A few months ago a mosquito laid eggs in my tank. So I had larvae swimming around, but the goldfish ate most of them. Since that episode the mosquitoes hatch and breed in my tank. My main problem is the bloodworms. They dig into the gravel and cocoon down in there. It's so bad I have to change my filter twice as often because the bloodworms clog it. I am tired of breeding mosquitos. Is there anything I can put in the water that will kill them once and for all without hurting my fish?

Just kill 'em with your hands and feed them to the fish. That's what I would do.

Well, we're talking about A LOT of worms. If I dig the vacuum tube into one spot I'll suck up about 10 tiny worms. I'm talking major blood worm infestation.

Holy fuzzies, I guess squishing them with your hands is out of the question.
I never really had an infestation... I wouldn't know a lot... I guess your goldfish might be getting a lot of free food, in that case...
I'm not much of a help anymore, am I?

Hmm...I'd actually love it when i get to cultivate bloodworms on my own. Why dont you take out part of your gravel so your fish will find an easier time to dig up the worms in the gravel

I guess I could try that.

Why don't you also get a small catfish? I don't know what exact type of catfish but i had a tiny one before. Around an inch long and it would also dig deep into the gravel.

The catfish idea is worth a try. I will never feed live bloodworms again as my tanks have gravel in them and I ended up with a huge disgusting colony in my tank. They survived med treatments, bad water conditions, and salt treatments. The only way that I got rid of them is when I upgraded the tank and rinsed the gravel out with tap water and let it dry out. Those worms are such a pain as they will burrow themselves, like you said, into the gravel. The most disgusting thing is that they sort of stood up like millions of pieces of grass in the tank with just one of their ends in the gravel when I took the fish out of that tank. They seem to like really still water and only stay in the gravel because of all the water movement.

Something very scary that I read:
I had gotten a book for Christmas, "The Goldfish" published by The Howell Book House. It is a very reputable publisher so I would take the authors advice seriously. In it it says not to mix cold freshwater catfish with goldies as some are know to suck the eyes out of the fancier goldfish varieties!!!! They also state "No one knows why".
I'm sure a tiny one like the one mailboxck had is perfectly safe but I would be too scared to get anything bigger as I like my goldies too much.

I just went back to read the book more on that catfish subject and the author discourages having the catfish at all to clean the bottom of the tank. One for the obvious reason I stated in my post above; and two he states the goldfish are excellent bottom feeders too and in the end will do the job themselves.

Dang! Didn't know that. I just suggest to take out a bit of gravel and make your hungry goldfish eat all the worms in there.

It's ironic that some of us try unsuccessfully to cultivate live food for our goldies but mother nature went berzerk with cultivating e_glitters goldie's food! Maybe your goldies wanna share some of their tasty treats with our goldies?

The "coldwater catfish" they're referring to is a suckermouth catfish, we mostly know htem as a "plecostomus". Plecos are actaully catfish, and the larger variety plecos can do that to a goldie. That's why those of us that HAVE TO HAVE PLECOS, go with a smaller variety like a bristlenose, rubberlipped, or clown pleco.

Cory cats, although tropical and prefer warmer water are the "classic catfish" that you probably see in pet stores and such, the little guys. They can't and won't do anything harmful to another fish. They're extrememly peaceful, and don't even have the strength or the equipment to do any damage.

Are bloodworms some stage in the mosquitos life cycle? Forgive me, I have absolutely no knowledge of mosquitoes, except they have a larval form, and that the adult female drinks blood. There is a good product out there for ponds, called Mosquito dunks. I have used these with great success in my pond, because the big fish just can't get all the mosquito larvae, and well, with West Nile being very prevalent in my area, I don't wish to add to the problem. It does no harm at all to the fish. If the dunk is too big, you can break it up into smaller pieces, and this should take care of the problem.

Good luck!

Well The goldies actually seem to not want to eat the worms. Not only that, but I now also have bloodworms in my pleco's tank, and I'm sure he doesn't eat them. He doesn't dig around the gravel. The goldies got new gravel. If I wasn't so disgusted with those worms I'm sure I could make millions of of killing them and selling them to goldfish lovers. I got my revenge on a few in Comet's (my pleco)tank. I scooped out some gravel and dumped boiling water on it. That kills them. So I guess a scoop every now and again will keep it down along with the vacuum.

Bloodworms are some stage... I think before the larva stage. Where can I get mosquito dunks?

You can get the mosquito dunks from any hardware store. Most fish stores/gardening centers that sell pond supplies also sell the mosquito dunks. Do you have mosquitoes flying around your house? I would be freaked out by that too!! Since (at least in our area, Michigan), Ponds are out of season, it may be more difficult to find, but maybe if you call around, you can find some. They don't ever go bad, since it is a "dead" form of a bacteria. Does something to the larval form of the mosquito.

Let us know if it works,

---nmt