I finally pinpointed it...I think

[bluemarlin]

About a month ago I lost several fish that I had for a long time. I couldn't figure out what went wrong. Parameters were all ok, including temp, salt, PH, trates, trites and ammonia. So what was killing my fish? My coral banded shrimp? Maybe but no. My cleaner shrimp seemed safe enough and my urching seemed happy just munching along the sand bed and LR. Hmmm. Maybe my clown fish had an attitude? Nope that was it either. Then it dawned on me. I had just started to feed my fish bloodworms along with the other things I normally feed. Could it be? I stopped feeding the bloodworms to my fish and nothing else has died. In fact, everything is back to normal it seems and I can stop watching every second of everyday! Hurray! I think it may be because the bloodworms are a freshwater food. I'mstill not sure why they are bad but I think I pinpointed the cause to be the bloodworms.
I forgot to toss them out of my freezer and my wife was trying to help me out the other night by feeding my fish......yikes! I saw what she was about to feed my little fellas and told her the story. "Well, why not throw them out then?" Why am I so dumb?

 

[twoods71]

Maybe they were bad (spoiled)
I feed my fish frozen blood worms from time to time and never had any problems.
I am not too sure blood worms were the cause of death.

 

[bang guy]

I've never used bloodworms, but you are not the first person I've heard blame them for fish death. I can certainly believe it. If a SW fish ate a lot of undigestible food it could cause an agonizing death.

 

[twoods71]

I did a little research on this subject and if feeding frozen blood worms one needs to be careful not to let them thaw and then freeze again. Of course this may be difficult of knowing the fact if they were thawed on the way to the LFS.
It seems as though blood worms enjoy a pretty nasty enviroment (when alive) and can carry bacteria and other nasties. If allowed to thaw over a period of time this bacteria can fester into toxic levels.
Some other things I found is too only feed the bloodworms that are red and plump looking not black and skinny.
And it also seems that many people have a bad allergic reaction when handling bloodworms.
Interesting stuff. Just do a search for bloodworms and you can find the above info and much more on the subject.

 

[shadow678]

I have fed live bloodworms several times, and found that not many of my fish were even interested in them. I don't feel they add anything to the diet that can't be accomplished with another food much easier.

 

[bluemarlin]

I probably should have gone a little more indepth with my post but I didn't want to bore everyone with a novel. I did allow the bloodworms to thaw and then I fed the fish. They didn't eat everything so I put the leftovers back into the freezer. It is very rare that I defrost too much food but on those occasions I have put the cup with the leftover food backinto a small freezer I have near the tank. I have never had a problem doing this with shrimp but I made a mistake doing it with the bloodworms. I really believe it was the bloodworms that killed my fish. To think that they suffered an agonizing death is sad. Of course I didn't mean them any harm and I was saddened when they died. I killed several fish that I had for over a year or more. Bummer.
I have thrown out all the remaining bloodworms that I had in the freezer and I will not be using them again.
Thanks for responces and excpecially for doing the research.

 

[bang guy]

Maybe you killed you fish, maybe not. But your feedback really helps everyone and maybe you just saved hundreds of fish from the same fate. Thank you posting and being open. The freeze - thaw - freeze problem is new to me. This isn't scientific, but IMO it's strong anecdotal evidence.