Parasites In Food?

[sbga]

I heard there can be parasites in fish food like blood worms and tubifex worms. Does this only apply to the fresh frozen ones, or the dried ones too? I feed mine dried tubifex and brine shrimp sometimes.

 

[Corleone]

My understanding (perhaps wrong) was that it primarily applied to live food. There are sometimes parasites in my frozen tubifex - I found what I think was a leech once and occasionally see small beetles, but since they're dead I've always just tipped them in the tank with the rest, and they get snapped up. Live food is a different matter, since if there's anything except the food animal in there, it may also be alive - particularly feeder fish, since they can carry all the same diseases any fish can, and are generally kept in worse conditions and are thus more likely to have them to start with.

 

[Bignose]

There is very little that can survive being frozen or freeze dried. That's one of the primary reasons they are so effective at food storage. Maybe some bacteria, fungus, etc. but very, very few higher life forms. I would say all life forms, but in the realm of possibility there may be a few out there can survive -- though I do not know of any personally.

 

[Colin_T]

I would say all life forms, but in the realm of possibility there may be a few out there can survive -- though I do not know of any personally.

I met one once only joking.

As mentioned by Corleone, most parasites come from live food. Live crustaceans like daphnia can be one of the worst carriers. But any invertebrate or fish that occurs in outside ponds and that is exposed to water birds is a possible carrier. If you have individual cultures of live foods in the backyard they are usually safe to use. Unfortunately waterbirds and snails are often partial host to tape worms, and crustaceans like daphnia, gammaris & cyclops will often carry threadworms. Male cyclops can also become gill parasites on fish. You can get hydra from anything that comes out of most ponds. Leaches and snails can also come from there but are much less of a problem.
Live tubifex can be a problem with bacteria due to where it comes from, the sediment in the bottom of waterways.
Freeze dried stuff is safe and unlikely to cause any problems to the fish.
Some brands of frozen bloodworms can be an issue and cause internal problems to fish. this is usually caused by bacteria.

 

[piranha_tim]

The whole reason frozen food works so well is most bacteria is killed in the process of freezing.
There is bacteria that can harm your fish but how they come in contact with the frozen food is usually a mystery (and unlikely).