Worms as food

Paul B said:
There is another worm thread here http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1907090
Click to expand...

Wow, 21 pages. I read the first page, and skimmed over the rest.
I'm a believer in a varied diet, especially in an aquarium where all the different fish eat the same food. I do like the idea of these worms as a large staple, with other foods for variety (assuming they don't get hooked on the worms).



Does any one on here have blackworms or whiteworms in Oklahoma? Or am I going to have to order them?
 
Maybe I'm just having some wishful thinking on my part but, when I bought my two onyx clowns. They had a few tiny pin holes in their first bar behind/on their heads. I've seen these holes on so many (just about all) of the clown fish that I see or have seen.

Anyway, last night I noticed my fish no longer have these little holes. Their bars are nice and solid. All I've ever fed during my adventures in keeping SW aquariums is mysis and spirolina brine. Until lately, which I fed two portions of tubifex worms while I was waiting for the white worms to get to me.
Did feeding the worms give that something extra that allowed my fish to overcome these pin holes? I can't remember my other clowns being able to heal them in my first tank?
 
I have no idea if worms cured your clownfish of pinholes, but my fish never get sick. By never I don't mean a few months or years, And they get worms every day. Generally, if a fish lives for a few weeks, It will live long enough for me to give it away years later because it either got to big, mean or I just wanted something different. I donated many fish to public aquariums such as the Coney Island Aquarium.
 
Paul B said:
I put them in my basement where it is cooler than 70. If you can't keep them cool, you can't keep them
Click to expand...

Well that's too bad. My daytime house temp is 77F. The only place cooler than 70 in my house is inside the fridge ... unless the wife is in a mood, in which case you can sometimes actually see your breath in the air.
 
Paul B said:
I have no idea if worms cured your clownfish of pinholes, but my fish never get sick. By never I don't mean a few months or years, And they get worms every day. Generally, if a fish lives for a few weeks, It will live long enough for me to give it away years later because it either got to big, mean or I just wanted something different. I donated many fish to public aquariums such as the Coney Island Aquarium.
Click to expand...


Yea, I know my post came across as newbie ish. I was a bit tired after a few too many beers last night. On a school (work) night, none the less. Haha. What I was after was, maybe a comparison of nutrition or something worms have that the other foods don't. I can't seem to find anything on worms as far as nutrition. About the most I've come across is that they might be high in fat??? Haha.

Thank you for the response Paul.
 
I think I wrote the most about worms and I don't know what about them makes them so good but I don't have to quarantine, my fish live forever and all of them that can spawn are spawning. It could be the worms because I doubt it is my undergravel filter or my good looks.
 
So after reading a bunch of your posts PaulB, I'm going to give this a shot and would like your advice.

I see that most people buy them from AquaticFoods and was going to start with 1/4lb at first to give it a shot. I do have a few remedial questions though.

It looks like when the worms arrive they will be in dirt, but I'm reading that people keep them in water. Do I just rinse off all the dirt and cover them with RO/DI? Just throw them in any old Tupperware container? Then everyday, I need to pour off some water and refill with fresh RO/DI?

Is it OK to keep them in my basement that runs around 66 - 70 degrees in the summer? I don't know if my wife would like the idea of having a bunch of worms in the fridge next to the milk.

How long does a 1/4lb last? I only have 5 fish (Tang, Clown, 2 x Banggai, Firefish).
 
Spyderturbo007 you are getting your worms all mixed up. Blackworms as I have pictured above in water are always in water and never in dirt. They come in freshwater and need to be in freshwater forever until you feed them to your fish. You can keep them in your refrigerator in very shallow water and rinse them every day or you can build a worm keeper like I pictured.
White worms come in dirt and always live in dirt. You buy a culture of them, then put them in more dirt and feed them something like Cheerios and they multiply. They are smaller than blackworms but they reproduce fast.
I use both types of worms.
 
I guess I got confused because when I looked at the "Worm Keeper" for blackworms on the AquaticFoods website, it looks like it is filled with dirt.

I read in another thread where you said you buy your worms each week. I really only have a Petco and Pet Smart in my area and they don't sell blackworms, so I have to order online. I'm assuming 1/4lb is going to be a ton of worms for 5 fish. How long do they live?

Thanks Paul.
 
1/4lb of worms are a lot of worms and most of them will die before you feed them to your fish. I buy them by the ounce and I have about 25 fish and that lasts me a week.
If you have a bunch of friends that need worms that may work, or faise white worms which multiply and are very cheap to order the starter culture.
White worms eating a matzo.
 
Just wanted to mention in this thread that any LFS using Segrest Farms as a wholesaler can order live blackworms from them. Segrest sells mostly f/w; so buddy up with the LFS selling f/w fish in your area. :) Hopefully this info will be useful to those of us too lazy or the wife has a problem with growing our own worms. ;)
 
As I have said many times before, if it were not for live worms, I would not be in this hobby as I don't want to deal with quarantining, sick fish, dead fish and all that.
It is more trouble to feed live worms to fish than dry food, but it is even more trouble to have sick fish. I realize not everyone has access to live blackworms but everyone can get white worms as they send you a small supply and they multiply like crazy on 5 or 6 Cheerios a day.
People make fun at me all the time because I suggest worms, those are the people posting on the disease forums. :spin2:
This hobby is simple if you do a few simple things, people make it harder than it has to be. :wavehand:
There are so many more posts on parameters than food. I wonder why? :hmm2:
 
Hey Paul I know you went over it before but I live in SoCal where keeping the home in high 60s is pretty expensive during the heat of the summer.
I plan on getting a mini fridge for black worms and maybe checking out the white worms. I have 4 tangs (Achilles , powder blue , chevron and a yellow) 2 spotcinctus clowns, 5 anthias and a melanarus wrasse in a 80. They are all happy or so they tell me and show no diseases but I do want to have them due of old age one day.
Do you have a self sustaining colony of black worms ? Or so you continuously buy them ? I don't want to be visiting the lfs on a several day basis and buying new worms all the time may introduce disease into the tank. Thanks !
 
I keep buying them. They reproduce but not fast enough for my use. If I wanted to make a muck larger worm keeper, I think I could have enough. But I can easily get them and they are cheap.
White worms may be hard for you as a fridge is to cold and your home may be to hot. They like the low 70s
 
Here are some observations in case anyone is interested.

I've have black worms for the past week and all the fish are eating them now. Initially, a couple of them didn't know what to do with them but now all 12 fish happily eating them daily. I notice they go after them quickly but they don't gorge themselves on worms so they must be filling.

To maintain them in a temp setup, I bought $5 worth of blackworms at a LFS and put them in a 10 gal tank with a bubbler and RO water. They are in about 4 inches of water and doing fine. Since these are fresh water worms that live in muddy environments naturally, they are good. My garage where I am keeping them is 80 degrees. I will be setting up a real wormkeeper tray with plumbing this coming week.

Thanks again for the idea Paul!
 
80 degrees is a little warm and cooler is better, but I would not buy an air conditioner for the worms. Unless of course, you could get a really tiny one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Paul B
Earthworms as fish food
Replies
4
Views
124
xLennie
xLennie
M
Any tricks to getting a fish to eat frozen or dry food? My Banggai Cardinal refuses anything but live food!
Replies
5
Views
220
Mxx
M
T
Transferring Salt Tank to New Tank in Same Location
Replies
3
Views
107
griss
griss
R
Manual worm removal
Replies
6
Views
131
reefmusic
R
M
Copperband Butterfly 2.5 Days in, Not Eating.
Replies
7
Views
403
Paul B
Paul B
Back
Top