Red Wigglers

[DBlauj]

A buddy of mine told me he was feeding some of these guys to his fish and suggested I try em for my Apistos. Anyone else use em, any tips on culturing them and what to feed them?

 

[jasonstone]

A buddy of mine told me he was feeding some of these guys to his fish and suggested I try em for my Apistos. Anyone else use em, any tips on culturing them and what to feed them?

If red wrigglers==red worms, I keep them for composting. My compost bin is fed scraps of veggies and what not and are rotated between three layers. Each layer has coconut coir as a substrate and is 'fed' in succession. When one layer is fouled, I will begin to feed the next layer and put fresh coir in the fouled layer. The worms can migrate between the layers as they choose. The adult worms would be much too large for an apisto to consume whole, but the smallest babies may be fine. If you're not squeamish, you can chop them up too.
Amazon should be able to supply the bins, the worms and the coir.
When I kept blue gularis years back, they loved them-- but mind you that even though SJOs are only slightly bigger than the largest apistos, their consumption capability is *much* greater. You'd need a much larger fish than apistos or SJOs to eat adult red worms however.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Anyone else use em, any tips on culturing them and what to feed them?

They are really good food. Just make sure they are "Lumbricus rubellus".

Have a look at this thread for a lot more detail: <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/live-food-for-adult-apistos.13290/>.

cheers Darrel

 

[DBlauj]

Hi all,
They are really good food. Just make sure they are "Lumbricus rubellus".

Have a look at this thread for a lot more detail: <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/live-food-for-adult-apistos.13290/>.

cheers Darrel

I did not know there was a difference. How do you tell if you don't mind me asking? I got some last night at my LFS. They were with the live crickets for reptiles.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I did not know there was a difference. How do you tell if you don't mind me asking?

The 3 different worms sold as compost worms in the UK. These are Dendrobaena "veneta", Lumbricus rubellus and Eisenia f(o)etida, all are suitable for vermicomposting, but in terms of their palatability to fish they differ. I've never cultured Dendrobaena which are quite a big worm, but they use them for fishing, feeding Herps etc. and I believe they are good fish food.

Eisenia fetida is a pale red colour, with obvious lighter banding ("Tiger worms") and a yellow "tail". They are quite floppy when handled, and if you cut them up, they ooze a foul smelling yellow liquid (hence "fetida"). Fish aren't keen on them at all.

Lumbricus rubellus is a dark red worm with a purple sheen and a yellow ventral side. They are very lively when handled, and loop about, they are also quite firm to the touch. When you cut them they don't ooze yellow liquid, and they are a very much appreciated food item, although it some times takes a while for the fish to get past the movements.

cheers Darrel

 

[DBlauj]

Hi all,

The 3 different worms sold as compost worms in the UK. These are Dendrobaena "veneta", Lumbricus rubellus and Eisenia f(o)etida, all are suitable for vermicomposting, but in terms of their palatability to fish they differ. I've never cultured Dendrobaena which are quite a big worm, but they use them for fishing, feeding Herps etc. and I believe they are good fish food.

Eisenia fetida is a pale red colour, with obvious lighter banding ("Tiger worms") and a yellow "tail". They are quite floppy when handled, and if you cut them up, they ooze a foul smelling yellow liquid (hence "fetida"). Fish aren't keen on them at all.

Lumbricus rubellus is a dark red worm with a purple sheen and a yellow ventral side. They are very lively when handled, and loop about, they are also quite firm to the touch. When you cut them they don't ooze yellow liquid, and they are a very much appreciated food item, although it some times takes a while for the fish to get past the movements.

cheers Darrel

It seems that I have Eisenia Fetida then as they do seem to have what looks like some banding on them. They do not look like the pictures of Lumbricus Rubellus when I Google them. When I first cut them up I did noticed a foul stench with them also. As far as health wise would Eisenia Fetida cause any harm? I'd hate to throw away a brand new culture of em but I will as they are far less important then my fish.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

As far as health wise would Eisenia Fetida cause any harm? I'd hate to throw away a brand new culture of em but I will as they are far less important then my fish.

I don't know, because I had the choice of both species (when I collected worms from our garden compost bin) and I choose to exclude E. fetida, mainly because I'd read this:

Two experimental feeding trials were conducted with rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri ). In the first trial, the nutritive value of three terrestrial lumbricid worms, Eisenia foetida , Allolobophora and Lumbricus terrestis , was compared with fish fed a commercial trout ration; and in the second trial, the nutritive value of freeze-dried E. foetida meal was compared with that of herring meal at three dietary inclusion levels (replacing 0, 50 and 100% herring meal protein) within a semi-synthetic diet. Fish fed frozen A. longa and L. terrestis grew as well or better than fish fed the commercial trout pellet. However, fish fed frozen E. foetida , and to a lesser extent the freeze-dried worm meal, found this worm species to be totally unpalatable, and displayed little or no growth over the experimental test period.

From: "A preliminary investigation of the nutritive value of three terrestrial lumbricid worms for rainbow trout." <http://fishnutrition.uoguelph.ca/content/preliminary-investigation-nutritive-value-three-terrestrial-lumbricid-worms-rainbow-trout>

Since I've posted the first reply I've found that the pale stripy worm with the "yellow tail" is actually Dendrobaena "veneta" (now more properly Eisenia hortensis ), and there are plenty of these in the compost bin, so I'll have a go with them as well and report. Fish definitely like L. rubellus.

I did try feeding a whole small Eisenia fetida last night, but it was spat straight back out and then ignored.

cheers Darrel

cheers Darrel