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Thread: Bad frozen bloodworms?

  1. #1
    Registered Member
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    Denise Heric

    Default Bad frozen bloodworms?

    I am having problems all of a sudden with my discus. After a year of healthy fish I am losing half of them this week.
    I have 3 large adults and had 40 3 1/2 inch babies bred from my male and female. Some of the juvies turned dark and about seven have died. Also my one adult albino white butterfly died yesterday. She went beserk first banging into the glass.
    I was blind sided by all this. Now I think the San Francisco frozen blood worms are to blame.
    The white butterfly was eating them heavily and I was feeding them to the juvies in the last two weeks. I do 90 percent water changes every day. How do I treat the sick ones?. I am using API general cure from pet smart currently.

  2. #2
    Platinum Member fljones3's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Quote Originally Posted by dmheric View Post
    I am having problems all of a sudden with my discus. After a year of healthy fish I am losing half of them this week.
    I have 3 large adults and had 40 3 1/2 inch babies bred from my male and female. Some of the juvies turned dark and about seven have died. Also my one adult albino white butterfly died yesterday. She went beserk first banging into the glass.
    I was blind sided by all this. Now I think the San Francisco frozen blood worms are to blame.
    The white butterfly was eating them heavily and I was feeding them to the juvies in the last two weeks. I do 90 percent water changes every day. How do I treat the sick ones?. I am using API general cure from pet smart currently.
    I have had problems with any brand other than Hikari bloodworms. If they are "dirty" then they add to the bioload. Sorry to hear of the loss.

  3. #3
    Registered Member Tshethar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Denise, sorry for your losses. Really terrible. I'd suggest filling out the disease questionnaire with all your info just in case it might prompt someone to notice anything that might help you figure out the mystery. I wonder about your water supply; if you are on municipal water sometimes there are seasonal changes that can cause problems, such as with extra chlorine. I would think about running some carbon in any tanks you see distressed fish, especially in the absence of some other symptoms. Maybe it's the bloodworms, as people have reported some issues with them, but hard to say without a microscope.... Good luck and hope more experienced people can help you figure it out.

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    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Hi Denise, if you suspect the blood worms then first order is to quit feeding them. Bill mentions the seasonal changes which happens this time of year. Also if you are on city water the water company could have added extra chlorine etc. Do you age your water? Not sure I would be medicating at this time since you don't really know what you are treating for.

    Also please fill out the disease questionnaire http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...lease-complete.
    Pat
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


  5. #5
    Registered Member slicksta's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    I also had some bad SF Bloodworms ordered from Dr. Foster at the beginning of the year.
    Since I hadn't fed them in a while I assumed that the fish weren't used to them... But honesty I had never seen where Cardinals and Discus didn't go crazy for them. But when I fed these the fish barely touched them. So I tried a few more times a few days apart and started to see a loss of Cardinal or two every time I fed them. Then in my other tank I noticed my discus had started to develop the dreaded white stringy poop and dinkleberries. So I stopped feeding them and everything went back to normal... Well almost, the Discus tank then developed a small infestation of snalls that I was able to clear up but just picking them out.
    I wrote Dr. Foster and provided them with the lot info from the package and they issued me a refund.
    No more blood worms for me.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Quote Originally Posted by Tshethar View Post
    Denise, sorry for your losses. Really terrible. I'd suggest filling out the disease questionnaire with all your info just in case it might prompt someone to notice anything that might help you figure out the mystery. I wonder about your water supply; if you are on municipal water sometimes there are seasonal changes that can cause problems, such as with extra chlorine. I would think about running some carbon in any tanks you see distressed fish, especially in the absence of some other symptoms. Maybe it's the bloodworms, as people have reported some issues with them, but hard to say without a microscope.... Good luck and hope more experienced people can help you figure it out.
    We are on municipal water and did have a boil water advisory a couple weeks ago and that was another thought I had about added chlorine.

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    Registered Member + MVP danotaylor's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    When we had a boil water advisory, and a microcystin water crisis, in Toledo a few years back, the city, unbeknownst to anyone, dumped an unknown amount of extra chlorine in the water to try to make it safe. One day after a water change I walked away and came back back 10 minutes later to all of my fish gasping sitting on the bottom. I used the prescribe dose of "seachem prime" for ammonia poisoning and things improved, but it actually took 2 x times the ammonia poisoning dose (10 times the usual dose) to save my fish. Each summer since I would run my municipal water through a carbon filter prior to adding it to my tank, and I ran a 5# bag of carbon in the final stage of my sump.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Quote Originally Posted by danotaylor View Post
    When we had a boil water advisory, and a microcystin water crisis, in Toledo a few years back, the city, unbeknownst to anyone, dumped an unknown amount of extra chlorine in the water to try to make it safe. One day after a water change I walked away and came back back 10 minutes later to all of my fish gasping sitting on the bottom. I used the prescribe dose of "seachem prime" for ammonia poisoning and things improved, but it actually took 2 x times the ammonia poisoning dose (10 times the usual dose) to save my fish. Each summer since I would run my municipal water through a carbon filter prior to adding it to my tank, and I ran a 5# bag of carbon in the final stage of my sump.
    I appreciate your response. I think I am going to take my water to have it checked for chlorine levels right now.

  9. #9
    Registered Member slicksta's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Anything is possible, but typically chlorine spikes happen in the summer unless there is some incident requiring it.
    And the symptoms described don't sound like a chlorine burn either.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Quote Originally Posted by Second Hand Pat View Post
    Hi Denise, if you suspect the blood worms then first order is to quit feeding them. Bill mentions the seasonal changes which happens this time of year. Also if you are on city water the water company could have added extra chlorine etc. Do you age your water? Not sure I would be medicating at this time since you don't really know what you are treating for.

    Also please fill out the disease questionnaire http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...lease-complete.
    Pat
    Hi. The water was tested at the pet store and everything checked out fine....the chlorine levels are safe. Although they could have spiked a week ago. I do age some water in several buckets but have to add some hot water to get the temp right and add prime. I went ahead and gave the general cure as I knew the sick ones were pretty far gone already.

  11. #11
    Registered Member slicksta's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Quote Originally Posted by dmheric View Post
    I am having problems all of a sudden with my discus. After a year of healthy fish I am losing half of them this week.
    I have 3 large adults and had 40 3 1/2 inch babies bred from my male and female. Some of the juvies turned dark and about seven have died. Also my one adult albino white butterfly died yesterday. She went beserk first banging into the glass.
    I was blind sided by all this. Now I think the San Francisco frozen blood worms are to blame.
    The white butterfly was eating them heavily and I was feeding them to the juvies in the last two weeks. I do 90 percent water changes every day. How do I treat the sick ones?. I am using API general cure from pet smart currently.
    Maybe update the thread title to Chlorine Spike?

  12. #12
    Silver Member Willie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Chlorine spikes happen in the Fall in the Midwest. When leaves fall, bacterial blooms occur in the reservoir and our local water company will send an extra pulse of chloramine into the system. I've had this happen on multiple occasions. Now I condition my water and have extra Prime ready if the fish start to gasp. Overloading with 2X, 3X Prime does no harm.

    Willie
    At my age, everything is irritating.

  13. #13
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Quote Originally Posted by Willie View Post
    Chlorine spikes happen in the Fall in the Midwest. When leaves fall, bacterial blooms occur in the reservoir and our local water company will send an extra pulse of chloramine into the system. I've had this happen on multiple occasions. Now I condition my water and have extra Prime ready if the fish start to gasp. Overloading with 2X, 3X Prime does no harm.

    Willie
    Good to know. Now I'm contemplating using my 40 gallon Aquarium to age my water and also run through the carbon filter for added safety.

  14. #14
    Registered Member slicksta's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    Quote Originally Posted by Willie View Post
    Chlorine spikes happen in the Fall in the Midwest. When leaves fall, bacterial blooms occur in the reservoir and our local water company will send an extra pulse of chloramine into the system. I've had this happen on multiple occasions. Now I condition my water and have extra Prime ready if the fish start to gasp. Overloading with 2X, 3X Prime does no harm.

    Willie
    I agree that a chlorine spikes are a real problem and that you should know as much as you can about your water source. Every municipality has their own practice.
    But the symptoms described, at least to me didn't seem to be a caused by chlorine and wondering how frozen bloodworms were initially thought to be involved and then quickly forgotten

  15. #15
    Administrator and MVP Dec.2015 Second Hand Pat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bad frozen bloodworms?

    slicksta, just trying to cover all the bases for this time of year. The best we can do is assist Denise with due diligence as to possible sources for the issues she is having be it bad food or water concerns.
    Pat
    Your discus are talking to you....are you listening


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