Can I Use My Bloodworm From The Garden?

[julibob]

I discovered loads of bloodworm in my water feature this morning. They are all under the pebbles. If I collect them and wash them, can I feed them to my fish??? Has anyone else done this? After all it is free food.

Julia

 

[lljdma06]

I discovered loads of bloodworm in my water feature this morning. They are all under the pebbles. If I collect them and wash them, can I feed them to my fish??? Has anyone else done this? After all it is free food.

Julia

At times, I harvest ants and mosquitos from my garden to feed my fish, but I thoroughly wash first and then I have to be pretty sure I haven't used any chemicals around the area.

As with all live food that is not from a sterile culture, there is the risk of bringing a bacteria or a protozoan of some type, so I advise caution. In all fairness, however, I don't see any fish complaining when they munch on mosquitos in the canals in FL, and I'm betting that whatever bucket I have filled with water in my garden is going to be a million times cleaner than those canals! We're still looking for the 3-eyed fish.

llj

 

[fishwatcher]

I used to use the bloodworms from the filter on my goldfish pond when I had it set up with no problems. On the flip side though, I used mosquito larvae from a bucket (that had been outside for a long time) and within just a day or 2 my pair of blue rams had little white wormy things all over them and they died shortly after. I'd just be very careful if you aren't actually farming the insects yourself.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I fed my fish a lot of mosquito larvae and bloodworms and various other critters i found in my newly dug pond last year- the fish thoroughly enjoyed them, there was a real feeding frenzy everytime i gave them some of the live food, and they seemed very healthy for the live foods .

I used to use the bloodworms from the filter on my goldfish pond when I had it set up with no problems. On the flip side though, I used mosquito larvae from a bucket (that had been outside for a long time) and within just a day or 2 my pair of blue rams had little white wormy things all over them and they died shortly after. I'd just be very careful if you aren't actually farming the insects yourself.

It was probably some sort of body fluke parasite. I guess if you are in doubt, you can always freeze your live food before feeding it to your fish to kill any parasites that live in it, but when it comes down to it, the only live food you really have to worry about is Tubifex (which has been proven to pass on parasites to fish- there have also been may reports of it coming from waters contaminated with raw sewage as well, so its not the best food for fish).

I think though if the water you get the live food from doesn't contain any fish or amphibians and the water quality is good, then you are very unlikely to get any nastys in the live food. If you set aside a bucket of water outside with some dirt in the bottom, it'll be heaving with mosquito larvae and bloodworms come the warmer months !