bloodworms in the pond filter??

[marlin08]

As I was doing the water change today on my 150g outdoor tank, I opened up the filter to pull out the floss and was shocked to discover hundreds of tiny, live bloodworms in the floss.
??????
My first thought was to the frozen bloodworms I'd fed once a week or so and trying to figure out how they'd survived the freezing process and reproduced....made no sense at all
Thank goodness for Google, I was able to find quite a bit on this and discovered that it was normal and some indication that the water in the tank was good..
This is my first outdoor stock tank so I'm really new to all this that may be normal to you guys that have years of experience with this.

Anybody else have experience with this?
Anything I should do differently or any reason for concern?
Any reason the fish can't enjoy the bloodworms when I take the floss out?

I do know the fish had a field day when I figured out what was going on and let them enjoy the bloodworms....

[bekko]

The little midge flies lay eggs just about anywhere there is water. Some people even find them indoors. They seem more tolerant of some water turbulence than mosquitoes. And, while mosquitoes seem attracted to foul water, midge flies seem to avoid it. Of course, their larval stage is the bloodworm. The eggs and larvae are probably in the main portion of your tank too, but the fish eat them before they are large enough to notice. They build a comma-shaped house of algae and debris around themselves which makes them less obvious to predators.

Feeding them to your fish is all good. You can take it to the next level and actively grow bloodworms for your fish. There is an article about growing bloodworms in the "articles and information" page on my web site.

-steve

[bigbettadan]

You have struck fish breeders gold!!!

Dan

[marlin08]

A free and abundant food source, that's great news ! :yess:

Yes, the midge flies are everywhere down here and are especially attracted to light sources at night...there is a porch light near the tank that is not turned off until late, I wonder if that has something to do with it...

(They are so bad in our area that we have a horse that has developed allergy to their bites and that is a real challenge to manage. Glad they are good for something....)

The fish are obviously benefitting, they are very fat with good color...

[bigbettadan]

The fish look great!

Dan

[devins23]

Beautiful fish and pond! Ur very lucky to have natural food source for ur fish.

[marlin08]

Thank you, I can't take much credit for the ranchu, though, they already looked great when Dan sent them.

Dan, that little red & white female is looking like she's about to pop, LOL!

[bigbettadan]

I bet she spawns soon.........

Dan

[zookey]

Thank you, I can't take much credit for the ranchu, though, they already looked great when Dan sent them.

Dan, that little red & white female is looking like she's about to pop, LOL!

well you are the one that wanted to "fatten her up" ...... your wish came true!! :yess:

[marlin08]

She is definitely looking more "rotund" here lately due to eggs, pudge or both...!