Nymox Posted November 28, 2010 Report Share Posted November 28, 2010 I know there are a few varieties of worms available in this country for worm farms, the most highly recommended are the tiger worms. I have how ever heard that they are very poor in nutrition. What I would like to know is; what kind of worm would be better suited as fish food, but still handle the organic waste and produce compost?. Will it still be no fuss or require extra attention?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted November 28, 2010 Report Share Posted November 28, 2010 I know there are a few varieties of worms available in this country for worm farms, the most highly recommended are the tiger worms. I have how ever heard that they are very poor in nutrition. They're not poor in nutrition. Just most fish don't like the taste of them. I've heard it said they taste bitter, but I have no interest in trying them myself to confirm. Best worm is anything that is not a tiger worm. Go dig around in your garden, whatever you find there should work fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flosty Posted November 28, 2010 Report Share Posted November 28, 2010 Red wrigglers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted November 28, 2010 Report Share Posted November 28, 2010 Here is an article from Aug '09 Aquarium World. Written by Stu Lord (caserole), an NZKA member... As some of you may have observed there have been more and more people on the FNZAS web site’s forum saying they feed their fish Tiger composting worms, even though an old fish keepers’ “fable” says they taste bad to the fish. What’s the story? There must be some truth to the fable? Well, after hearing this a number of times from people I knew outside of the forum, I decided to get a culture of my own. Not only will they take care of my kitchen and paper (mail) waste but I will also have plenty of large live food for my King Killies – they love their food. What’s more, I can either chop them up for my smaller killifish species or feed the baby worms by harvesting some of the worm eggs. You can see the change in colour as the eggs ripen. After procrastinating over the winter, I rang Worms R us to buy enough worms to get the culture up and running as quickly as possible. I told the worm farmer what my intentions were and his response was a little surprising. He said that Tiger worms were no good as a food source for pets whether they be birds, reptiles, amphibians or fish as they produce a YELLOW SLIME that tastes bad! Bingo - truth to the old fish keepers’ fable. But wait a minute, how come people have said they feed their fish tigers worms and the fish go crazy over them? Well, I have a theory; just my opinion of course. Tiger worms do produce a yellow slime and it may well taste bad under certain conditions. When I was younger my parents had a compost heap. This was not turned regularly to create a fertiliser for the garden; oh no, it was used to dispose of green kitchen waste, law cuttings and any other organic green waste. It was basically a stinking pile of rotting greenery filled with all sorts of bugs including tiger worms. I bet if you fed your fish with worms from an environment like that they would taste very bad indeed. However, take the same worms and place them in a culturing environment that has a healthy earthy smell to it, where they get only enough fresh food that can be consumed daily, those same worms would taste a lot better to your fish. Well, it sounds good anyway. The worm farmer also said their composting worms were, in fact, only 60 - 70% tiger worms and the other 30 - 40% were blue composting worms. Blue composting worms are just as easy to culture as tiger worms but do not produce the bad tasting yellow slime. As a result of this statement I decided to go for it and purchase some worms and if my fish don’t like the tiger worms I can always sort them out leaving a pure blue worm culture. The following week arrived and so did a box of lovely worms. I placed them in their new home to settle down and grabbed an assortment of tiger and blue worms for my fish to sample. My adult female King Killi has no problems chomping on tiger worms; I’ve fed her both types with her showing no preference to either species of worm. So the answer to the question at the top of this article, IMHO… Feeding cultured tiger worms is a viable food source that your fish will love, not to mention a good way to dispose of your green kitchen waste. However, if you get your tiger worms from a smelly compost heap expect your fish to spit them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nymox Posted November 28, 2010 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2010 Thanks Caryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.