# How much Bloodworms do I feed?



## wishfull

I bought some Bloodworms today to treat by little babies ~<3

It was the Hikari type so they were dicvded into cells. Stupid me though that each cell would be enough for one fish and opened four of them. I quickly realised that between the four Betta I couldn't even finish 1 cell 0.0.

Actually after eating several worms one of my Bettas quickly became bloated D: 
(the place I bought him in didn't have the best looking Bettas so I assume they fed him less there than the other places - 4 Betta = 3 different stores)
Shall fast him so that it goes down...

Anyway the crux of the matter is exactly how many Bloodworms should I feed my betta if I feed them twice in a day?


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## JKfish

Frozen bloodworms are a great meal or treat for bettas. Personally, I think it depends on the betta and his or her size. One of my sibling's smaller betta can only take about 3 whole sized worms before he starts to show a little food baby buldge. My biggest betta can take about five before his belly starts to show. 

I like to alternate bloodworms and pellets, or sometimes feed one pellet and two or three worms, just for variety. Since feeding ammounts vary due to different sizes, just feed until you notice their bellies are showing slightly.


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## thekoimaiden

Bloodworms should only be fed as a treat once or twice a week. Pellets should be used as a staple food. I feed my guys 1-3 bloodworms in a sitting. It really depends on the size of the fish. I have one large boy who can eat 3 easy, but my youngest will usually only eat one.


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## HatsuneMiku

thekoimaiden said:


> Bloodworms should only be fed as a treat once or twice a week. Pellets should be used as a staple food. I feed my guys 1-3 bloodworms in a sitting. It really depends on the size of the fish. I have one large boy who can eat 3 easy, but my youngest will usually only eat one.


Frozen and live blood worms are fine to feed as a staple meal.

Freeze-dried blood worms are the treat .. and should only be fed once or twice a week.


@op .. i feed my bettas that are being conditioned 3-4 frozen worms each meal (1-2 if they are not being conditioned), depending on the size of the worm. since some are fat and round and some are long and skinny. use your best judgement in regards to the size of your betta. a betta's stomach is roughly the size of it's eye. just try to like roll the worm into a ball to see how big it actually is in comparison to your bettas eye. =)


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## scootshoot

Choice is yours.....

http://theaquariumwiki.com/Bloodworm

*Blood worm* (_Chironomidae [Ky-ro-nomi-day] tetans_) is the larvae of the midge fly. It is a small (3 cm [1.2"]), long, thin, bright red larvae which grows in stagnant pools.

Nutrients 

6-8% protein and iron rich. However, it doesn't have a wide range of amino acids, so do not feed as a primary food supply.
Give it as a treat once or twice per week.
Not recommended as a single source of food due to its very low protein levels.
Watch out for sales gimmicks
With some low quality frozen bloodworm the suppliers will add in their ingredient list extra vitamins so the food looks more nutritious. This can be a sales gimmick rather than any benefit to your fish. These vitamins are usually added in the water they are frozen with and these will break down in minutes when exposed to the aquarium. You can often tell if your supplier does this by examining the ingredients list. If the list has the vitamins in brackets i.e. 'Blood worms (vitamin B12, C)' then these are inside the worm. If the items are listed after the blood worm with a comma then they're in the water.


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## HatsuneMiku

i said .. "as a staple meal" .. not as the ONLY staple meal .. why do people not read what's there?

i'd rather feed what's naturally found in their environment .. instead of some man made pellet that's fortified with god knows what chemicals/vitimans that are in it .. sure i feed pellets .. but not ONLY pellets .. just like you shouldn't ONLY feed blood worms


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## wishfull

Thanks guys for all you advice! 
Btw HatsuneMiku I love your preeety white Betta D8

As I said I plan to use the Bloodworms as treats one or twice a week for my littlies.

Less messier that way and in the mornings I gotta run for work so pellets it is!

Glad I asked for advice, the first time I feed them worms was waaaay over the suggestion given! I think I feed between 5-7 worms each.. luckily only the one got bloated and is back to normal again. (the others seems really happy though XD <-- did fast them all for a day afterwards and they kept pouting at me!).

I'm not that worried about the quality of the worms as they are a Hikari brand (and the store had really super happy Bettas).

However I am a bit concerned over my HM Betta! after placing in the worms he chocked them back up..so I cut them in half he seemed to cautiously eat it then...But now he is not eating anything! He is also not as active like usual but still swimming to and fro, is it the food? I didn't think so because all the other fish are kept under the same condition and seem fine...

Any advice guys?


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## JKfish

If you're hm a new boy? Sometimes bettas can be picky little hogs, especially if they are new and not used to the food you feed. If he isn't eating, just offer food to him every day and remove it it isn't eaten. It might help to presoak your pellets in garlic juice, seeing as garlic juice can increase their appetite and entice them to eat.


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## wishfull

JKfish said:


> If you're hm a new boy? Sometimes bettas can be picky little hogs, especially if they are new and not used to the food you feed. If he isn't eating, just offer food to him every day and remove it it isn't eaten. It might help to presoak your pellets in garlic juice, seeing as garlic juice can increase their appetite and entice them to eat.


Pretty old now (couple months) and he used to love the pellets!


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## JKfish

Hmmm, that's a bit odd. Is he pale or stressed at all?


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## HatsuneMiku

thanks =)

i do believe the hikari brand frozen bloodworms are smaller sized worms vs. san francisco bay brand and live worms (though i think the san fancisco bay has come out with mini blood worms in smaller cube portions but i haven't seen any around me only found them online .. and i don't know about shipping frozen food to me .. lol i'd be too worried they would be melted) so 5 should be more then enough .. 7 might be a little too much .. 

what helps me save time when feeding is that once a week i'll take a row of cubes and i'll pre-cut each cube into 4 pieces .. then wrap the pre-cut pieces in foil a little separated from each other so they don't freeze and get stuck back together and fold it into a little rectangle so that each cube (4 pieces now) has their own foil pouch .. it saves a lot of time during the week .. especially since my bettas that are in conditioning period are being fed 3 times a day (every 8 hours) with 2 blood worm (one live .. one frozen) meals and 1 pellet meal .. my other bettas are fed twice a day (every 12 hours) one blood worm meal (frozen) and one pellet meal .. they digest very well with this feeding schedule i usually siphon poop 2 hrs after feeding (bare bottom tanks) .. never had a problem with them bloating or having a food belly on this feeding schedule ..

one of my girls always spits up her food after eating it .. but she ends up going after it again after spitting it up .. she's the smallest that i have so .. i think she just always bites off more then she can chew .. her mouth is so small but she insists on trying to eat the whole worm each time lol =D .. i imagine that's the same for your boy .. but if he is truly ignoring the worms .. try feeding him one worm at a time (i use a plastic coffee stir thing from starbucks and i'll wiggle a worm above the water before i put them in) .. or make sure they are completely defrosted .. sometimes even if they have separated from the cube .. the inside of the worm is still cold and maybe he prefers warmer food =) .. i pre-melt my cubes in warm tank water in a plastic cup for 2-3 mins before feeding to make sure it's completely melted .. i never drop a cube into the tank because i worry about how many worms are in the cube and i don't want to take the risk of overfeeding .. and i think that scooping out uneaten worms would be kinda gross lol


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## wishfull

JKfish said:


> Hmmm, that's a bit odd. Is he pale or stressed at all?


A bit listless and maybe a bit skittish (maybe I just scared him because Was adjusting the plants while he was still in it...). But he doesn't seem paler or stressed....


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## JKfish

Try dimming the lights and leaving him be until the next time you have to feed him. He might simply have been scared like you said. When you go to turn the lights back on and feed him, try and turn on surrounding ones and opening shades to that the change from dark to light doesn't shock him.

Once I scared one of my bettas pretty badly when I tripped and slammed down almost on top of his tank. He acted like that for almost a day before deciding he was hungry and actually wanted to eat.


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## wishfull

HatsuneMiku said:


> thanks =)
> 
> i do believe the hikari brand frozen bloodworms are smaller sized worms vs. san francisco bay brand and live worms (though i think the san fancisco bay has come out with mini blood worms in smaller cube portions but i haven't seen any around me only found them online .. and i don't know about shipping frozen food to me .. lol i'd be too worried they would be melted) so 5 should be more then enough .. 7 might be a little too much ..
> 
> I mever drop a cube into the tank because i worry about how many worms are in the cube and i don't want to take the risk of overfeeding .. and i think that scooping out uneaten worms would be kinda gross lol


Ahh thanks that some awesome advice! Shall make prep this weekend for next week. 
Lols am aware I put too much worms in XD
And I agree fishing out worms is Pretty gross (had to do that myself X(


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## wishfull

JKfish said:


> Try dimming the lights and leaving him be until the next time you have to feed him. He might simply have been scared like you said. When you go to turn the lights back on and feed him, try and turn on surrounding ones and opening shades to that the change from dark to light doesn't shock him.
> 
> Once I scared one of my bettas pretty badly when I tripped and slammed down almost on top of his tank. He acted like that for almost a day before deciding he was hungry and actually wanted to eat.


Lols well whatever happened to Wasabi he was all fine when I came home last night (even made me a nice little nest XD)

And where I keep the fishes (dinning room) is a naturallty a dim room during the day since I heard too much light might stress them out


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