Honeythorn
Sugar coating and nicely nicely? I don't think so
Not so long back I noticed one or two topics both here and in the betta forums made by people unsure as to wether to feed earthworms to fish.
Some say that it is unsafe to feed worms from the garden, but I just thought I'd share a little knowledge as to how you can make it safer.
Firstly, if you don't have a garden , you can buy or make a wormery if you want to feed worms to fish.
If you DO have a garden and do not yet have a compost bin, get one. You can get small plastic ones, doesn't have to be massive. Into your compost bin, throw any old dirt, veg peelings of all sorts, plant cuttings and grass clippings, used teabags and even eggshells. Since YOU are the one putting stuff in there to rot down, YOU know what the worms are eating and where they've been, unlike the ones you would dig out of the ground.
Here's our bin :
NOTE: If you use pesticides , lawn feed, fungicides or other chemicals and treatments on your garden plants and lawn, DON'T put them into your compost bin. It will contaminate the worms and thus harm your fish.
We bought red brandlin worms from the fishing tackle shop specifically for the purpose when we set up our bin a few years ago.
Chuck your worms in the bin, put the lid on and leave them to burrow down. Over the course of the year, keep on adding the things mentioned above, old plants, spud peelings, any old fruit and veg ect. If you have a rabbit or guinea pig then you can throw in some of their old shavings or used hay too. If you have a shredder then the shredded paper can also go in.
Every now and then pour in 2 or 3 jugs of water to add moisture to the bin, and turn the contents regularly, worms and all. Get some air into the lower layers and help decomposition.
After a year or so, maybe a bit less ( I know it's a long time but it's worth it ) on warm days or rainy days, if you lift the lid of your bin you should see that the sides and lid are CRAWLING with worms. They love warm wet weather, so that's the best time to collect them. Cold winter days aren't so great as the worms will burrow and hide in the lower centre area of the bin where it's warmest.
Today was pretty mild and after all the wet weather, this is what I scraped off the sides in about a minute:
Obviously those are average size worms, which I wouldn't normally use as I usually go for the tiny babies, but in order to keep the poulation healthy I will take bigger worms like these and simply chop them up into small pieces. The fish love them just the same.
All you need to do is pick out the ones you want depending on what size fish you have. Since most of my own fish are in the small-medium size range ( gourami, dwarf gourami, Kribensis, weatherloaches, a Betta, Danios ect - not all in the same tank I stress ) I feed WHOLE baby worms this size or smaller . So not much bigger than a bloodworm basically.
If you don't have many that size, then bigger worms can be chopped up into little manageable pieces. It isn't nice to do but it's much easier to feed them , and kinder than having your fish swimming round trying to swallow something too large.
If your fish will feed from the hand, then simply put the worm on the end of your finger and put your finger in for the fish to suck it off. Some of my fish wait at the surface on "worm day"
as demonstrated by my glamourous assistant Vortigan ( he is a worm beast )
NOTE: You MUST clean the worms of as much internal and external dirt as possible before feeding. I wash them and leave them in a little clean tub overnight to excrete their dirt. If you have larger fish like oscars, then the bigger worms can be squeezed to extract the dirt from them.
ALSO: Do not feed worms to your fish more than once, possibly even twice a week at a push ( I feed them once a week, 1-2 worms per fish ) . They are quite a rich meaty food and if you feed too many or too often, you could cause bloating in your fish, and also they will create more waste. ALWAYS remove any worms that haven't been eaten in order to prevent them from rotting on the bottom and affecting your water quality.
Hopefully some people may find this of some use if they want to try worms. After all they're free once you have a good colony in your bin or wormery, so you won't have to spend so much on live or frozen foods if you don't want to.
Some say that it is unsafe to feed worms from the garden, but I just thought I'd share a little knowledge as to how you can make it safer.
Firstly, if you don't have a garden , you can buy or make a wormery if you want to feed worms to fish.
If you DO have a garden and do not yet have a compost bin, get one. You can get small plastic ones, doesn't have to be massive. Into your compost bin, throw any old dirt, veg peelings of all sorts, plant cuttings and grass clippings, used teabags and even eggshells. Since YOU are the one putting stuff in there to rot down, YOU know what the worms are eating and where they've been, unlike the ones you would dig out of the ground.
Here's our bin :
NOTE: If you use pesticides , lawn feed, fungicides or other chemicals and treatments on your garden plants and lawn, DON'T put them into your compost bin. It will contaminate the worms and thus harm your fish.
We bought red brandlin worms from the fishing tackle shop specifically for the purpose when we set up our bin a few years ago.
Chuck your worms in the bin, put the lid on and leave them to burrow down. Over the course of the year, keep on adding the things mentioned above, old plants, spud peelings, any old fruit and veg ect. If you have a rabbit or guinea pig then you can throw in some of their old shavings or used hay too. If you have a shredder then the shredded paper can also go in.
Every now and then pour in 2 or 3 jugs of water to add moisture to the bin, and turn the contents regularly, worms and all. Get some air into the lower layers and help decomposition.
After a year or so, maybe a bit less ( I know it's a long time but it's worth it ) on warm days or rainy days, if you lift the lid of your bin you should see that the sides and lid are CRAWLING with worms. They love warm wet weather, so that's the best time to collect them. Cold winter days aren't so great as the worms will burrow and hide in the lower centre area of the bin where it's warmest.
Today was pretty mild and after all the wet weather, this is what I scraped off the sides in about a minute:
Obviously those are average size worms, which I wouldn't normally use as I usually go for the tiny babies, but in order to keep the poulation healthy I will take bigger worms like these and simply chop them up into small pieces. The fish love them just the same.
All you need to do is pick out the ones you want depending on what size fish you have. Since most of my own fish are in the small-medium size range ( gourami, dwarf gourami, Kribensis, weatherloaches, a Betta, Danios ect - not all in the same tank I stress ) I feed WHOLE baby worms this size or smaller . So not much bigger than a bloodworm basically.
If you don't have many that size, then bigger worms can be chopped up into little manageable pieces. It isn't nice to do but it's much easier to feed them , and kinder than having your fish swimming round trying to swallow something too large.
If your fish will feed from the hand, then simply put the worm on the end of your finger and put your finger in for the fish to suck it off. Some of my fish wait at the surface on "worm day"
as demonstrated by my glamourous assistant Vortigan ( he is a worm beast )
NOTE: You MUST clean the worms of as much internal and external dirt as possible before feeding. I wash them and leave them in a little clean tub overnight to excrete their dirt. If you have larger fish like oscars, then the bigger worms can be squeezed to extract the dirt from them.
ALSO: Do not feed worms to your fish more than once, possibly even twice a week at a push ( I feed them once a week, 1-2 worms per fish ) . They are quite a rich meaty food and if you feed too many or too often, you could cause bloating in your fish, and also they will create more waste. ALWAYS remove any worms that haven't been eaten in order to prevent them from rotting on the bottom and affecting your water quality.
Hopefully some people may find this of some use if they want to try worms. After all they're free once you have a good colony in your bin or wormery, so you won't have to spend so much on live or frozen foods if you don't want to.
) where it came from.
