Feeding and keeping live food

[bogusmove]

I have a "tube" shaped bag of live blood worms. I understand I should keep it cool, in the fridge for example. What i'm wondering is how long will they remain alive for, and how long after they die should I continue to feed them to my fish?

Thanks.

 

[guppymonkey]

i don't think you are supposed to feed the dead worms to the fish.

 

[bogusmove]

Oh, right Thanks!! I never fed live feed before, and I asked at the lfs where I bought the blood worms how long they would keep... and they said up to a week... but of course I forgot to ask all the other questions I should have, as you can see None of my books say anything except that you should feed them slowly so they all get eaten and cant dig into your substrate.

Will they stay alive for up to a week in that little packet in the fridge then, or was the lfs being a bit over optimistic?

 

[Sye]

I wouldnt put them in the fridge, that water will go cold and they will probably die. If you keep them to long before putting them into your aquarium you might find a couple of them turn into mosquito's.

 

[Dragonslair]

My advice to you is feed live food on the day you purchase them. Yes blood worms will stay alive for a week, but remember your lfs would have had them for a day or so before you bought them and they would have been bagged up and transported for a few more days before your lfs got them. So be wary when buying live food. Once they die they will decompose rapidly and pollute your tank. If you really want to feed fresh food such as bloodworm or daphania or there is a wide range of frozen fish food on the market. They are sold in blister packs frozen, they have been gamma treated to kill off any harmful bugs and all you do is to pop out the number of cubes you want into a small dish, add some tepid water just melt the ice and then feed them to your fish.
Your fish will relish them as much as if they were alive and wriggling. and you know the meal won't have any harmfu bugs. Something you can't guarantee in live food.