out there with mittens and a fishnet netting them out of the darn (warm) barrel. Quickly realized that this was NO way to go and ordered a culture. Petsmart and petco are carrying them now- easy access.

2) Microworms
a) easy to culture: baby oatmeal, a few grains of yeast, water, some worms and VOILA! Food for all in a few days. So easy a monkey could try it.
b) easy to feed: If there aren't enough already crawling on the sides to wipe off with my finger, I will place the culture on my lights while I do other tank chores, they climb the sides away from the heat and I get all I need. Cheap on aquabid.
c) widely accepted: even my crystal shrimp eat these, as do all my livebearers (except the halfbeaks, they prefer fruitflies, whiteworms, grindals, and fruitfly maggots)

3) Whiteworms and grindal worms
a) relatively easy to culture: although they require some time before harvest after initial culture received (longer generation time) once taking off they are easy. Whiteworms like it cool. I use either cocofiber (see petsmart or petco for local sources if not at your mom and pop petstore) or half soil half coco or pH adjusted peat) and a sweaterbox with some holes in the lid. I feed baby oatmeal. a little more expensive as far as a starter, but the worms are much bigger and easy to feed to adult fish. VERY well accepted. Often triggers breeding.

I love feeding live foods. My breeding rates go up and I firmly believe it leaves my fish more resistant to disease and environmental stressors. I feed a variety of live foods on top of some flakes and quality pellets. 

If you want to bring out the best in your fish, and see some awesome natural behavior, add a live food or two to the diet. Fruitflies and microworms are almost work-free. LOVE them. I also add Ca to the microworm media because I am feeding them to my CRS on occasion. 

The worms are also long lived in water, in fact, I think the microworms are a nematoda that lives in the water between soil particulates. I could be wrong.


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## ER9 (Aug 2, 2008)

Natty said:


> Yeah, I heard that about puffers. It is either a hit or miss with fish like them. Have you tried frozen bloodworms? I've fed my puffers successfully with hikari frozen bloodworms, but they refuse to eat anything else that's not alive. Puffers are cute so I put up with it :tongue:, but if they weren't....:icon_lol: jk.
> 
> :hihi: the things we go through for our pets.
> 
> ...


hah interesting...iv'e had several outbreaks of it inmy tank and my puffer has never gotten it. yup tried the frozen ones...even tried to make em wriggle around like they were live. all he did was stare at me with those pathetic puppy eyes...yeah i hear you...if the little bastard wasn't so cute he would have gotten the tiddy bowl flush a long time ago  i originally bought him to eat snails...after they were gone i was like "hmm...crap what do i feed him now?"


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## zenfish (Jan 29, 2006)

To get bloodworms..We used to set out a 5 gallon bucket filled with about 3 in of gravel over the winter months..And would get bloodworms sifting through the gravel..Not sure if it would work through summer..


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## Natty (Apr 2, 2008)

ER9 said:


> i originally bought him to eat snails...after they were gone i was like "hmm...crap what do i feed him now?"


:hihi: you can rent him out as a snail exterminator. $10 per night, $15 for the weekend. Make him work for it :tongue:

I think being cute works very well in their favor, I know a couple of classmates that could use a pointer from these guys, then they can get better grades from the teacher.


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## daFrimpster (Mar 7, 2005)

Why I feed live foods;
AS mentioned before you get to see natural hunting behavior.
more likelyhood of breeding.
It's the only food other than frozen bloodworms that some of my fish will take.
I enjoy the culturing process. 
I can control what my feeder animals eat.Everybody but the daphnia eat multigrain baby cereal that is fortified with vitamins.
I culture grindal worms, white worms, scuds, earthworms and daphnia magna.

This allows me to feed a good variety of foods to all my fish.
My Blackbanded sunfish, rainbow darters and banded darters will only take frozen bloodworms or live food.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Natty said:


> Um, I think the term sea monkey stands for brine shrimps, at least that's what I thought. Like the sea monkeys on South Park. I believe they were brine shrimps. Kids, don't watch south park for the sake of your innocence if you still have any haha!
> 
> But I get where you came up with that mentality, it still makes sense since they do dance around like monkeys as well :tongue:
> 
> ...


If only I had internet when I was seven!

Back to live bloodworms, you could always breed your own outside. Just don't tell your neighbors! :hihi:


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## bulldog73 (Mar 3, 2009)

mgamer20o0 said:


> why not something like black worms you can buy those live.


 my local fish stores in my area only sell live brine shrimp the one that carried a variety of live foods is no longer open.i'll take what ever live foods i can get if i can't get bloodworms were can i get black worms?


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## rickylbc (Jun 6, 2008)

http://www.plecofanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72112


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