MrsM3197

Bloodworms? I know this is probably an ignorant question, but it's not my first, and chances are, not my last. What are they exactly and where do they come from, please? The reason I'm asking is that when I went out to work on my roses today, I saw little worms that looked ever so much like the reconstituted version of what I've been feeding my fishies, all on the underside of one rose leaf. I've been keeping roses for quite a number of years now and never seen a pest like these on them before....'course there is always a first for everything. All of my fishy water changes have been going to the greater good of my flowers and veggies. Could any of these survived the drying stage and are now reproducing on my rose leaves? (surely not!) If they are, since I don't have any chemical pesticides on my roses can I collect these and give my fishes yummy fresh food? If not...wormies gotta go. After all that fishy water I've got the best looking roses in the county, and I can't have the worms eating them up, LOL!

Chief_waterchanger

Bloodworms are the lavae of a midge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_worm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midge

The only stupid question is one not asked.


Editted to add: I would feed whatever the worms are that you've found to the fish. Extra protein snacks!

Shawnie

I agree..only stupid ? is the one we are afraid to ask!! so kudo's!!

I feed my fishies all the worms I find outside..just make sure they dont have any chemicals in the ground as far as fertilizers and other things that some of us use on roses and gardens..also, wax worms are amazing protein and you can get like 50 for 2 bucks or so..they are just really icky to hold and skwishy to touch LOL ..gosh im such a girlie sometimes ahahah

Chief_waterchanger

Don't cut worms with dull scissors... talk about a mess.

Butterfly

Don't cut worms with any scissors... they still wiggle ... all the pieces wiggle EEEEWWWWW
Carol

Shawnie

ewwwwwwwwwie ...where did that come from chief n carol? hahahahah

Butterfly

Experience

Chief_waterchanger

.. I cut up red worms for some of our smaller fish. That advice comes from stupid mistakes in the fishhouse. A knife works better than scissors, if the fish you want to feed the worms to are too small to eat the entire worm.

Heh.. I really should've put this part of the conversation with my first statement to have avoided coming across as weird and "out there".

MrsM3197

Thanks everybody. William and Michael said "slurp!". They were my only ones big enough to enjoy the worms, and to be perfectly honest I just really wasn't into cutting them up. The creep factor was way to much for me, the slicing and dicing of wormies reminds me way to much of a bad horror flick I saw as a teen. William circled the first worm a few times then slurped him right up, didn't hesitate on the next 2. Michael attacked and destroyed 3 in seconds. I don't use chemical pesticides or fertilizers on any of my plants or my lawn so I felt safe giving them to the fish after Chief posted (I didn't want to give them anything that could potentially be harmful, or a non-food source). I've been watching them closely since...just to make sure they'd be ok. I think they're begging for more, but their little bellys are plenty full now
Once again, thanks everybody!

Shawnie

thinking im gonna have some weird dreams tonite LOL

Barbrella

My bird bath is full of mosquito larvae. I've been snagging a few every day to feed to my bettas. They certainly LOVE them and get very excited by the wiggling.