Blood Worm Allergies and food options

My adverse reaction to frozen bloodworms and/or brineshrimp is getting progressively worse....hives, red blotchy face, itchy (understatement) hands arms and face, mild asthmatic reaction.....not so cool. It could ultimatly culminate in anaphalactic shock. I'm almost used all of what I have up, but as I am actively trying to spawn a lot of fish I don't know what would be a good substitute for the bloodworms? Any thoughts? I am going to try and step up my mosquito larvae production and freezing this summer, but have heard that some also have reactions to them. This is a fun hobby, but not worth dying for! Anyu suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

Edited by Uland, 03 March 2009 - 04:56 PM.
requested by author

I have trouble with blood worms. I can't use the freeze dried at all - the dust is impossible to avoid. With frozen I can not touch it with bare skin, it actually gets into tiny cuts and I get maddening localized itching that can't be scratched. I wash diligently even if I use a paper towel to handle it. Touching my eye could lead to several hours of swollen bloodshot painful eye, not to mention the suspicious looks from my wife.
Apparently there is something about blood worms in particular [I'm not allergic to anything else]. I noticed some cans of freeze dried blood worms actually come with a warning on the label.
As to alternatives, my reactions are nowhere near as severe as yours [yet] so I just live with it. I rely on froozen blood worms, I use a lot. I just take the extra care to minimize exposure. Whenever I get careless, it's usually an eye reaction that reminds me. Only a tiny amount of contact is needed from the worms to a knife, then to my hand, then my eye.
I guess you couldn't afford to take that chance with worsening reactions.
I'd hate to have to go without blood worms. I'd give up brine shrimp easy but I don't react to them.

Edited by mikez, 03 March 2009 - 01:13 PM.

Apparently its a protein in the worms. I can wear rubber gloves and that pretty much stops it from happening, but if I stick my hand in a tank that has been fed with bloodworms recently I break out, or touching the rim of the tank that got a drop of water.... I'm thinkin about just pulverizing and rinsing redworms and/or night crawlers then freezing them. Protein protein protein.

I had my first allergic reaction like this back in college when I cleaned my cockatiels cage...went for jog...almost died because I couldn't breath. Then a few months later I had a really bad reaction to some microbrew in a keg at a party (I had a swollen red raccoon face and troubled breathing). Luckily (I'm an ass) my buddy was severely asthmatic and had one of those inhalers with a steroids in it and that cleared up the reaction quick. Stopped drinking that stuff and switched to labatts. Since then, the bloodworms have been the only thing that bothers me like this and since my fish don't seem to like Labatts.....

Good gravy! I have never heard of reactions to blackworms or bloodworms before!

I wonder if white worms or grindals would be OK for you. My pygmys adore the white worms. They can't take high temperatures, but perhaps you have a basement to keep them in - my basement in VA (at the old rental house) worked just fine, and it got hot as the dickens around here otherwise. Of course, I lost the whole culture recently. Going to try again. They are super easy keepers other than the temperature issue.

oops I did not mean to refer to BLACK worms at all. It should say BLOOD worms. I have no adverse reactions to black worms.

Can a moderator change the thread title and the first reference to black worms in first post please, I don't want to mislead anyone.

http://www.google.co...nomid allergies

Edited by scottefontay, 03 March 2009 - 03:56 PM.

Since you already mentioned them would black worms be too large if they were cut up? Daphnia also seem to be pretty popular on this forum, and there have been some pretty good threads on getting cultures going.

I have the same allergies Scott, and yeah, it just keeps getting worse. I've been leaning more toward mysis. Hikari has a variety of sizes now, I'm still in love with the Piscene Energetics mysis. Culturing mosquitos and daphnia would be a great supplement, esp for smaller guys. Have you tried prepared tubiflex or daphnia? I don't seem to react to them like I do the others. Sera also has a few smaller freeze dried products out that are nice. One I've liked is the Mixpur. http://www.seraessen...tegory.cfm?id=3 (under freeze dried)

Todd

Guys, and gal,

Would it be OK to feed blackworms to your fish? I buy "California Blackworms" in bulk from Aquatic Foods. Their website is http://aquaticfoods.com/index.html. The blackworms always arrive fresh and in good quality. The first time you order, you'll want to get a blackworm "keeper" or two. I split a pound of worms between 2 keepers that I keep in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator (no, I'm not married ). I change the worms' water daily, but it's easy to do with the keepers. You'll want to keep each keeper in a larger open-topped plastic container, like the bottom of a Gladware container. A few worms will sometimes crawl out of the keeper, but they never get out of the outer plastic container. Buying in bulk helps me because I go through about a pound a week, but if you don't have as many fish, a half-pound could last you a few weeks. I think the cost comes out about the same for blackworms in bulk or frozen bloodworms. If you do decide to buy from Aquatic Foods, please tell them that Brian from BTDarters sent you. Hope this helps!

Brian