Anyone know anything about feeding one goldfish frozen bloodworms?

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

DD has just come home with a frozen 12 pack of the little morsels and threw a whole section in the tank. It promptly disintegrated, so the tank's now full of the things . She's scooped out as many as possible with a tea strainer (DH's - oops!) but a. how much of a cube should you feed one fish a week, and b. what on earth do I do about the rest still in there? Leave it to the fish/filter to deal with them?

All this for one 99p fish!

[EauRudolph]

You should defrost the block before you put it in the tank, just stick it in a pot with a bit of tank water. Goldfish shouldn't have more than one block a week really (depending on the size of the block and the fish!), bloodworms are high in protein and goldfish tend to eat more plant matter. Give them what they will eat in 2 mins and then scoop any left overs out, bloodworms are terrible for fouling up the tank.

There are lots of fresh veg your goldfish will love as well! You cound try giving them a piece of cucumber weighed down with a teaspoon.

Goldfish might be cheap but with a lifespan of 20 years you get your money's worth

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

Thanks Rudolph

Although a lot of them are now being dealt with by the filter, there are a fair few that have sunk to the bottom of the tank and are lying in amongst the gravel. Should I just leave them or try (somehow ) to scoop them out?

Also how do you weigh down the veg? Tie it to the teaspoon?

BTW - what are bloodworms?

[EauRudolph]

You should try and scoop them out, a gravel vac will do the trick. You could buy one or make your own by cutting the bottom off a plastic drink bottle and sticking the syphon tube through the neck. Then you kind of grind the bottle into the gravel and all the crap comes up, it stops nasty things building up in the gravel.

Make sure you give the filter sponges a good rinse in water from the tank (never tap water!) as well, the bloodworm will break down and cause the ammonia level to rise which would be bad news for your fish.

Just stick the teaspoon into the cucumber. Anything tough like carrots should be blanched first and any skin from peas, sweetcorn etc should be removed.

I think bloodworms are mosquito larva. File under 'things you don't really want hanging around'

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

Bought a gravel vac from the pet shop, and will have a go at that. Why can't we use tap water? We live in Scotland, and have soft water - is that OK?

It's currently eating cucumber quite happily!

Thanks for your advice here

[EauRudolph]

Because tap water has chlorine in which will kill all the good bacteria. Tap water is OK but you have to dechlorinate it first with Tapsafe or Aquasafe or one of those kind of products. Leaving it to stand over night doesn't work any more because most water companies now use chloramine which is harder to get rid of than just plain old chlorine.

Have a read of this, it explains the basics and this is just basic stuff about goldfish.

Hard water is better for goldfish but they are pretty adaptable and as long as it's not too acidic then they should be OK. Keep on top of water changes though because soft water can change pH quite quickly. I will end there before I bore you to death about buffering and reserve alkalinity

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

We use the tapsafe stuff for water changes, so will make sure I use the same for filter changes.

Thanks again

[EauRudolph]

What do you mean by filter changes? You shouldn't need to change anything in the filter unless there is activated carbon in there (it'll be a black spongey thing), in which case just chuck it out because it's pointless in most tanks. Normal sponges should not be replaced until they lose their elasticity (takes around a year) and then they should be replaced gradually so you don't lose too many of the good bacteria.

To clean the filter sponges, just give them a good squeeze out in a bucket of water you have taken from the tank. They just need to be clear of poo and any other debris, a bit of dirt is good though

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

Oops, that's what I meant - sponge rinses.

[ilovemyfestivehens]

My two love bloodworms. I just defrost the container in a little cold water then add to the tank on a dessert spoon. They only last about a minute as they wolf them down