Earthworms for fish food

I have been feeding my fish earth worms form my worm farm and they love them. I was wondering if others here are raising worms to feed to there fish. Its about as easy as it gets and cost almost nothing. If you are interested in doing this read the info on this site it seems to work great.
http://www.aquarticl...Earthworms.html

I had, at one time the nutrition Facts for earth worms. I will try to find them and post them on this site.

I have been feeding my fish earth worms form my worm farm and they love them. I was wondering if others here are raising worms to feed to there fish. Its about as easy as it gets and cost almost nothing. If you are interested in doing this read the info on this site it seems to work great.
http://www.aquarticl...Earthworms.html

I had, at one time the nutrition Facts for earth worms. I will try to find them and post them on this site.

I've been collecting my own worms as treats. My fish get pellets or bloodworms as a "staple" and earthworms once weekly. I might start up a little worm farm and see if I can get enough production to feed my fish. The only problem with live worms is if the fish don't eat them quick enough, they can get under the gravel. I'm going to try to start freezing blocks of worms.

I used to do vermiculture in bins (a la "Worm Eat My Garbage"). It made a great supplement. Unfortunately, there's a little too much biology going on in those things, and the molds tore me up. But I belong in a Bubble. Most people, with usual or unsensitive immune systems, will deal with them fine. My wife has never had any problem with them. I highly suggest doing this if you and your household don't have problems with mold.

Todd

Eisenia fetida, which is the common worm sold as bait, also called the red wriggler, breeds like mad, but is distasteful to most fish. In fact it is mildly toxic, and has caused death in several north american reptiles. Get your starter culture from your yard, rather than mail order, which will surely be Eisenia.

Sheesh. I wonder what the worms that can grow in my yard will do to my fishes? I mean, with all that tritium and stuff that's in the soil. Plus other things I've messed with over the years.

I started mine with worms form my yard. The fish are doing fine and the worms are doing just as good. I took some that I found and pot them in a bin with shredded paper and some dirt to start, now I just dump in my household plant wast and out comes worms and the best compost that you could want. Good setup in my opinion.

I am a big fan of live food cultures. They can be as much fun as the fish.

I would like to hear more about peoples experience with live food cultures.

Eisenia fetida, which is the common worm sold as bait, also called the red wriggler, breeds like mad, but is distasteful to most fish. In fact it is mildly toxic, and has caused death in several north american reptiles. Get your starter culture from your yard, rather than mail order, which will surely be Eisenia.

This is disappointing to me since I just received a pound of red wigglers about 2 weeks ago. But all may not be lost. I did a quick google search and it seems that the toxicity may be related to the diet on which the worms are raised. One reference seemed to indicate that many rabbit farmers are also red wiggler farmers and are aware that their worms are probably toxic. They recommend that their worms be used for composting or fish bait but not food for pets. Another reference noted that red wigglers had been fed to reptiles with no problems for some time and then when using a new supplier one meal resulted in death. I have 3 fish that won't eat anything thats not moving: Gilt darter, Fantail darter, and a Mottled sculpin. For what it's worth they've eaten quite a few of these worms over the past 2 weeks and absolutely love them. More research is needed but it will have to wait until tomorrow since it's waaay past my bedtime!
Mark

At the beginning of the icefishing season I discovered that my bait supplier had switched the "trout worms" [smallest available bait size] from "garden" or "angle worms" to red wigglers. I found they work OK for tipping jigs [instant hook set] but when used on tip ups [delayed hook set], trout would spit them right out. That first day I had about 15 flags go up only to find no line taken and the worm still on the hook. Not till the end of the day did I look closely enough to discover the difference.
Next time out I got night crawlers and used them on tip ups and the trout hit just as frequently but held on or even swallowed the bait increasing my success rate by about 80%.
Bluegills and perch didn't seem to mind the taste and took the red wigglers just as well as garden worms.

I suspect the stories of deaths with captive herps is at least partly urban myth. There's a captive herp grapevine that seems particularly adept at stimulating the growth of hoaxes, myths and misconceptions.
Still, no doubt they are toxic. I've had worm eating snakes like baby garters, redbellies and dekays spit them out with obvious distaste and refuse to try them again. I suppose an animal that gets past the bad taste and eats a large quantity might suffer ill effects.

Right now, after less than two weeks in captivity, cut up night crawlers are the only food my mundminnows swallow. They've tasted krill and thawed trout meat and spit them out but they like the worms.

I would like to hear more about peoples experience with live food cultures.

I want to start culturing earthworms this summer in a compost bin. the soil in my yard is so plastic that there are very few worms, even after a rain or a spinkler!! Will get plenty from my dad's house this spring.

I've been culturing blackworms for a month or two now, the reproduction rate has been a little disappointing. I have two large tupperware bins one with cardboard that someone here recommended as a grwoth medium, they do reperoduce but its a #$%(@ mess. The other is shredded maple and sycamore leaves and sticks and these seem to reproduce faster. Both are at 75d and aerated well. I want to try burlap as a growth medium for ease of collection. Thinking a large 20 gal "keg" bin with several bags of netting full of leaf matter or burlap suspended in water ~3 inches off the bottom with a nice big air stone in the center may work well. I have space and air to spare to i will try that next. That way the worms may collect themselves on the bottom so I wont have to seperte them.

I have been feeding vinegar eels to the rainbow and swordtail fry I have right now. Those are the best live culture for fry that I have encountered, easy to grow, fast to multiply and cheap to maintain. Fry are growing rapidly.

I have a worm culture going in an old fish box. It's half peat and half potting soil. I have red wigglers and grindel worms in there the population of both really exploded when the temps in my fish room dropped this fall. I feed them dry cat food old flake and some veggie scraps from the kitchen. They seem to be doing fine and my fish really enjoy them. I only frrd the very small wiggles to my darters and catfish but they eat them with no problems. I've had this culture going for 10 months or so and so far no significate losses.

I have a worm culture going in an old fish box. It's half peat and half potting soil. I have red wigglers and grindel worms in there the population of both really exploded when the temps in my fish room dropped this fall. I feed them dry cat food old flake and some veggie scraps from the kitchen. They seem to be doing fine and my fish really enjoy them. I only frrd the very small wiggles to my darters and catfish but they eat them with no problems. I've had this culture going for 10 months or so and so far no significate losses.

are the red wrigglers also known as red wood worms? thats what i grew up calling them anyway, i think

I would like to hear more about peoples experience with live food cultures.

Mine always turn into just plain "food" cultures. Especially if you raise molds/fungi for food.

are the red wrigglers also known as red wood worms? thats what i grew up calling them anyway, i think

I don't know if they are red wood worms. Mine came from the compost heap at the town transfer station. I got a couple of loads of compost last spring to put in my garden and there was tons of worms in it. When you pick them up they wiggle back and forth hence the name red wiggler

Can I ask what are nightcrawlers then? I've been feeding them to my fish as part of the diet my whole life. . I learned to pick them out the grass after a heavy shower or a soaked lawn right in the morning for fishing. Of course you can't feed a 8" worm to a 1 inch fish so I chop them up with sissors when feedimg. They can't get enough and a few worms go along way! once you do enough worm collecting, fill a couple 5 gallon buckets with garden soil, leaves and veggie scraps and I've kept them through winter in my cellar. I've never had any problems but I'm not trying to cultivate them either. Is there anything wrong with this?

Can I ask what are nightcrawlers then? I've been feeding them to my fish as part of the diet my whole life. . I learned to pick them out the grass after a heavy shower or a soaked lawn right in the morning for fishing. Of course you can't feed a 8" worm to a 1 inch fish so I chop them up with sissors when feedimg. They can't get enough and a few worms go along way! once you do enough worm collecting, fill a couple 5 gallon buckets with garden soil, leaves and veggie scraps and I've kept them through winter in my cellar. I've never had any problems but I'm not trying to cultivate them either. Is there anything wrong with this?

There is nothing wrong with keeping the worms as you describe. I grew up catching night crawlers. the worms that this thrtead is discussing are the small, distinclty red, worms that a most common in compost heaps, under decaying leaf matter, rotton logs, etc. in They are red with almmost tan(ish) rings. They almost look like poop colored wicked witch stockings (that was from left field ).

http://images.google...t...3US243&sa=N

They almost look like poop colored wicked witch stockings (that was from left field ).

Actually, that's a purty darn good analogy! It is the distinct rings marking segments which sets the manure worms [RW] apart from the very similar looking garden worms. I totally got that image in my head when you said wicked witch stockings .

I'm no expert, aside from my experience as a worm using fisherman, but in my experience, clean compost like leaves, lawn clippings and kitchen scraps only grow the good garden variety worm. Manure piles like under rabbit hutches or behind stock barns grows the yucky [scientific term] red wigglers. At the wastewater plant, they appear magically in spilled dewatered sludge if it sits around awhile in a damp corner indoors. God knows how they get there.

I have always heard (and experience seems to confirm), that the worms that ooze yellow gunk when you hooked them were not much good as bait. (I assume these are the red wriggler/manure worm.) These seem to be all you can get from the bait shop. The worms you dig out of the garden and compost pile are "real" earthworms and make great bait.

Eisenia foetida secretions can cause problems with fishes gills. I used them with newts, fish, etc. with no apparent problems but have been informed by a reliable source they are somewhat toxic and have killed fish in experiments.

I wonder if the European nightcrawler is any better.

Also, for blackworm culture, I've heard periodically going through and chopping the worms in half speeds "reproduction".

Also, for blackworm culture, I've heard periodically going through and chopping the worms in half speeds "reproduction".

yeah, i've read that asexual reproduction is the primary mode for culture growth, whick is slower and problematic. Hopefully I'll figure it out, without making a mess!!