Black worm question

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

I don't want to start an arguement here for or against black worms.
But a simple question?
How many of you have Discus five years or older that have had a regular diet of black worms.
Dennis

[redlines]

How many of you out there even have Discus that are 4 or 5 years old?

The first time I got into the great Discus adventure I raised my first fish from fry and did a really poor job too I might add. That said, I did manage to keep alive more than 2/3 of the Wattley & Shmidt Fockes I purchased but I only hung on for a little more than three years before my moving was to great a dissruption. I traded in 6 adults to the fish store for credit & they were all just over 3 yrs old. Ignorant me I fed them Flake, Brine Shrimp, Black worms, beef heart & yes Tubifex too.

Given the great fish I have now I plan on breeding them but have no plans on seing how old I can keep them. I figure 4 years would be tops for a male & maybee 3 for a female before I would retire them and since tank space is a premium I doubt that I will have a geriatric tank.

Andy

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

Andy
So in your situation it doesn't matter if the fish live a long healthy life.
Dennis

[flogger426]

exactly,

he's just looking to make a quick buck! - "lets see i'll sell thousands and thousands of discus at 40 bucks a piece - wow i'll be a millionaire in 2 years. then after the fish are worthless i'll just flush them down the toilet and start over again"

i'll tell you this, and i'm sure of it - most if not all of the top breeders around world would not risk the problems associated with feeding black and tubifex worms to their fish!

[slicksta]

Dennis
I haven't kept discus that long and don't feed blackworm...so I can't respond to your question....
....but I love how a post goes off in all directions.....
curious to hear responses to your question....if you ever get any....

John

[fcdiscus]

Me too Slick- And if there is some credible evidence,I would consider giving them up! I do not think you will get any though! Frank-- And Flogger- please- tubifex is not the same as blackworms!

[Carol_Roberts]

I didn't know black worms existed until a year ago. I started feeding them last summer. I have a female iwho isn't laying eggs, but eats and poops normally. I wondered if she might have worms, so recently wormed her and her mate with flubendazole - no worms . . . .

Has anyone been feeding CBW for more than a couple of years? Cary, Mike?

3-4 yrs Carol, I still feed other foods, beefheart and bloodworms and sometimes give them a break from the live worm if they get lazy for the other stuff.

What type of worm were you expecting to see your female pass on a flubendazole treatment?

Mike

Hi Flogger,
From Your Post I can tell You do not know to much about Breeders around the world. Am sorry you had a bad deal but its also possible your Discus had the Worms when You bought them! However this does not mean it came from the
worm. did You ever think it was the water the worm was in??????????????

Dennis, I have Discus at 8 years of age still breeding and doing well. BLKWORMS have been part of My menu for years and years. Also Its nice to see you useing them what made you change Your mind? I know it was not Larry hee.hee.hee


Come on folks I have the lab report! what more do You want?
Never Mind More for Me! :P

Dennis, send some to your Boy for testing stop asking here! its the same old crowd over and over again with a once in a While newbi Pro with all the answer's and Here say reports!

TakeCare,
Cary Gld!

P.s Carol no matter What You do i do not think You will ever get them to breed H+H is known very well for that! good luck though.

Cary, its not worth it.......

Mike

[hunterbeav]

TEEEEEHEEEEE :) I use black worms and damn proud of it so there NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH !!!!!!!!!!!!! PS: anyone who don't use black worms is a *****.......................................CAT teheee With love from Jim & Diane :)

[BlueBull]

Hi

I read in some book that tubifex and black worms are no good for fishes, Discus included. It might cause the fishes to have tapeworm in their tummies. :o

[mutfish]

Wow, classy post beaverhunter how long did it take you to think that one up?.......

[Dennis_Hardenburge]

Cary
I have used a few CBW lately with the arrival of some new wild fish untill I got them on to other foods.
I almost lost one of my favorite domestic fish from bloat even though not that many worms were put into the tank he was able to keep ten other fish away from them and ate to much and went black and flat on the bottom of the tank, I was surprized that putting him in a hospital tank with a very heavy dose of epsom salts saved him.
I also have exsperienced a bacterial skin infection, of course the origin of that is unkown.
I won't use them again.
Dennis

[Ralph]

I'm relatively new to discus but I'm already a bit tired of this argument.

My understanding of this: back in discus prehistory, a rumor was going around that tubifex was harvested in raw sewage. Because of that, they were loaded with thousands of pathogens and will kill your discus if you use them. The rumor seems to reemerge whenever someone who uses live blackworms has any problems with their discus. And it gets repeated a lot by people without any direct knowledge.
Does that even make sense to anyone, I have trouble imagining anyone harvesting worms out of waste to sell commercially. And what does it have to do with blackworms? They are raised in freshwater ponds with great effort being made to ensure their safety as a food source.

The bottom line: there is no guarantees with fish food but too many people have been using blackworms for too long without any problems linked to the blackworms.

Now, back to your question Dennis. Cary answered it for you but I will add that in general a varied diet is still important for your fish and that the critical and most vulnerable time for your fish is while they are juveniles. But it is your option though, and if you don't feel comfortable using them, then you shouldn't, there are other foods out there that will fulfil the needs of your fish.

[dm]

I agree with Ralph. Why keep bringing it up?

DM

Bringing "it" up isnt the problem....never has been.Spouting unsubstantiated crap that cant be backed up is the problem... :-\

Tony
6 year DIEHARD black worm feeder ;D

[flogger426]

tony,

inform us - what is the unsubstantiated crap?

Its so easy to not accept responsibility for poor fish keeping and blame the worm.

Flogger, Have you visited any of these breeders you speak of....

Kinda like the worms you don't have a clue...

Mike

Flog....the following qoute is UNSUBSTANTIATED CRAP!

"it's a known fact that blackworms may (and eventually will) transmit cestodes (tapeworms)"


known fact by who?? Where's your proof to back this statement up?

The claims youve made are pretty basic....It shouldnt take you long to come up with SOME kind of actual proof....Scientific or otherwise. Anything would be better than what youve come up with/provided so far.

Tony ;D

Im done on this thread....have fun

Flogger,
find a new breeder Yours is feeding you worms hee.hee.hee

[flogger426]

i never mentioned any names when i made my comment regarding breeders on this board.

Cary you didn't have to be so hurtful and defensive - i had no idea you were breeding down your basement.

as for you mike - i thought you were the one breeder here who didn't feed blackworms. but i guess i was wrong. your website doesn't make any mention of blackworms in the feeding section. red wrigglers yes, but not blackworms.

in all do respect mike i have visited many discus breeders in the country - sometimes driving up to two days to get there. i don't know how old you are, but from what i can gather i was probably keeping these fish when you were running around in diapers and drooling on your t-shirt.

by the way nice web-site! i really like the peach pandas - do you have any that were not raised on blackworms? seriously!



flogger

[bmrin1]

Cary,
LMAO!! :D :D ;D ;D

Quote:"But it is your option though, and if you don't feel comfortable using them, then you shouldn't"

Enough said >:(

JMO, MOO, IME and so on and so on.
Ronald

Hey Flogger,
Don't change Schitt around You were the one who got loud
So I got louder!

Peace out!

[flogger426]

cary,

i never got loud with you - i never even mentioned your name.


flogger

[Ralph]

It looks like everyone got their opinions in here and Dennis got some answers. The topic has wondered way off the original subject so I think it will be best for now to lock this