Whiteworm As A Digestive Stimulant

[LauraFrog]

I often see whiteworms sold or cultured as live food and I have seen promotions from sellers and also recommendations from hobbyists that they are very good. The most often quoted reason for this is that they stimulate the fish's digestive system somehow and make them more able to absorb the nutrients provided by dry food.

Is this true, has anybody proven it? And if so, how does it work and why are whiteworms better at this than any other live food, say blackworm or bloodworm?

 

[Colin_T]

I haven't heard anything about that but I have heard that white worms are pretty high in fat and if used regularly, can lead to fat fish. However, I think the fat fish problem is just due to too much food too often.

Black worms are an aquatic worm, bloodworms are insect larvae, & white worms are a terrestrial worm. Insect larvae aren't as nourishing as worms and terrestrial worms are meant to be more nutritional than aquatic worms because they have less water in them. Terrestrial worms will have less bacteria on them compared to black or tubifex worms (aquatic worms). The common earthworm, (either blue, red or tiger earthworms) are a good food for fish but need to be cut up for small fish, and they get all slimy and gross when you do that

 

[LauraFrog]

The other problem with earthworms is that one sort up here is apparently toxic, and unless you can confidently identify them (I can't) you should avoid feeding them to frogs. I assume this goes for fish as well so I steer clear of them. I do use maggots when I can get them, and mosquito larvae.

One of the websites I was reading about whiteworms on suggested that their reputation for being fatty comes from people feeding them on bread and milk, and that by feeding them root vegetables this can be avoided.