Live Bloodworm Question

[elizabeth]

I went to the pet store the other day to buy pinhead crickets, and the pet store person told me that she fed their juveniles live bloodworms. Now, I wanted to buy them, but the lady also said that you had to refrigerate them...and my mom wont let me have them anymore, because she does not want worms in her fridge alongside food. (She's a bit bugphobic.) So I was wondering, do you HAVE to keep live bloodworms refrigerated? Because if there's some other way I can keep bloodworms without putting them next to food in a fridge, then I'll be able to keep them.
(Just for reference, I dont feed my newts crickets all the time, their main diet is chopped earthworm, but the worms are so big and the newts are so small, the the tiny pieces I have to cut them into just so the newts can choke them down is tiny and dont really wriggle...thankfully most of my morphs are trained to handfeed...but since bloodworms are smaller, I thought they'd might be more ideal.)

 

[ll]

I feed my newts live blackworms. Those also should be refrigerated. My mom says that I can't put them in the refrigerator next to all the food either but I have a water bubbler in my room with a built in fridge that no one uses and we always leave it on, so I keep them in there. If you can't keep the worms in the fridge then try blackworms. you don't HAVE to keep those in the fridge but if you don't they'll "age" faster. I'm not so sure about blood worms but blackworms should be okay for a while without refrigeration. I've only had my newts for like 2-3 weeks though. But I did do ALOT of reasearch on them and the food they eat.

Black worms are also easier to find.

 

[elizabeth]

Oh thats right, they become flies, dont they? -sigh- Well, I guess bloodworms are out of the question. But they still have earthworms...which is fine too.

 

[joan]

For reference, the pet shop is selling you live blackworms, not live bloodworms. Live blackworms are relatives of earthworms and do not become flies, mosquitos, gnats, whatnot. Most pet shops don't know their rear from their elbow, and will tell you lots of things which aren't especially true. Blackworms must be kept quite cool, which usually means keeping them in the fridge.

 

[ali]

I would say earthworms are fine, I also have frozen bloodworms but I like the earthworms better.

 

[jeff]

Paris tells me she keeps her blackworms in a ten gallon with an airstone at room temp and they dao just fine. I think the main sue that kills mine is smothering or not changeing the water at least once a day.

 

[elizabeth]

So then are bloodworms aquatic? And if they dont need to be refrigerated, then how long do they last before they become flies?

 

[ian]

Bloodworms are aquatic. And I think maybe a few days.

By the way, do we have Bloodworm in North America? I dont think so...

 

[joan]

There are frozen bloodworms in the US, but it's pretty rare to find live bloodworms. If anyone's selling 'bloodworms', you can be almost assured that they're blackworms.