Ever feed your P's worms?
- Thread starter Diogenes
- Start date
Howdy,
My juvenile pirayas enjoy red worms a lot - it's the only live food they get, it's fun to watch them hunt. Of course, I do not offer worms exclusively. As always, I think it's the balanced diet that matters.
It's about the same, some websites post slightly (a few %) higher protein content for shrimp, or a slightly (couple %) higher fat content for worms.
Scientific Literature:
All in all, worms seem to be a decent source of food for fish.
Lastly, I would like to add that IMO worms bring the benefit of not being pure meat, but come with gut contents. In the wild, piranhas don't eat fillet or peeled shrimp. They eat everything, from head to guts.
HarleyK
My juvenile pirayas enjoy red worms a lot - it's the only live food they get, it's fun to watch them hunt. Of course, I do not offer worms exclusively. As always, I think it's the balanced diet that matters.
From several websites combined: Red worms (Eisenia fetida)atizknock;2764084; said:
- ~84 % moisture
- ~11 % protein
- ~ 2 % fat
- ~ 1 % ash (inombustible inorganic residue like minerals/salts, vitamins)
- ~ 12 % protein
- ~ 2 % fat
It's about the same, some websites post slightly (a few %) higher protein content for shrimp, or a slightly (couple %) higher fat content for worms.
Scientific Literature:
- I found a publication in the journal "Aquaculture Research" that farm-raised rainbow trout was slightly fatter (whole carcass lipid content) when their regular herring meal diet was substituted with up to 30 % dried worm powder. No other effects were reported.
- I found another publication in the "European Journal of Soil Biology" that studied feeding guppies exclusively with ground-up red worms. Guppy females had 50 % higher brood numbers, double number of offspring per brood, and higher survival rates of offspring than controls fed with commercially available flake food.
All in all, worms seem to be a decent source of food for fish.
Lastly, I would like to add that IMO worms bring the benefit of not being pure meat, but come with gut contents. In the wild, piranhas don't eat fillet or peeled shrimp. They eat everything, from head to guts.
HITH is more often attributable to poor filtration choices (carbon) than food deficiencies.ThaDude;2769086; said:
HarleyK
I feed my natt's superworms all the time and have never had a case of hexa.if the sw's don't automatically sink you can give them a little push and they'll usually go under. I usually keep a carrot in the plastic box that I house the sw's in so that they'll be full of beta carotene when I feed them to the natt's to potentially enhance their color.
I've heard that feeding cypronids can contribute to HITH because of the B vitamin inhibiting hormone. Humans that are deficient in B vitamins develop certain types of anemia (aplsastic, or pernicious depending on the B vit and the pathophysiology)
