Black worms

[Elephant nose 4]

Hi I'm wondering if anyone has fed their fish live black worms? I'm thinking of trying it for my elephant nose fish but wanted to see what people think about them (I'm overly cautious with what I feed them lol)
So any information would be much appreciated

 

[Colin_T]

There are Tubifex worms and Black worms. Tubifex are dirty filthy things found in sewers and should not be fed to fish. Black worms live in muddy drainage ditches and feed on anything. As long as they are black worms and not Tubifex, and as long as they are clean, they should be fine.

When you buy them they should all be dark in colour and they should not have any cream, white or grey worms in the ball. These are the dead ones. Healthy black worms will be black in colour.

Check the worms and see if they smell bad, if they do, don't get them.

Ask if you can see where they are kept and see if the water in their holding tank is clean or cloudy and smelly. You don't want them if the water is cloudy or smelly.

When you get the worms home, put them in a bucket of tap water and stir them up. Turn the tap on and let it run into the bucket with the worms for a couple of minutes. Let the worms ball up again and tip the water out. Refill it with tap water and let them sit for a few hours. Change the water every couple of hours for a day or so and then put the worms in your tank.

They don't do well in warm water or hot weather so try and keep them cool.

If you can get them growing in the tank, they will live in the substrate until they get eaten by something.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Last April I was a vendor at the NEC Annual Convention. I am a hobby breeder working with the rarer B&W Hypancistrus plecos and that event is a 70 minute drive from me and the only one at which I vend. Because I am a vendor, I do not get a lot of time to attend the presentations. However, at this last one theer was one I had to. It was the breeders round table and was hel in the evening. The people on the dais were amazing. A few I knew and have fish from (one is in the same fish club as I am). The way it worked was that audience members submitted questions in advance from which were selected those asked the panel. One of the key questions was, "What is your favorite food for conditioning fish to spawn?"

The most popular answer was live black worms. But the most surprising answer to me came from a man often called a "Living Legend" in the hobby, Rosario LaCorte. He is in his 90s was likely doing his last event. His answer was Tubifex. And then came the sort of comments Colin made. Rosario acknowledge the potential risks and then explained two things. Back when he was using tubifex there were no other options. Then he explained the process used to insure the worms were perfectly safe to feed having collected them from nasty places. It was an effort but back then that edge was the key.

Today in the hobby we have black worms, red wigglers, and live BBS, white worms even cultivated infusoria and much more. So tubifex is now found either frozen or freeze dried and is safe, but not as nutritious as live.

I never worked with black worms. They smell and need refrigeration, I think. I did hatch BBS and I did use red wigglers for a while. But I found that live was one step more than I wanted to go. I now rely on frozen and Repashy foods. But I am not a master breeder, just a decent one for the limited fish with which I work..

 

[Elephant nose 4]

Thank you both.
Definitely going to give them a try, especially now I know what to look for.