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Freeze Dried Bloodworms

jimscott

Tropical Fish Enthusiast
Obviously, now is a bad time of year for the plants to catch live prey and I have all these tropical and sub-tropical sundews that are being kept in growth mode. I also have a cannister of Freezed Dried Bloodworms and was wondering just how effective this food is for them, particularly since they are devoid of fluids and normally the plants ingest those fluids from live prey, leaving behind the skeleton. Am I just wasting my time and setting them for mold?
 
I usually crush a few bits into smaller pieces, place the small bits with tweezers and mist lightly. Some people wet the bits before feeding but I've found the only thing stickier then Drosera mucilage is wet bloodworm.

Keeping the size of the pieces down and wetting leads to more complete digestion in a shorter amount of time and thus less fungus/mold growth.

This applies to dried fish food flakes too. Often the main ingridient of flakes is bloodworm!
 
Thanks for the tips. What about the nutricional value, since it's normally the vital fluids (I think) that get used and those are gone?
 
I thought very little nutrition is lost in the freeze dry process. The food is frozen which locks most of the nutrients then the ice is sublimated in a vacuum leaving much of the nutrients behind.
 
Oh... I didn't know that. I thought I was feeding them what they would normally leave behind.
 
The freeze dried bloodworms are good for Drosera and Pinguicula. Try a light spray of water after you feed, it seems to help the digestion.
 
Just so long as you don't feed them to neps! At least, I keep seeing that FDBW's will kill nep pitchers... I would assume that overfeeding is an issue with them from what I've seen as some people swear by them, other loathe their existence.
 
The freeze dried bloodworms are good for Drosera and Pinguicula. Try a light spray of water after you feed, it seems to help the digestion.


I will heretofore do so!
 
Hi Jimscott. I've used freeze dried bloodworms on my Drosera and Nepenthes. As with both, I saw now positive or negative results, or at least no noticeable positive or negative results. I simply dropped a few in a nepenthes pitcher, or stuck a whole one to a drosera leaf. I did not notice any mold growth or decline in the plants. I used the rest of the bloodworms as fish food.
 
  • #10
Drying the worms just removes the water, the nutrients are still there. That's a good idea from Tamlin- the plants would have to rehydrate the stuff before it could begin digesting it otherwise.
 
  • #11
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  • #12
I know this is an old thread, but didn't think it was necessary to start a new thread so just wanted to ask a few quick questions about feeding VFT's

1) So is it better to re-hydrate the FD Bloodworms before feeding it to a VFT? also, if rehydrating is in order, should i use distilled water for this process too and how soaked should it be? i.e. just very slightly misted, or soaked in distilled water for like 5min...

2) How much and how often should you feed FD Bloodworms to your VFT? coz i've heard feeding them once a month is sufficient, but never worked out how much you should feed, or how many traps you should feed...

3) My friend gave me some i'm guessing Freeze Dried Meal Worms, would they be okay to feed to my venus fly trap or would they cause problems due to having a "waxy" coating

4) Is there any other types of fish food thats known to be safe for feeding VFT's since i'm an avid fish keeper i tend to have a few types of food laying around...
 
  • #13
VFT's need something living and struggling to get away. They should be kept outside where the food comes to them.
 
  • #14
Why don't you use fish pellet? seems it more easy to find, and just crush it whenever you want to use it, my drosera react well a few day after i feed it =D
 
  • #15
Make sure you aren't allergic... Several years ago I was crushing them for pings and, apparently, I inhaled some dust that floated up into the air. I went into anaphylaxis. Worst day ever. Since then I keep an epi-pen in case some other completely random thing thing makes my throat close and my face swell up.
 
  • #16
From another forum:

(droseraman @ 20th March 2010 - 21:57 PM) *
I tried using a beta bite pellet in 3 different traps. I "set off" the trigger hairs, and it closed, but oddly, they soon opened up again, and nothing had been digested! I tried closing the traps 2 more times, but they never did anything.

No rot for me, though.


As Mobile says, setting off the trigger hairs is not enough. These hairs have a 'safety switch' built in so that if they're activated by a rain drop or an insect thats small enough to get through the teeth (too small to be worth digesting), they will open up again without sealing and so conserve energy.

For them to close completely, after the initial actvation which makes the traps 'snap shut', the trigger hairs need to be stimulated more to make the trap seal and produce the digestive fluids.

Youv've really got to love 'em - intellegent plants, brilliant!
 
  • #17
VFT's need something living and struggling to get away. They should be kept outside where the food comes to them.

I know, but living in Hong Kong means leaving my plant outside in the carpark of the building or near our buildings swimming pool, which either way is a bad idea with lots of nosy kids around who are sure to go poking at my plants, or worst yet, tip it over etc...

Why don't you use fish pellet? seems it more easy to find, and just crush it whenever you want to use it, my drosera react well a few day after i feed it =D

I always wondered what other types of fish food work??? personally, finding FD Bloodworms is easy as pie here, although i do have other fishfoods ranging from stuff for Shrimps/Crays, Massivore Delite, and a few other types of dried fish food...

Make sure you aren't allergic... Several years ago I was crushing them for pings and, apparently, I inhaled some dust that floated up into the air. I went into anaphylaxis. Worst day ever. Since then I keep an epi-pen in case some other completely random thing thing makes my throat close and my face swell up.

Luckily i don't think i'm allergic, especially since i've broken up a lot of different pellets in the past and never had a problem...

Now as far as the traps not eating dead food, i use that trick of gently massaging the traps once they are close to fool it into thinking there is live prey inside and it seems to work??? although i'm still waiting for my traps to re-open to see if the food has been digested or not...

But can any one answer me as to how much you should feed each time, i.e. roughly how many bloodworms per trap and how often, also if its okay to use dried meal worms in a VFT???
 
  • #18
After having been in this hobby for now 7 years I have slowly learned that there are some plants that I should not have in my collection because I don't have the resources to do a good job with them / keep them alive. If you look at my grow list, I have 2 token, young Neps, in a glorified terrarium. I don't go after them because I just don't have the space or money to have a collection of them and do well by them. On the other hand, I have a 4-tier grow rack by glass doors. I can keep a variety of subtropical CP's there. Even my VFT & Sarracenia collection I have to modify because of where I live. I have to tote them somewhere else for the winter because they would freeze to death where I live. In my opinion, if you don't have a way of keeping a VFT outside, it's best not to grow them. It would be a slow death. It's not just about food. It's also light energy and dormancy that has to be taken into consideration.
 
  • #19
i will suggest you to read the nutrition value before doing that, try choose fish food with high nitrogen value and less other mineral value. i read from somewhere else state that minerals such as magnesium and etc are not good and maybe giving a negative impact on them...
 
  • #20
After having been in this hobby for now 7 years I have slowly learned that there are some plants that I should not have in my collection because I don't have the resources to do a good job with them / keep them alive. If you look at my grow list, I have 2 token, young Neps, in a glorified terrarium. I don't go after them because I just don't have the space or money to have a collection of them and do well by them. On the other hand, I have a 4-tier grow rack by glass doors. I can keep a variety of subtropical CP's there. Even my VFT & Sarracenia collection I have to modify because of where I live. I have to tote them somewhere else for the winter because they would freeze to death where I live. In my opinion, if you don't have a way of keeping a VFT outside, it's best not to grow them. It would be a slow death. It's not just about food. It's also light energy and dormancy that has to be taken into consideration.

Thanks for your input, personally i try to keep my VFT's right next to the sunniest window seal during the morning, and in the afternoon, i tend to move it to the other side of my flat where it gets the most afternoon sun...

As for growing indoors, although i knew it may suffer a little bit (as with most plants grown indoors), i didn't know just how bad it might get effected... and being in Hong Kong, getting any info regarding odd ball stuff such as carnivorous plants is a gamble since most of the shops in this town just want to make money and very rarely give you the correct info for growing plants or even keeping pets for that matter...

I also try to supplement the amount of light my plant gets by hooking up a fish tank light with reflector boards all around it to maximize the potential for photosynthesis right after sundown...

Either way though, owning a VFT was something i always wanted to try so when the chance came along i had to jump on it... so i guess i can say if it doesn't work out i'll probably drop trying to raise these plants again and stick raising fish/inverts etc...
 
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