Live BlackWorms: Best Fish and LPS Food Ever?
- Thread starter Ycore
- Start date
Ycore
New member
It would definitely be interesting if a company did a nutritional analysis of these worms and made them more commercially available. Blackworms in a bottle from Reef Nutrition sounds like pure WIN to me.
I am quite happy that my simple initial post spawned such an educational debate on the value of these worms as it pertains to saltwater reef nutrition, as well as turning quite a few curious readers onto trying worms out.
Whether these worms end up being the holy grail of fish nutrition allowing my piscine friends to outlive me, or become the fish version an obese diabetic will have to be seen, however for now my fish are the happiest they have ever been and in the last 3 weeks of feeding are starting to exhibit coloring and a sheen I have never seen before.
For now me, my fish, and my LPS are sold on blackworms
I am quite happy that my simple initial post spawned such an educational debate on the value of these worms as it pertains to saltwater reef nutrition, as well as turning quite a few curious readers onto trying worms out.
Whether these worms end up being the holy grail of fish nutrition allowing my piscine friends to outlive me, or become the fish version an obese diabetic will have to be seen, however for now my fish are the happiest they have ever been and in the last 3 weeks of feeding are starting to exhibit coloring and a sheen I have never seen before.
For now me, my fish, and my LPS are sold on blackworms
The cone is only necessary for FW tanks. They die almost instantly in salt water.
Ycore
New member
I suck a bunch up in a turkey baster and just squirt them in the tank. They're slurped up like quality linguini before they even have a chance to drift.
Robka
New member
I never throw any food in my tank, everything is fed by one of these.
Did u make those or purchase them somewhere?
Robka
New member
I see your point. However, the aspect of worms as a long term diet for marine fish does not really make sense if you are in any way trying to mimick the foods these fish normally feed on in nature. Additionally, as pointed out, I am not aware of any studies finding a causal association between black worms, or any worms for that matter, on the temporal health of a fish. But if a study were to be done, it is most likely going to show that those fish fed a diet more consistent with their natural diet in the wild fare better long term as compared to those fed a black worm diet. This would assume all other factors remain consistent for both fish.
My fish love blackworms, it is like drugs to them. That however does not mean we should feed them to our fish. Most humans live french fries. But they are not goof for us
On your first point sure it would b great to give our fish the exact food they eat in the ocean, but this is usually next to impossible.
I could adopt a Chinese baby feed them a fresh organic diet here in the states and this baby could b better off then their "traditional" diet. I don't c y fish are any different.
lastly, comparing fresh live worms of ANY kind to trans-fat fried pieces of potato is pretty ridiculous:wildone:
ezhoops
New member
I never throw any food in my tank, everything is fed by one of these.
I like these. Looks like maybe you made them using rigid tubing and a bulb. Question is where do you get the bulbs.
interesting
Paul B
Premium Member
I get the rubber bulbs on line and bend an acrylic tube and stick it in. Been using these for decades. I think you can buy the bulbs individually but I get them by the case.
The shipping for each one would be more then the thing costs.
You can get them from places that sell lab supplies.
Look up rubber bulbs
The shipping for each one would be more then the thing costs.
You can get them from places that sell lab supplies.
Look up rubber bulbs
melanotaenia
New member
Not really; both are examples of foods that should not be consumed, but are consumed anyways because those consuming them love them, regardless of their nutritional value. Blackworms are consumed by our fish, and the fat content is insane. That is most likely a large reason they love them so much.
I think the problem is your comparing a human who eats a fatty food to a wild animal who eats a fatty food. Wild animals need more fat in their diet then we do. Just like if you didnt live in a society of convenience and had to work your butt off just to survive (like fish on a reef), you would do just fine eating fatty and sugary foods. Thats why we love those foods. Back in the day (way back) we evolved a taste for high energy foods.
Bottom line, I don't think our fish need to be subjected to same low-fat diet as we do. Also, I think the benefits of adding LIVE foods (like blackworms) to the fishes diet far outweigh the costs (if there really are any).
Robka
New member
Sorry, but your not getting it? No matter what kind of oils are in worms they are "real" oils, NOT potatoes that were also drenched with petroleum based pesticides and chemical fertilizers and then fried in human engineered cancer causing trans-fat oil
So once again the comparison is ridiculous:wildone:
Stuart60611
New member
Well, I just had my first experience with blackworms. Rather than get into a long story, I shortened stupidly my quarantine period for a fish and would up infecting all my fish with crypt. They just got out of 3 weeks of cupramine treatment. My Indian trigger stoped eating for about 2 weeks. After ending the cuprmaine treatment, my Indian trigger continued to refuse to feed. I got some blackworms, and all my fish, including the trigger, devoured them, except for my dogface puffer. The problem, however, is that my fish like them so much that some of them will eat nothing else. My Indian trigger continues to ignore other dead food offered and will only eat the blackworms. I still have a few days more of blackworms, but I obviously need to get the trigger to accept some other foods. At this point, I am just happy to fatten the trigger up a bit.
Its very easy to culture them. I culture them in a small 10g tank with brown paper towel as substrate. I also feed them couple pellets each day. When its time to feed, I suck up the worms using a syringe fitted with rigid airline tube and feed them to the fish. My CBB goes crazy for the worms, so does all the other fish.
