Contaminated California Black Worms?

[magicmagni]

Anyone out there using CBW find flat looking light grey colored Leach looking things mixed in with the worms? From time to time I find these suckers in the feed and was wondering if it was of any concern. The general health of the worms are good. I clean them every other day to every day depending on how they look and feel when I feed them to the fish.

[jeep]

Thats normal. Discus wont eat the leaches...

[magicmagni]

Thanks for the response Jeep, but will these hurt them at all. I try to pick them out of the worms before I feed them, but I've found one in the tank so it seems that I've missed a few from time to time.

[Carol_Roberts]

Won't hurt the discus - they ignore them

[magicmagni]

OK thanks. Good to know.

[RickMay1]

What your seeing arn't leaches they are planaria or flatworms. It least thats what I see in mine. http://ebiomedia.com/gall/classics/Plan/planaria.html

[Tiger Tropicals]

Won't hurt the discus - they ignore them
if i may

One must really look into worms used to feed tropical fish. I know i know, there easy and simple and dont make a mess.The fish love them and grow fast with them. But if you study what diseases these worms carry, and how they are obtained etc. You mite think twice or three times before useing them. When i first started with discus i fed worms, i thought great they eat them. But after a number of fish getting sick without any reason, i started to look into what these worms are and what they can do if contaminated..I know its a controversial topic here so i wont say yeah or nah..but i think anyone who does feed them should look into the worms properly and ask your vet what he thinks..

Francine

[magicmagni]

Yeah those pics above are what I occationally see in the blackworms. As far as disease I would have to agree that there is a potential, but my situation is that I am feeding wild caught fish that have been in captivity now for almost a year now and this is all that I can get them to eat. Well, except for bloodworms. They'll tolerate the hikari froozen bloodworms- oh yeah and live brine shrimps they like too a few days out of the month when I can get them at the LFS.

I honestly would like to get them to eat dry prepared food primarily like Spectrum Discus formula for example or tetra color bits, but they won't have any of it, even after several days of no food.

If one was really concerned about any nasties in the worms couldn't one freeze them to sterilize just to be extra safe, or is that a waste of time and effort.

One thing I have been doing though is soak the live worms in Garlic extract as a preventative maybe it's not needed though?

[brewmaster15]

HI , If they are wild caught fish, they will just as easily take to other foods, as domestics.

The problems is they are spoiled...Happens often when feeding black worms..discus really favor them once they are eating them... If you want to get your discus to start eating a more diversified diet... Starve them. A few days without food won't hurt them if they are young adults (likely if wild caught).. and they may be much more understanding about trying new foods.... :)

Even sushi looks good to me if I am hungry and rawfish is about as bottom of the list on likes that I have !

-al

[justafishguy]

I agree that worms carry most diseases into the aquarium. Yet, frozen food may still contain some forms that can survive harsh temps.

[magicmagni]

HI , If they are wild caught fish, they will just as easily take to other foods, as domestics.

The problems is they are spoiled...Happens often when feeding black worms..discus really favor them once they are eating them... If you want to get your discus to start eating a more diversified diet... Starve them. A few days without food won't hurt them if they are young adults (likely if wild caught).. and they may be much more understanding about trying new foods.... :)

Even sushi looks good to me if I am hungry and rawfish is about as bottom of the list on likes that I have !

-al

Yeah they are spoiled. I starved them for 3 days once in an attempt to get them on prepared food, but nothing. Maybe I should try a whole week? They are full grown now so I can't stunt their growth.

[raglanroad]

Well, M, you couldn't get me to feed my fish Tetra, but if you want to entice the boogers, soak the NLS in juice from crushed worms or whatever after starving the fish..they're smart, they are suspicious of what they don't know.
D

[brewmaster15]

try 4-5 days, then offer them something palatable like tetrabits,,,,you can also try some beef heart if the tank isn't a substrate tank.

They can easily go a week without food, but my guess is thats not going to be an issue...They probably will pick at what ever you give them, just not aggressively at first.

I have rarely seen a fish a food more aggressively than CBW.:)I know it happens...but once they acquire a taste...its all over.

another food you should try is Red wigglers.. They are live compost worms..Easy to care for, and easy to culture...most fish will take them, and they are another healthy source of food.


-al

[magicmagni]

Well, M, you couldn't get me to feed my fish Tetra, but if you want to entice the boogers, soak the NLS in juice from crushed worms or whatever after starving the fish..they're smart, they are suspicious of what they don't know.
D


That's a great Idea! Actually the guy from NLS was recommending soaking the food in a little bit of tank water and then trying to feed it to them, but soaking the pellets like you say sounds good.

[magicmagni]

try 4-5 days, then offer them something palatable like tetrabits,,,,you can also try some beef heart if the tank isn't a substrate tank.

No do on the beef heart. Way too messy. Besides this is a large planted tank.


They can easily go a week without food, but my guess is thats not going to be an issue...They probably will pick at what ever you give them, just not aggressively at first.

Actually last time I did this they started picking at the live plants and eating them oddly enough. They seemed to want to pic at the roots of the Anubia plants mostly.



another food you should try is Red wigglers.. They are live compost worms..Easy to care for, and easy to culture...most fish will take them, and they are another healthy source of food.


O yeah I've forgetten about those. The local petco has them, but half the time they are not very fresh so I stopped getting them. The fish did like them though.

Anyways I'll try starving them and see what happens. Thanks for the help.