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I would like to have some kind of place to keep earthworms so I can feed my fish on them, like a worm farm I guess, but as I live in a city and only have a courtyard, I haven't got any soil to go digging around in.

Does anyone know what sort of home they would like to live in so I can keep some for my fishes to eat , or is this a futile idea?

Also, is there a way of killing them painlessly because i always feel so bad hacking them in half and watching them writhe around.....

My father used to have a worm farm. He had it in an old cooler. Of course he used the worms for fishing, not fish food.. well... You know what I mean.

an old cooler with potting soil, will work, and add your veggy scraps to it and stir it up every once in awhile will work. Keep the soil BARELY moist, not wet, not bone dry either- and youll have lots of worms.

I know what you mean cooky. We had torrential rain the other day. Lots of worms on the paths/roads. Occurred to me to feed em to my fish. But didn't have the heart. Wuss, I know. I just love the job they do in the garden. Can't make em FOOD for my fishy friends, sorry guys...lots of veggies for you!

I don't know a way to kill them without adding anything that would be detrimental to the fish. Maybe someone else can advise.

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Well, if you farm your earthworms for feeding to fishes such as big Cichlids (which LOVE eating them - numerous accounts from big Cichlid keepers tell of the love these fishes have for earthworms, epsecially the likes of big Guapotes), then you have the option of controlling the worm farm environment so that, for example, only good prime organically cultivated vegetable matter gets fed to the worms, and only organic compost soil is used as the substrate. Which means that your worms will probably be healthy, and therefore good to feed to your fish.

As for killing the worms, in the case of big Cichlids, this isn't a problem, the Cichlids will deal with that task on their own, and with considerable relish!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Breeding large cichlids, a worm bed was a must. What I did was use 1x6 board to frame the sides and 1/2" plywood for the floor and lid. I made mine 6'x2' and drilled out 4 drain holes and covered with plastic screen to keep the worms from escaping. This table allows me to cultivate roughy 25 worms a week and still keep a viable breeding stock in the bed.

A Rubbermaid tub, Potting soil with no additives,vegetable scraps and Compost worms work great for fish food.

Compost worms don't get very big and fish the size of Kribs can eat them whole. I have had a tub for a couple of years now.

You can also add a culture of Grindal worms to the soil and feed Gerber dry baby cereal to harvest them.

Mermaiden

Thanks I think i like the sound of those suggestions, but what is a rubbermaid tub? Also, I think it would be good to grow the smaller compost worms because then the fish can handle them and no dismembering is involved! I want them for my clown loaches, they love them.

im guessing ome kind of tupperware?

I have a tupperware tup with holes in the top to put magots in to feed to my fish - but they love live earthwrms & meal worms too.