How Much Bloodworm?

[greenscooby]

I feed my fish frozen bloodworm - i rinse it before i feed - about 1/2 a cube once a week (it's thier treat ), but they demolish it within 40 seconds, should i be feeding them a whole cube?

My stocking is as follows

6 x plattys - 3 Dalmation and 3 Red
7 x Glowlight Tetras
2 x Black Neons
2 x Balloon Mollies

I feed them this on a saturday as i do my weekly water change - 25% - on a Sunday and my LFS said the bloodworm help clear their system.

I only ask as i've heard that too much frozen bloodworm isn't good for the fish or the tank.

Any advice appreciated,

Mark.

 

[Colin_T]

Not sure about frozen bloodworms cleaning out their system. Quite the contrary in my opinion. Too much bloodworm can block fish up. The red bloodworm (Chirominid midge larvae) have a very hard head made out of chiton. It doesn't break down easily and can cause blockages in the fish's digestive tract (intestine). It's not a big problem in most fish but should only be used occasionally.
Daphnia and Brineshrimp are better for cleaning out a fish as they have more roughage and no hard indigestible parts.
You could feed the entire block of bloodworms to the fish once a week and they should be fine.

 

[greenscooby]

Many thanks Colin_T, should i feed the blood worm earlier in the week and brineshrimp the day before i do a water change?

Also how much brineshrimp do i feed them?

Sorry about the questions but i'm really NEW to the hobby,

Many thanks

Mark.

 

[Colin_T]

Bloodworms are messier than brineshrimp so I would feed them the day before you do a water change.

You can feed as much brineshrimp as you like, within reason. Certainly 1 or 2 blocks of brineshrimp would be no problems as long as it is all eaten and doesn't get left to rot on the bottom. You can also feed the brineshrimp several times a week if you like. Most people use it along with several other types of frozen food and vary it. One day they feed one frozen food, a couple of days later and they feed another type. You can feed frozen food every day if you like but it can cost a bit of money if you have a lot of fish (you currently don't so it's not too bad).
Raw frozen prawn, fish, squid, etc can all be used instead of bloodworm and brineshrimp. Prawn is one of the better foods but all meat foods will cause the water to go off faster than dry flake food. This is due to the protein in it. If you feed a bit of frozen food 3 or 4 times a week then it won't affect the water quality that much.
You can monitor the nitrate level and see how that is going. If the nitrate goes up rapidly between water changes, then you will need to do more or bigger water changes, or reduce the amount of food going into the tank.
If the tank is new and hasn't been running for long (less than a month) then don't feed too much frozen food because it can cause ammonia and nitrite readings if the filter isn't well established. If the filter and tank were cycled before you added fish, then it shouldn't be a problem with ammonia and nitrite readings.

 

[greenscooby]

Many thanks for that, of to my LFS to buy some brineshrimp.

Mark