earthworms

[intangcity]

anyone tried feeding chopped earthworms to their cichlids either malawi vic or tangs?i havnt done it yet thought id research it first.i was thinking about feeding my tangs with them

[southcoastbrad]

Hi mate, I have alot of different types of Americans and I feed them earth worms quite regularly, not chopped though, definitely live so they attract attention, the best way ive found though is because I dig them myself I put them into a bowl of milk so the worms take in the milk and regurgitate it and that gets rid of all the dirt in them, you are left with clean pink worms, your fish will love you.

[dazzman]

I would be very hesitant to feed them to africans, the majority of which are vegitarian. To much risk of malawi bloat.

[intangcity]

i was thinking that dazzman as i was only feeding them to my tangs once a month and mayb my hemichromis guttatus.thnx for your input guys

[FullyYellow]

I used to feed it quite often when I first started and found it was quite entertaining seeing the fish pick the worm off each others mouths. I wouldn't reccommend feeding it quite often as dazzman said. Not quite sure why I stopped feeding them earthworms. Should give it a shot again I guess. Thanks for the reminder haha.

[Buccal]

Earthworms are terrestrial protein which is very risky feeding to Malawi, tang and most African cichlids except for a few.

Terrestrial plant protein is acceptable but all other terrestrial protein is risky as it may not digest and get processed at the correct speed by the fish and cause blockage or infections leading to various symptoms like bloat and what have you.

You may see some Malawi and tang specified foods specifying no terrestrial proteins as a plaw of being safe for your fish without question.

American cichlids handle nearly all kinds of proteins well.

Feeding very occasionally theses types food is still risky and nutrition if any benefit is to minimal to take possible chances of ill effects.

[intangcity]

i see your point buccal thankyou

[FullyYellow]

Thanks for your awesome knowledge Buccal. I'll do the same and stop the feeding altogether :S

[Buccal]

I learnt the hard way in my teenage years.

Before my teens, I use to see my grandfather feed diced worms to his angelfish (ok here and there as not African).

So I copied him later on but feeding to malawis,,,, I did cause bloat to yellows.

Hah ha, a very long time ago.

One real good thing worms can be used for,,,, and that's for freshwater stingray pups,, they love them and as a bonus , triggers their sensory nodes around the facial area,, then induces them to pounce.