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ok first thing, my Jack dempsey and flower horn have vast diet. but the other day when i was out, a friend of mine seen an earth worm and suggested feeding it to them.

i thought about this for a while. no i did not do this.. yet... but i was curious, will they eat them? right now the jack is about 5 inches and the flower horn is about 4 1/2 inches.

because if i did do this, i would find a local fishing shop that sells farm raised earth worms. anybody else done this? i thought about it as a treat every now and then.

or maybe i'd wait till they get larger

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

Yep they will eat them ,or at least pieces of them, but after snails , earthworms are one of the biggest single carriers of parasitic nematodes and cestodes. They also have a nasty habit of picking up weedkiller toxins too. Aside from these risks, they are an excellent source of nutrition.

Its ok to use them if you have your own worm farm or a sterile source, but failing that with your two much loved cichlids, id give it a miss. They are a natural food for bigger fish, and earthworms often get washed into ponds lakes and streams where fish gobble them up especially after floods, but as I say, a high risk for parasites and toxins.

Would the same be for ants? I couldnt though, my fish are too small to eat them. But your JD shoud be able to eat the largest of them all.

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well what i'll do before i do this, is i'll go to some local fishing stores or maybe pet stores and see if they have any. and ask how they get their worms. that is if they are farm grown naturally or just outa somones back yard

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

Gobyfan- ants are actually much less of a disease risk due to their own rather insane levels of personal hygeine. Ants do get fungus but on the whole contain very few diseases that are transmittable to fish, but there is a problem- thier self defense mechanisms. Red ants, fire ants etc , all have high levels of acetic acid stored in the abdomen. While an ant is not likely to sting a fish before it gets annihilated, the high dietary intake of acetic acid might make the fish ill, so avoid those species with spray defenses and stings.

Oh! Interesting. That leaves only ghost ants and small aphids. If you were to cut off the abdomen, will it be safe?

MonkeyBoy
Also, 5 inches of fish might be too small for the larger earth worms they usually sell at the bait shops. That might be because they need to be large enough to get on a hook. If you can find smaller worms the fish might be able to swallow hole. Or, you could cut the worms up. Your fish are living in luxury! I wish i was one of them.......

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er- it would be safe , but unfortunately about 90% of the nutritional content also happens to be in the abdomen.

Try a cultured alternative- ist instar (baby) german house crickets. otherwise known as microcrickets.- readily available from reptile shops. Fish over 4-5 inches long can usually take adult crickets easily. Much better nutritionally than mealworms.

Another problem with Earthworms is this: when Cichlids are fed earthworms, they become insanely fond of them. So much so that some individual Cichlids are likely to start engaging in Pavlovian conditioning of the aquarist, refusing foods other than earthworms. If you can find a source of earthworms that is safe from the other risks cited above, they're great as an occasional treat, but they can become seriously addictive to Ocsars, Jaguar Cichlids, Dempseys and other big Cichlids. In fact, if you introduce a large Cichlid to an earthworm, chances are you'll see it smile as it swallows the offered meal!

Your problem from this point on, having found a safe source of earthworms, is rationing them. If you think you're smarter than the fish, and you can control its behaviour, then let me tell you that quite a few Cichlid keepers have discovered the hard way that big Cichlids are capable of training their owners to an extent that cats would envy.

Of course, if you want to start farming earthworms as Cichlid food, there's nothing stopping you doing precisely this, but be advised that even if you have a nice, safe, pest free and organically cultured earthworm farm supplying your Cichlids, the problem of those big fishes deciding to train you to fit their whims could prove to be a big one. Oscars in particular are very adept at this, as if it's their revenge for the numbers of their ilk that suffer abuse at the hands of idiots - it can seem at times to the aquarist that they've decided to compensate by taking YOU for a ride!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I feed nightcrawlers and red worms to many of my fish on a regular basis. I get mine wholesale through a local bait company (yes, I am very lucky on this one, lol, no shipping). I go through about 100 nightcrawlers and 500 earthworms in about 1-2 months. For the larger fish, there is nothing better to entice spawning behavior. I also use bee larva worms (wax worms) from the same place.

As for any diseases and other harms coming from live foods, worms are far less likely to carry anything than the feeder goldfish you buy at your LFS. And, they are actually more nutritous as well. My fish greatly prefer the worms over goldfish feeders too!

There are several sites on the web that will ship them to your house. And they raise them in a controlled environments. I would suggest one of these sites before purchasing from your local bait store, as the price at the local bait store will be 3 times or more in price.


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There is always a bigger fish...

i've already put thought into the feeders. and if i did go that path, i would setup the equipment and raise my own so that way i could control all the aspects alot better than what alot of local shops.

but alot of good info. i may just wait till they get full grown before giving them worms or crickets, but i will talk with my local fishing shops and ask them about their worm supplies and try to get everything investigated fully before i give them. but for now, i'll stick to their normal diet, and the treat of ghost shrimp now and then.

they go nuts for those

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction