Itchy itchy bloodworms

[brewmaster15]

Hi all,
I bring this subject up from time to time as its not really well known in the hobby. I figured with freeze dried Blackworms being harder to come by and more expensive that many hobbyists may fall back on Bloodworms. Which is fine but there are inherent risks with feeding them. Often people mention the disease risk to your fish,but really whats of more important consideration is the health risks to you as a person and your family. Blood worms are not really worms like blackworms are.. Bloodworms are the larval form of an insect...a mosquito like insect called a midge. They contain a well documented allergen that causes a bad histamine reaction in people. It can cause localized swelling, itchy hives, swollen eyes and breathing difficulties, and anaphylactic shock. The reactions are much like a bee sting to some people.

Some scientific abstracts and articles on Bloodworm allergies

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2877067/

Bloodworms, which are larvae of chironomids (also called freshwater midges), are often used as fish food or bait. Although chironomids can be found in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, allergies to them are mainly due to their use as fish food. Individuals at particular risk of chironomid-induced allergy include fish farmers, fishermen, pet shop owners, and others who keep fish or work with fish [1], as in our patient's case.

There have been a number of previously reported cases of hypersensitivity to chironomids [2-4]. With the increasing popularity of aquariums, allergy to chironomids may become less of a novelty and become something clinicians should be aware of when searching for the cause of a patient's atopic symptoms. Indeed, intradermal allergy testing of 718 asthmatic children with a Chironomidae extract in Japan showed 27.9% of results to be positive, suggesting that atopy to chironomids is one of the most common inhalant allergies in Japan [5].

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2475042/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2241583/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9777536/


If you currently feed Freeze Dried Blood worms or frozen ones, You should be very aware of allergic symptoms in both yourself and your family members.


Interestingly when I have polled members here, roughly 30 % of members are allergic. Whats interesting is most were not always, but as their use of bloodworms increased..they became sensitive. I am a classic case on this. Many year ago I fed Frozen Bloodworms...hikari brand. I had no issues with breaking off a chunck of frozen bloodworms and tossing them in tanks or hand feeding with them. Then I had a few weird reactions I didn't the know the cause at the time.. Hives on my arms while working on tanks, and once or twice, my eyes swelled shut when I touched them. I eventually found it to be Bloodworms.I had become allergic! I stopped feeding them and no issues until one day I went to my friend Henry's house, Henry was an avid bloodworm feeder... He had just fed the fish. I walked into his fishroom and my throat closed up., my eyes started running and swelling. I needed to use an inhaler and pop a few benedryl. It was pretty scary. Thats how allergic to bloodworms I am.

So... understand that even if you are not... you can easily become allergic to them.But what is worse and more scary is one of your family members could be and the connection would be impossible to make.

Nutritionally Bloodworms are okay, whether they carry parasites is up to debate, but whats not a question at all is the health risk they potentially pose to you and your family. Be very careful if you feed them.

Are any of you Allergic?

al

[fljones3]

Been there, and will not return.
Yes, did not start off allergic but after several months hives, eye irritation.

[bluelagoon]

I don't get the allergic reaction from any kind of proteins so far in my older years but in childhood I was allergic to dust mite feces of all things, which is everywhere. I couldn't stay inside where beds were being made and floors swept or dusting. Plus my grandmother was always washing the bed clothes.

[LizStreithorst]

I have never had an allergic reaction to anything except when I was a kid, poison ivy made me miserable.

[brewmaster15]

Mervin and Liz,
Have you guys fed alot of Bloodworms?

[jwcarlson]

I don't feed a lot of blood worms and haven't had any issues that I've noticed when I do. I do always wash my hands right after, though... and only frozen.
I used to have very bad reactions to bee stings, but after getting stung 200 or 300 times a year for about a decade, they're no worse than a mosquito bite. I've heard that reactions can increase if low levels of the allergen are present in quantities that do not cause an actual reaction from the body. I wonder if that could be at play here? Supposedly it can manifest itself (in bees) for commercial level beekeepers who have their wives/kids help work with equipment that contained bees, clothing that's used during beekeeping activities (doing laundry), etc... but they're not stung regularly or ever. And then they get finally tagged from a bee and suddenly the body has almost a pent up reaction and the flood gates open. Not sure how scientific that is, but have heard it repeated more than once.

[Charlyc11]

I currently feed Hikari frozen blood worms to all my fish every day besides other food and I buy the cubes 10 packs at a time from Bulk Reef Supply. Actually the last time I bought 10 packs they messed up and send me 9 packs of FBW and a Mysis pack. So they insisted on replacing the whole order and sent me 10 more packs. Well back to the subject my wife and I haven't had any issues or reactions to the FBW. I will keep you posted if anything changes but thanks for the heads up Al and maybe if I don't handle as much due to the cube packaging not the slab I will be spared.

[brewmaster15]

One of our polls..
https://forum.simplydiscus.com/showt...worm+allergies

There was some good info in it.

[LizStreithorst]

I used to feed them as part of the Discus' regular diet, but shipping on those frozen flats is expensive so I have switched to other quality foods.

[Charlyc11]

I used to feed them as part of the Discus' regular diet, but shipping on those frozen flats is expensive so I have switched to other quality foods.

Liz the cheapest I found is Bulk Reef Supply flat rate $29.99 and they send them nicely packed on a Styrofoam box with dry ice. Their price is $3.49 3.5 oz. a pack so the more you buy the cheaper the cost. Around here the LFS are charging about $6 a pack and I have to travel 1hr to get them and Petco or petsmart $9.99 a pack. But my Discus still prefer Al's worms. I am hoping to get them to start eating Discus chow but my older ones still ignore it. Most of the blood worms will be eaten by my other fish (rams, rainbow, cories and zebras L046).

[brewmaster15]

I used to feed them as part of the Discus' regular diet, but shipping on those frozen flats is expensive so I have switched to other quality foods.

Liz, you mentioned in that poll I linked...

I've never had a problem with any fish food that I know of. Recently though, I have developed an allergic reaction to something in the fish tank water. It's no big deal. Little places itch on my right arm that spends the most time in the water every evening. It's itches so I scratch it and I get little scabby places. When I got to the point where it started to annoy me I bought an anti inflammatory cream and put that on my arm after WC. It come back from time to time but I know how to fix it so it's not a problem.

Thats how it starts for alot of us...

[mleibowi]

Never fed blood worms because of parasite concerns and the discus only accepting them... I'm currently weaning my discuss of FDBW and using Al's pelleted food and Vibrabites. I mix in some frozen mysis/brine shrimp a few times a month. I haven't heard of folks developing allergies to blood worms but in theory one can become allergic to anything foreign to the body.

[CliffsDiscus]

I was buying Hikari blood worms flat packs by the case monthly, but on one purchase the worms looked darker so I fed the Discus a little
amount the Discus turn dark. This was the last time I purchased any blood worms.

[LizStreithorst]

Liz, you mentioned in that poll I linked...

Thats how it starts for alot of us...

Al, I don't even remember that, and I don't even know if I was feeding bloodworms at that time. I may have been, though. At any rate, what ever was causing the itching is no longer in the tank water because I don't itch anymore.

[bluelagoon]

Mervin and Liz,
Have you guys fed alot of Bloodworms?

Yes, they were mostly loose and dusty. Not many frozen; I didn't like paying for water. But I don't use then as much as I used to because they cost just as much as Blackworms these days.