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Blackworm & Apistogramma

Demonsoni

New Member
Messages
1
I've had a few conflicting thoughts on feeding blackworm to Apistogramma species. Was thinking of feeding it every other day.

Anyone have any thoughts????
 

briztoon

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
203
Location
Brisbane, Australia
An LFS down here sells dried black worm. I feed my apistos some once a week. I also feed thawed out Hikari frozen brine shrimp and spirulina brine shrimp once a week each. In between I feed a range of dried foods, NLS flake (they all love flake food surprisingly), Hikari micro wafers and micro pellets, crushed Tetra color tropical granules and crushed Sera vipagran.

Down here the big no no among apsito keepers is feeding thawed out frozen blood worm.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Personally, I don't feed aquatic worms. There is too much of a chance to introduce aquatic diseases and parasites. I would use terrestrial worm (whiteworms, earthworms or Grindal worms) instead. If you do decide to use worms, because they are excellent sources of proteins and fats, I would suggest feeding them only 2-3 time a week. Overfeeding worms - aquatic or terrestrial - causes fatty deposits in the fish.
 

Hassles

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
100
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Earthworms

G'day Mike

perhaps you could share with us your approach to harvesting earth warms and the feeding of same to your Apistos? I have been threatening to set-up a worm farm (composting bin) for quite some time now to augment the diet of my Apistogramma. It would be nice to know how you tackle this.

BTW: composting units here in Australia employ 3 separate worm species one of which is the favoured Red Worm.

thanks

Glenn

Personally, I don't feed aquatic worms. There is too much of a chance to introduce aquatic diseases and parasites. I would use terrestrial worm (whiteworms, earthworms or Grindal worms) instead. If you do decide to use worms, because they are excellent sources of proteins and fats, I would suggest feeding them only 2-3 time a week. Overfeeding worms - aquatic or terrestrial - causes fatty deposits in the fish.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I keep red worm (Lumbricus terrestris) cultures, I've found that they do best in a relatively wet medium. I have a "worm bucket", which is a lidded bucket with a large flower pot inside. The flower pot is slightly too large to fit in the bottom of the bucket, so there is an air gap of about 6cm to the base of the bucket.

I filled the pot 1/2 full of commercial peat based compost, and put in a good handful of egg shells and some fairly coarse semi-composted twigs from the compost heap, I topped this all of with a handful of worms and some potato peelings.

To harvest the worms I take the lid of the bucket and usually there are some on the lid, I then give the bucket a good shake, and lift the pot out. In the bottom of the bucket there should be plenty of worms and a small amount of compost. I take the worms I want and then tip the compost and worms back on top of the bucket and top the bucket up with grass clippings, fruit peel, vegetable peelings etc.

The bucket was never very productive until I started keeping the compost a lot wetter than you imagine it should be. I mainly use the bucket in the winter when it is frosty, other times of the year a dig down into the wet, organic layer of the compost heap produces literally thousands of worms.

cheers Darrel
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,202
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Baby earthworms can be fed directly to adult apistos. Otherwise chop them up. The usual method of cleaning earthworms is to put them in damp paper towels/newspaper for a day.
 

dw1305

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
2,755
Location
Wiltshire UK
Hi all,
I used to purge mine in damp moss for a day or two (a useful way of storing them as well), but now I just put them straight in (I cut up the larger ones like Mike suggests). I haven't had any problems doing this, but keeping them in damp paper/moss for a day would be safer.

cheers Darrel
 

slimbolen99

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
550
Location
Shawnee, KS
I don't think I've ever had trouble with live black worms and my apistos. Saying that, I only feed them live black worms, at the most, twice a week. I don't believe in feeding any one type of food more than twice a week, the saying "always in moderation" comes to mind. I fluctuate between the live black worms, frozen brine shrimp, frozen mysis shrimp, frozen blood worms, flake, and decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. Just depends on my mood for that particular day. I will tell you, however, that the live black worms seem to really bring the apistos into spawning.

I also use live mosquito larvae when it's available outside; which, during the summers in Kansas, is very plentiful. Just set a 5 gallon bucket about 2/3 full of rain water and put it in a warm, semi-sunny spot. You'll have mosquito larvae in no time, and the apistos love them.
 

Neptunus

New Member
Messages
13
Reanimating the topic for i have juste discovered the existence of blackworms.
Do you have to chop live blackworms them before feeding adult trifasciata or can you give them entirely ?
It looks very slim but I read it could be up to 5 cm, sound huge for me...
 

gerald

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,491
Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
I always chop them now before feeding to small fish, especially those that tend to slurp and swallow without much chewing. A few times I have seen dwarf cichlids, darters, and certain other fish die soon after gorging on whole un-cut blackworms. I'm guessing what happens is the fish's stomach acids dont kill the worms fast enough, and the thrashing worms injures their organs.
 

Neptunus

New Member
Messages
13
Disappointed I am if what you say is true.

The idea was to get a self sustaining culture in the tank so that the apisto catch them from time to time. I dont have really bottom fish (no cory or alike) it was supposed to be easy. But if you say they risk to die after eating...
Anyone else has such a sad experience?
 

gerald

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,491
Location
Wake Forest NC, USA
The risk of death from over-eating might be LESS if you have a constant supply of blackworms in the tank. Hungry fish that are fed once or twice a day will try to eat worms as fast as they can, but with an in-tank worm population they can eat them more leisurely. Also, when the worms are half-buried in substrate the fish tend to bite off their tails, rather than ingesting the whole worm at once. I've heard very few observations from anybody else regarding sudden deaths after blackworm-gorging. I've seen that it CAN happen on rare occasions, so I play it safe by chopping.
 

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