breeding red worms and earth worms / night crawlers.

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is300soon

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 20, 2008
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san jose ca
ok this is a duel question here.

1. My fish love red worms or blood worms, LOVE THEM. I want to breed my own and make frozen cubes. Now i've read some diy on this, but never really explains where to get the blood worms to start this.

I would love to start this soon, so any help, links and tips would be great.

Now for the earth worms or night crawlers this is for fishing only. I don't like to feed my fish the crawlers because they don't usually eat the whole thing and it just makes a mess. So im sick of paying 2.79$ for 24 of these things at walmart just to go fishing. I hear it's pretty easy to start this for breeding but once again, where do you get your starters? How many to start with? How long to breed. These tips would be GREAT!!!!!

Thanks again and
MFK for life !

D
 
Exiled;2672172; said:
how to i subscribe to this thread?
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On top of thread page it says thread tools, click that and it will show subscribe.:)

I bred earthworms before when I was like 10 or so. I just put them in a quart mason jar and in a few weeks had little babies. Obvioulsy, I had no idea what I was doing but hey it worked. Try searching the threads about it with the search function. Someone recently just made a whole thread on doing this.
 
bump!!!
 
i dont have that problem with the nightcrawler yhey eat them just fine but this is how i did bought the worms at wall mart an took the home a soaked the ground turned it over and put all the dead leaves that fall from the trees and any old lettice carrets vegies that are left and gring them into the dirt i have 2 spots in my back yard that are 4ft x8ft i dig part of it everyother day and in the summer lay a plywood sheet to keep it from dring out hope that help
 
well i intend to do this in rubber maid bins, my question is on how many to start with, what to lay in there with them etc etc. The red worms really have me wondering as I don't know where to get them alive or how to take care of them.

David
 
is300soon;2672097; said:
1. My fish love red worms or blood worms, LOVE THEM. I want to breed my own and make frozen cubes. Now i've read some diy on this, but never really explains where to get the blood worms to start this.
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Bloodworms are not really worms but midge larva or larva of nonbiting mosquitoes that thrive in muddy bottoms. You'll have to hunt these in ponds and make sure they do not harbor parasites that can prove fatal to the fish.

Bloodworms are not good staple diet. What fish do you have? All fish including the herbivores consume bloodworms in vast amounts and this is not good in the long run. Bloodworms have very high protein content and as proteins are not easily digested, they accummulate in the body system and can cause the fish to suffer Malawi bloat or dropsy associated by abnormally large abdomen, pop eyes and protrusion of scales. If the food cannot be expelled, the organs fail to function normally and the fish eventually dies.

Your best bet is vary the food diet and buy your bloodworms only from stores.

Now for the earth worms or night crawlers this is for fishing only. I don't like to feed my fish the crawlers because they don't usually eat the whole thing and it just makes a mess. So im sick of paying 2.79$ for 24 of these things at walmart just to go fishing. I hear it's pretty easy to start this for breeding but once again, where do you get your starters? How many to start with? How long to breed. These tips would be GREAT!!!!!
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If you're not squeamish, you can chop the earthworms in pieces. I just get the smaller ones from the garden. Even then, I just use other foods rather than go through all the hassle to hunt for these worms or even culture them. If you want to breed them, get a large wooden box and fill the box with dead leaves and soil. Rotten plant matter and other biodegradable matter help in the decomposition. Get a few earthworms for a start and place them there. You can check your culture box every few weeks for those critters.

On another note, you might want to know some earthworms grow to 2 feet and possibly longer but these are ridiculously rare to find in my place. Last I saw these, they were about 18-20 inches and as I do not like the idea of chopping them for my fish, I simply dropped them in the garden.
 
You could also grow red wigglers rather than earthworms/night crawlers. The red wigglers are smaller. They're EXCELLENT composting worms. So you feed them kitchen veggie scraps.
 
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