# Nightcrawlers as food



## friedrice5005 (Jul 16, 2011)

Has anyone ever used nightcrawlers as a nice meal for their fish? I had some left over from fishing so I dropped one in my tank just to see how my Dempseys would react and they went insane. The thing didn't last 2 seconds. It made my water a pretty nasty shade of red, but the filter is taking care of that pretty quickly.


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## reflexhunter (Jul 25, 2009)

Used to feed my oscar and severum worms as treats all the time.

Very messy though, starting a red worm farm so hopefully in a few months I can give some of these guys to my fish.


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## irondan (Nov 22, 2007)

i feed my sa/ca's earthworms a couple of times a month. they go nuts for them


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

GRab the head of the worm and squeeze out the poo, it kills the worm but it saves your water a bit


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

I slice the worm open and take out all the **** first  and I usually drop it into a pot of boiling water for a few seconds to blanch it a little, or I wash it in really hot water.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

LOL I don't go that far... Too lazy...


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## Cich150 (Oct 12, 2011)

Mine lurve the garden worms, n meal worms too...even my spanners that are 2 inches long eat live crickets!


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

Red worms, which stay relatively small and can take higher temps, are easily cultivated in a vermicomposter, in the house. The worms are excellent food for fish.


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## reflexhunter (Jul 25, 2009)

BillD said:


> Red worms, which stay relatively small and can take higher temps, are easily cultivated in a vermicomposter, in the house. The worms are excellent food for fish.


Yep, that's what I'm doing, thinking about using the juice from them in a planted tank to see if it would work for ferts.


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## ivanmike (Jun 15, 2003)

Earthworms are one of the best foods out there. Cheap as a compost pile in your backyard.

I find that the cloudy water reminds you to change it (which you should do anyway) :thumb:


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## sergey6116 (Aug 2, 2011)

Never used them myself but I have heard from many keepers that cichlids love them .


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## reflexhunter (Jul 25, 2009)

Never had a problem with cloudy water, I did notice that I had more feces That need to be cleaned up and the size of the feces seemed to be a lot bigger.

Might be do to the fact that I was power feeding my Oscar to get a little more growth out of him, he was about a foot long and about four-five pounds before I killed him by letting the tank go 

Kinda woke me up and got me going on my tanks again.


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