Blackworms...?

[chibi]

I fed my fish blackworms about 2 months ago. My fish had all been acting sickly about 2 weeks ago. I had two fish deaths and my others look sluggish and sick. I did a huge water change and found about 2 dozen blackworms crawling around in the bottom of the tank!! Could they have anything to do with it? My fish seem better after I removed the worms. Water parameters are normal. I'm still a bit confused, though. @_@

 

[jollysue]

I feed black worms daily to my fish. It is important to wash them daily. When they get dirty they die and do what things do when they die--rot and feed bacteria. I suppose enough of them could increase the bio load.

If you over feed or do not have bottom feeders to filter the substrate, they will build up. But I have not had a problem with that; I just let the Corys and loaches do their work and give them a day or two to work for dinner. The Corys sometimes bruise their noses moving and digging stuff up to get to them. lol

The important thing is to keep them clean. Try feeding less. They will dig into the substrate as soon as they hit the bottom. But they will live for quite awhile.