Red wigglers for aquarium fish?

[BullTerrierChild]

Hello, I have a recovering ageneiosus magoi who is quite skinny, I need to bulk him up. However, he is very picky about his food. I just bought some beefheart and carnivore pellets- no interest. The only thing he seems to like are bloodworms, which I am going to try to avoid due to them being the potential reason for the parasites. It just clicked that I have red wigglers from Petco, and I'm sure he'll love those! Just want to double check and make sure that this is safe for him. Thank you!!!

 

[MaloK]

Try some more floating insect based food.

 

[BullTerrierChild]

Ok, thanks. He seems to be in critical condition right now and I don't know if he'll make it.

 

[Colin_T]

Feed it whatever it will eat and try to get some weight on it. Then you can try to move it onto other foods.

I'm not sure what red wrigglers are?

You can try raw or cooked prawn/ shrimp. Buy some frozen or raw prawns from a supermarket or seafood outlet. Keep them in the freezer. Take one out and defrost it. remove the head, shell and gut (thin black tube in body) and throw those bits in the bin. Use a pr of scissors to cut the remaining prawn into small pieces and offer a few bits at a time. Let him eat until full then remove uneaten food.

You can try live brineshrimp. The movement often gets fish to eat them.

Keep offering different types of food each day and leave it in the tank for a few minutes, then remove it so the water doesn't go bad.

 

[Mr Limpet]

The Cadillac of Worms.

 

[GaryE]

You might have to chop them up a but, but they would work.

 

[fishorama]

Red wigglers are fairly large. White worms might be easier for him to eat depending on his size.

I'm with Colin, feed him whatever he'll eat for now

 

[GaryE]

There was a fad for feeding earthworms a while back. People would chill them, then cut them up with a razor. I was not one of those people who made a point of doing that, but it was widely discussed as perfect food for carnivores. Then, like all perfect plans in aquarium keeping, it vanished.

Nutritionally though, it was sound. The worms had to be cleared out in wet paper to keep their gut contents out of the water. High fibre, high protein.

 

[Colin_T]

The problem with cutting earthworms is they become super gross and slimy. It's not something you want to do. Get small earthworms and feed them whole so they don't ooze stuff all over the cutting board and your fingers. Seriously, it's really gross.

 

[GaryE]

The problem with cutting earthworms is they become super gross and slimy. It's not something you want to do. Get small earthworms and feed them whole so they don't ooze stuff all over the cutting board and your fingers. Seriously, it's really gross.

Very gross and cruel. And since you're Australian, Colin, if you catch one of those giant Gippsland earthworms you have there, you'd be cruelly, slimily and grossly slicing all day long.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Consider what Planetcatfish says about the diet for this fish:

Voracious feeder that will eat anything that fits its mouth. Live fish, large frozen foods and pellets. When feeding live fish choose a proper source. It's best to breed them oneself. Feeding just goldfish is not recommended, as the quality of captive bred goldfish can be poor - which may cause diseases - and it's a very one sided diet.

https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=298

If the above is accurate, is it possible the fish has a disease or parasites.worms. Sick fish often won't eat.

For my plecos and corys, if I want to get them to spawn or to grow, I tend to rely to some extent on the Repashy Spawn & Grow. I will often mix it with another Repashy food. For me this is usually Soilent Green. But sometimes it is Bottom Scratcher. My biggest clown loach grabs the Bottom Scratcher (oe Igapo Explorer) before it can hit the substrate. I doubt fish in this thread cares to eat fruit or veggies?

If you want try shrimp, consider buying the ones shelled and deveined, A bit pricier but less work.

Year back I did live red worms. They can be a PITA. I kept them in a styro in damp peat. They dislike light and would stay burried. But when dark they staged a jail break. The can get out of a styro with a lid on it. My solution was to put a small lamp over the box and a timer on it. It would come on before dark and go off once it was light. And then one night (before we had a back up generator) there was a power failure. I got up the next morning to the living room carpet cover in dead dried out rd worms. I used to hand feed them to discus.

 

[FranciscoB]

I kept a culture of small wigglers for many years, and my fish and I loved them. I restarted about 3 years ago, and use them to feed all my fish, but only about every other week. I believe they are a super food.
About the gross part - I cut them in pieces using scissors, cutting several worms at the same time, as they wiggle. Not so gross, or not to me. Cruel? What adjective to use for when a bird or fish eats an insect or a worm?

 

[Country joe]

The problem with cutting earthworms is they become super gross and slimy. It's not something you want to do. Get small earthworms and feed them whole so they don't ooze stuff all over the cutting board and your fingers. Seriously, it's really gross.

Being a salmon Fisher I hated the smell of worms on my fingers made feel sick, did think of
Disposable gloves, but I would have been laughed of the river, by my fellow fishermen, I stopped using them, even though they can be deadly.

 

[Boundava]

Little late to this but I have some large freshwater eels that prefer either shrimp or worms (nightcrawlers or red wigglers). I also have some A. crassipinnis and had a peru purple wolf fish (that we had to euthanize recently) that love both red wigglers and nightcrawlers as well.
I have an Australian catfish and black knife fish that enjoy the works and shrimp as well, in another tank I have some smaller eels and a cichlid that also eats red wigglers.

At one point I had two bins set up to allow the worms to reproduce on their own, but the fish were eating them before they could do anything so now I just stop at the local chain pets store (Petco/Smart) and buy them weekly/biweekly.
I also had to seperate the A, crassipinnis from the large eels as they would eat all the worms before the poor eels had a chance. The eels are very specific on worms or shrimp (like clams and crayfish too, but that's a special treat).

Fortunately I don't have to cut the worms, they eat them whole, slurp!

BTW hopefully your guy is doing better?

 

[sharkweek178]

I've been told that before feeding earthworms, you should leave them in a bowl of water for an hour to give any dirt they've ingested time to pass.