# Freeze dried blood worms - snack or daily meal ?



## vibs (Jul 16, 2011)

:-?

Hi I got a new VT betta a week ago. The shopkeeper recommended that i use the freeze dried blood worms as a daily meal.

For the last 7 days i have been feeding my betta 2 worms per day.
I read the day one betta care that it must be used as snacks only.

I am confused - Please advice what i should do.

Appreciate your time !a


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## newarkhiphop (Apr 22, 2011)

Snack only, like 2-3 times a week.


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## TheCrysCat (Mar 14, 2011)

I'm scared this is going to turn into another huge debate xP basically, yeah, a snack. Some feed daily, but I wouldn't recommend it. Better safe than sorry, especially for a new fish owner.


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## Impolite (May 12, 2011)

I'd say almost never! because, once you get in a habit of watching them jump and go nuts for them, you'll get addicted! TRUST me.
my lps did it, and thought they were healthy because they were eating them, but they are all really sick now.
But, honestly, I do sometimes give them some. Best to stick to stuff actually recommended to bettas. 
Blood worms can actually cause weight loss.

The only reason I speak so strongly of this is because my lps did it, and thats ALL they fed them, and it made me angry . 
but as a snack its fine.


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## TheCrysCat (Mar 14, 2011)

Frozen ones are better. I feed them to mine occasionally, and they still scarf down their pellets. I could see that if that's all you ever fed them, though.


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## Impolite (May 12, 2011)

TheCrysCat said:


> Frozen ones are better. I feed them to mine occasionally, and they still scarf down their pellets. I could see that if that's all you ever fed them, though.


frozen is way better than freeze dried. mine was dependant on freeze dried for like two weeks, then finally ate the pellets! I was like "YES! FINALLY"
sigh.
it was so stressful.


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## fishcurl (Jul 14, 2011)

Hold the phone...I thought bloodworms were recommended for betta fish?

Confuzzled :question:


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## TheCrysCat (Mar 14, 2011)

FD are good on occasion, but frozen is better. It doesn't expand in their stomach the way freeze-dried does.


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## vibs (Jul 16, 2011)

Thank you all !! Will get my pellet bag today. 
Will feed the freeze dried worms twice a week only.


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## nel3 (May 29, 2011)

i have FD blood worms with the flake food, i dont think i'll feed them often, they really do swell alot. luckily he got rid of the waste quick enough.


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## fightergirl2710 (Jun 9, 2011)

I feed them freeze dried almost everyday, mainly because I don't get quality pellets and they will not touch pellets even if I don't feed them for 5 days -__-.. I don't get frozen either, so I can only feed them live and freeze dired worms.. Personally, I have had no issues with freeze dried and they're all healthy and doing well. No SBD ever in the last 3 years..


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## nel3 (May 29, 2011)

fightergirl2710 said:


> I feed them freeze dried almost everyday, mainly because I don't get quality pellets and they will not touch pellets even if I don't feed them for 5 days -__-.. I don't get frozen either, so I can only feed them live and freeze dired worms.. Personally, I have had no issues with freeze dried and they're all healthy and doing well. No SBD ever in the last 3 years..


i beleive you, my nighbor has a 2yr old betta that only gets freeze dried bloodworm. i dont bother with FD bloodworms because they do have frozen ones in stores.


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## fightergirl2710 (Jun 9, 2011)

Yeah, if I had the option for frozen I'd go for it but it's unavailable to me . I give them live worms at times but they're a hassle to clean everyday..


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I don't get the frozen ones because they're too gross looking. lol I use freeze dried and I've never had a problem with them.


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## fightergirl2710 (Jun 9, 2011)

Hehehe are the frozen ones gooey like jello? I've never seen frozen ones XD


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

they are weird, like uh... well, sorta like crap don't know how to describe it. Never touched it, but it looks like a piece of wet string, and is a PITA to pick up with a spoon. The blood sorta washes out if you take too long, and then they look really gross where they're sorta see through, but you can tell it's a bug


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

when frozen they're just a big block of frozen stuff. No different looking than if you froze anything that was a liquid. Seriously, like a block of bloody ice.


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## fightergirl2710 (Jun 9, 2011)

:shock: I think I'll stick to freeze dried *gulp*


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

they aren't bad... especially if I can find some of those mini pipettes or a syringe, will make feeding time so much easier


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## fightergirl2710 (Jun 9, 2011)

As long as I don't have to touch them lol! I use a spoon to feed live ones..


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

fightergirl2710 said:


> :shock: I think I'll stick to freeze dried *gulp*


Me, too!


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## fishman12 (Sep 1, 2010)

Yeah... I was thinking about getting frozen. Hmmmmm


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## BETTA DET (Jul 29, 2011)

I can't get my betta to eat those betta bites. Last night he just looked at it and then looked at me with the "yeah right" look. I may have to try the Aqueon brand. He loves the FD bloodworms though. The frozen sound nasty.


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## andarst (Jul 16, 2011)

I bought my fish pellets and he litterally wouldnt eat for two weeks... he'd stare at them and spit them out... I finally bought frozen brine shrimp, and its his absolute favorite. The freeze dried bloodworms were the first thing he ate to he gets them like 3 times a week. But stick with the frozen fresh stuff :] as for my fish... pellets and flakes are simply not an option!


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

I use long tweezers to feed frozen bloodworms. It's real gross at first..but my bettas love attacking them. haha They also love the brine shrimp.


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## Kytkattin (May 15, 2011)

Littlebittyfish said:


> I use long tweezers to feed frozen bloodworms. It's real gross at first..but my bettas love attacking them. haha They also love the brine shrimp.


Yes! Though I don't really find the frozen ones gross. I have been around them for my entire life because my mom used to treat our angels with them. I think I would find live grosser. 
I do kind of find frozen brine shrimp gross because their eyeballs fall off sometimes.


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## Draug Isilme (Aug 7, 2011)

I'm curious to know if anyone's used any of the Hikari products of brine shrimp and blood worms. I saw it today and the label seemed promising with 'Multi-Vitamin Enriched' on the label (both apparently have vitamin E, C, B1, B2, B6, and B12). I recall reading that freeze dried foods lacked nutrition, I honestly don't know all that much about frozen foods except for what I've read in this forum, and I kinda like the idea of using live foods, but I'm not sure how doable that option is... I still don't imagine the vitamin enriched foods would still replace regular pellet foods.. but I'd like to know if its worth buying, if there's really a big difference between the regular freeze dried ones or none at all, and so on and so forth.. Any takers?


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

Used frozen for the last 16/17 years on all my tropical fish, they aren't so bad as long as you don't think about what they are when you touch them. :?


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## dragonflie (Aug 5, 2011)

Agreed, they don't have to be that bad. 

I get the blister packs with the cubes, so I don't have to touch them. Pop one cube in a mini tupperware, fill with tank water to thaw; and feed them to mr. betta with a baby medicine dropper. The community tank gets them with a turkey baster. They all go completely nuts over them, I'd say they are definitely their favorite treats.


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

I've been using Hikari for 16 yrs or so and I like them. For many fish I use the bloodworm cubes (larger fish in large tanks, not recommended for single or a few fish unless you cut up). Brine shrimp I like because I can just hold a bit of it in the water and let the fish pick it off lol. But then again, it is all frozen I use from Hikari. I would imagine their other stock would be good as well. I would look at the "ingrediants" in the back to compare and see what seems to have more benefits. Also, wouldn't make it a sole meal, a treat, or one meal of it every few days. But that is just my own personal opinion. 

Edit: Dragonflie! Why didn't I ever come up with that idea???? lol and here I was always spoiling my big fish and cichlids and not my bettas. Sheesh.. *bangs head on desk* Great idea, thanks!


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## Littlebittyfish (Jan 5, 2011)

Kytkattin said:


> Yes! Though I don't really find the frozen ones gross. I have been around them for my entire life because my mom used to treat our angels with them. I think I would find live grosser.
> I do kind of find frozen brine shrimp gross because their eyeballs fall off sometimes.


Haha, yea I hate it when the frozen brine shrimp do that.:| I always have frozen brine shrimp around though..It's one of my gobys favorite foods..I only found bloodworms gross at first because of the blood color..:|..I got used to it after awhile though...corydoras love the frozen bloodworms as well...My gobys are really picky with the frozen bloodworms...they wont eat them if they have been thawed and then frozen again...:lol:..so I usually cut up the cube in half before thawing...and feed the leftovers to my bettas so I don't have to refreeze it.I have noticed my corydoras are a bit more active now that I am feeding frozen bloodworms and brineshrimp..I have never seen a live bloodworm...or a live brine shrimp in the petstores around here..:-?


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## EverythingNice55 (Jul 26, 2011)

Yes, those are only used as snacks, I'm sorry to say. I learned that the hard way..... O.O


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## dragonflie (Aug 5, 2011)

Myates said:


> Edit: Dragonflie! Why didn't I ever come up with that idea???? lol and here I was always spoiling my big fish and cichlids and not my bettas. Sheesh.. *bangs head on desk* Great idea, thanks!


Hehe. With the baby medicine dropper I can feed them to him individually; and some of the others with the baster. I do end up wasting a good portion of the cube, because there are TONS of bloodworms in one cube, and I do feed them as snacks so there are always extra that I end up throwing away. They aren't all that expensive though..and because I use them as snacks they still last long enough in my eyes to justify the cost of what I end up wasting.

I tried the sheets of them once to avoid wasting any; but that was way too messy for my taste (cutting off pieces of a frozen bloodworm sheet, ewwww).


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## Warlock (Aug 12, 2011)

i don't see a reason why one should not be used.. 

freeze dried have a higher protein content the frozen. 

for my discus.. that is what we want.. but with betta.. is this not true?!

so from reading this thread.. it just comes down to personal preference...


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## Draug Isilme (Aug 7, 2011)

That makes sense. One person told me it'd be best to get three different kinds of food so that way you could have a varied diet.. Which also makes sense to me 'cause if freeze dried does have a higher protein content than frozen like you said, Warlock, it'd be good to use for protein and anything else that's needed in the diet can me mixed into the bunch ^.^

I'd really like to have my own live brine shrimp to grow and feed to my fish.. I'm just not sure how doable it is or how to go about it.. -.-


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## dragonflie (Aug 5, 2011)

Warlock said:


> i don't see a reason why one should not be used..
> 
> freeze dried have a higher protein content the frozen.
> 
> ...


Freeze dried can swell in the betta bellies once they are eaten; and bettas seem to be more prone to constipation than some other fish. That is the general consensus anyway.  Maybe mine are just spoiled but my own bettas prefer the frozen.


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