Help! good or bad decision?

Hey, I'm new to cichlids and fishkeeping in general. Tonight, walking home in the rain I picked up a few earth worms on the sidewalk that had been flooded out of the ground and threw them in my south american tank. They were instantly gobbled up by my jack dempsey and my salvini. Was this okay to do or a big no no? I figured that this would be what they'd eat in the wild if a worm fell in the river.

Thanks,

Stan

I do it sometimes as well. Just have to be careful about pesticides. If its your lawn and you know you haven't treated it then it's ok. Someone else's...I'd pass just to be safe.

Thanks, Zack. Happy Thanksgiving.

Solid advice from Zach in my opinion. There are some that will say that "wild" earthworms are the devil, but I have never had any problems with them.

+2 on Zach's advice....

jonclark96 said:

Solid advice from Zach in my opinion. There are some that will say that "wild" earthworms are the devil, but I have never had any problems with them.

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I think that tends to be possible nutritional imbalance with some primarily herbivorous African cichlids. I haven't seen much on issues with worms and new world cichlids.

Better to culture them yourself but I've never had problems with wild worms, either.

Pesticides kill worms...so if worms are alive and healthy, then they must not be covered in pesticides. Worth a rinse, though. There's a guy who posts on the possibility of nematodes in wild worms. My take on these is that no one has been able to point to either pesticides or nematodes from earthworms killing or harming their fish. And it's not as if feeding fish worms is new. Tubifex worms, though, are no bueno.

Make sure that you only feed worms to fish that can handle meat (like JDs). Mbuna and other fish not adapted to eat worms can get bloat from eating them. Go slow on worms for meat-eaters as well. Going from pellets to real food can cause indigestion.

I owe you some links:

How to set up a worm bin and basics: http://www.redwormcomposting.com/getting-started/

Also a local link to worms (and bins): http://www.veterancompost.com/

I'm a big fan of red wigglers for food. They condition fish to breeding condition (or to recover from holding) better than anything I know. Try them with big haps as well!

They also save money. Feeding worms means not paying for pellets or flakes.

Matt

+1 on the awesomeness of having your own worm farm! I just rotated the layers in my worm bin and found a huge ball of small-to-medium sized worms in the bottom layer....some were small enough that even my dwarf cichilds even got in on the worm feasting.

Thanks again to everyone. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

dogofwar said:

There's a guy who posts on the possibility of nematodes in wild worms.

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LOL... almost sorry I saw this thread.

In any case, that would be me, although some people seem to misinterpret what I've posted as 'don't feed red wigglers' or as a simplistic 'there are nematodes in worms', neither of which is a fair representation of the information I've posted. That earthworms can harbor a variety of parasites (not just nematodes) is a fact that is well known to those who do research on them and is a consideration in some of the research into their potential for various animal feed, including fish-- example here, where in the introduction it clearly says:

their ability to harbour parasites and pathogens may constitute a problem to their use as inclusion in animal feeds

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...and when the subject comes up, yes, I sometimes point this out regarding live wild earthworms. Exactly which pathogens they harbor can vary with species of worm and the habitat in which they're found.

To what extent this poses a risk to your fish, or whether or not to feed them is something you'll have to figure out for yourself, as that's a debate I'd prefer to stay out of here.