Ron,
Thank you for weighing in on the blackworm feeding. It has been something I have suspected from the get go, but just wasn't sure. It was one of those things I wanted to see for myself. What I would really like to do is keep two tanks from the same spawn, and feed both tanks the same, except include live worms in one tanks regiment.
The one reason I have suspected live blackworms as the differentiator, is that I did not lose any fish from the spawn, until I started the live worms. Although, the fish I lost were always from a larger group of fish, and the 8 contest fish are all still alive and active. Hard to say without a control group. Also, I am curious about what is causing the parasite infestation from feeding the blackworms live. Are the worms themselves the problem, or is it the water the worms are housed in? Why are the adult discus I feed not affected when they receive a portion of live worms daily?
I'm sure these question have been asked elsewhere on this forum. Maybe a search will give us more info. I would like to see a well documented case for or against the correlation we are theorizing, I have only read arguments for both sides and never seen anything conclusive.