Blood worm poll and allergies

[Ryan]

I am going to boost this old thread by Al. For years, many of us here have talked about bloodworm allergies. Some even told us it was crazy and wasn't possible. Now AMAZONAS Magazine is doing a survey about it.

https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2018...-on-you-short/

We are not alone. It's said that allergies including asthmatic reactions occur in about 20% of the people who come into contact with hemoglobin in chironomid larvae (bloodworms). This isn't just in fish food, but also in areas of the world with high populations of naturally-occurring midge larvae.

I'd encourage everyone here, whether you have the allergy or not, to participate in their survey. It's brief and only took me about 2 minutes to complete.

[brewmaster15]

Bumpety bump

[kalawai]

I feed both frozen and freeze dried bloodworms and through the years of feeding these little red larvae..I have developed an allergy to them. I do wash my hands well after handling but my eyes get itchy,red and just irritated. I sneeze and that’s about it for me. It never fails after thawing the frozen form or opening the freeze dried... I’m stubborn so my allergic reactions would need to worse before I stop completely of serving this up. I do feed blackworm it’s probably better nutrition but I like to feed different things to my fishy friends.

[seanyuki]

Bump +

[coralbandit]

Good read .

[April]

I’m
Allergic. If I touch my eyes they are puffed up and red and a cut on my ha ce swells up. Freeze dried are also no good. So I don’t use.

[brady]

April, are you referring to fdblackw or fdbloodw ? I was very allergic to
blood worms and haven't used them in years. fdblackw don't bother me at all.
Jay

[coralbandit]

Anyone allergic to any other foods they fed their fish ? The San Francisco Bay guy said they place warning labels on all their frozen food.
Is there a time line for how long after feeding blood worms before you can safely place arm in the tank ?
The one link said like mentioned by Al the hemoglobin contains the protein that causes the allergy.
So does anyone think that if you soaked the worms which removes much of the red [ presumably hemoglobin] that there would be less of an allergic reaction ?

[fljones3]

I still periodically feed bloodworms but if I get my hands into them and do not rinse, I am allergic.
Once, I rubbed my eye without rinsing off my hands (before I started using cubes) and you would have thought I had pink eye. Pretty unpleasant and took several days to clear.

Anyone allergic to any other foods they fed their fish ? The San Francisco Bay guy said they place warning labels on all their frozen food.
Is there a time line for how long after feeding blood worms before you can safely place arm in the tank ?
The one link said like mentioned by Al the hemoglobin contains the protein that causes the allergy.
So does anyone think that if you soaked the worms which removes much of the red [ presumably hemoglobin] that there would be less of an allergic reaction ?

[LizStreithorst]

I've never had a problem with any fish food that I know of. Recently though, I have developed an allergic reaction to something in the fish tank water. It's no big deal. Little places itch on my right arm that spends the most time in the water every evening. It's itches so I scratch it and I get little scabby places. When I got to the point where it started to annoy me I bought an anti inflammatory cream and put that on my arm after WC. It come back from time to time but I know how to fix it so it's not a problem.

[Cevoe]

I am currently keeping Malawi cichlids and was using freeze dried blood worms along with freeze dried black worms.
I've always been allergic to blood worms but figured the freeze dried would be better.
Found that when changing water, I felt terrible...like real bad.
Stopped using the blood worms altogether and stuck to the black worms only and now no problem at all.

[dagray]

I quit feeding bloodworms (frozen was all I could get) when I found out how much better blackworms were nutrition wise for the fish.

I feed Al's freeze dried blackworms and I feed frozen blackworms.