Australian freeze dried black worms

[rburrowes]

Hey Guys,
Just a quick question about Australian Freeze Dried Black Worms, I've recently purchase a container of it and I finally got around to feeding it to my Discus last night. Any way this morning I noticed that the water was cloudy, not thinking much of it went to work.

Got home this evening and noticed heaps and heaps of white riggly worms. First thought was I've over fed and there planneria, but I didn't have them previously and on closer inspection they look nothing alike.

So the question is.... Even though the black worms are freeze dried are they still alive once they absorb the tank water? And do I have anything to worry about?

Cheers
Rob

[BigDaddyAdo]

Of course not. They can not be reanimated by adding water.

[ILLUSN]

you have lots to worry about.

cloudy water is from either over feeding or a bacterial bloom either way it can crash the levels of disolved oxygen in your tank.

the small worms are most likly planeria even if they look diffrent.

The other thing they could be in small thin nematodes that live in your substrate and chew up organic matter, if they are climbing the glass it could be a VERY STRONG indication that there is insufficient oxygen in the substrate (again due to the cloudy water) this will most likely result in a wipe out of your tank (anerobic substrate causes the production of hydrogen sulfide which is toxic and crashes ph).

do a big water change and propper gravel vac. when feeding freeze dried black worms feed only as much as your fish will eat in ~30 seconds.

[rburrowes]

Thanks guys, thought as much, it was late and the brain wasnt fuctioning at 100%.

I've got a bare bottom tank and I clean it every 2 days with 30% water changes (Very Perdantic). The only thing different that I have added to my tank was the Freeze Dried Black Worms. Prior to my water change last night, my Discus were really colourful and very interactive.

I didnt really monitor how long they took to eat the worms (Not sure that they completely did hence the questions), I just spread a block through out the tank. Is there a best practice in feeding them to your fish? ie Soak in water prior to feeding?

I've done a total of 90% water changes last night, a % every 2 hours or so, not such an issue was up most of the night with my little bloke. The water is slightly cloudy, with what looks like a film of dust in some of the corners of the tank but 95% of the worms are gone.

Oxygen is an issue, I have 2I dont think air fed internal cornor filters and a couple of K1 filters in there as well (cleaned monthly, but staggered). I'll continue with the water changes tonight and get the wife to monitor them during the day.

Is there anything else I should be looking at doing?

[Ghoti]

Seems Odd!

I feed my crew 2 blocks each evening. Given the tank is fully planted vaccing is not an option so I started hand feeding due to concerns about waste and kept doing it coz its fun.

I have never had cloudy water. Is there another possibility other than the blackworms?

Cheers,
Scott

[rburrowes]

Nah the only thing I could think of was my canister was due for a clean last weekend, but my uv should have killed any nasties comming out of it.

An odd thing i noticed today was my discus seemed to be eating them quiet happily, and not really interested in the normal dry food, the population of these worms had decreased from this morning.

Anyway another 50% water change, cloudiness is pretty much gone, keeping an eye on these worms, hopefully the discus will clean up the rest.