Tried Earthworms for the Mollys Today

[HamToast]

My wife happened across a helpless baby bluebird while she was hiking today and, being the nature loving individuals we are, we picked the poor little thing off the ground and took it home to care for until we bring it to a bird sanctuary nearby. I'll post a couple pics of the little bird later.

Because of the helpless little bird we had to go to the store and buy some earthworms to cut up and feed to it. I figured I would try giving some pieces to the Mollys as well. The worms sank quite quickly and the Mollys didn't seem to notice them. They swam around the tank in quite a confused manner as they looked at me and waited for their dinner while the worm pieces sat at the bottom of the tank. Hopefully by tomorrow they have eaten them, otherwise I will be doing some early gravel cleaning this week! Maybe they just prefer bloodworms over earthworms.

[mistergreen]

If it's too big for their mouths, they probably won't go for it.
Also if you got the red wiggler species of worms, some fish find them distasteful. They produce this smelly milky substance.

[shrimpNewbie]

Cutting them really small and waiting for them to come to your hand or tweezers before letting go helps

[VivaDaWolf]

Was the bluebird a fledgling? (fully feathered) or a nestling (naked or not fully feathered)? As a nestling, maybe there was a nest nearby that it fell from that you can reach? If its a fledgling then it should be left alone.

[HamToast]

It was only a few days old. Very small. It has since been dropped off at the bird sanctuary and is in the company of other orphaned birds. It turned out it is was Cardinal!




As for the worms, I cut them into very small pieces (small enough to fit into that little syringe for feeding) and gave them to the fish. This morning I didn't see any worm chunks in the tank so I'm fairly certain they ate the little night crawlers.

[WATduh]

Originally Posted by HamToast

It was only a few days old. Very small. It has since been dropped off at the bird sanctuary and is in the company of other orphaned birds. It turned out it is was Cardinal!




As for the worms, I cut them into very small pieces (small enough to fit into that little syringe for feeding) and gave them to the fish. This morning I didn't see any worm chunks in the tank so I'm fairly certain they ate the little night crawlers.

Cute little feller!

[Gsneufeld]

I understand that common earthworms are pretty easy to breed, and the egg sacks they lay can be cracked open to feed to fish... Tasty baby earthworms. I find them a little too creepy to handle though. Lol.

[Bunfoo]

Originally Posted by mistergreen

If it's too big for their mouths, they probably won't go for it.
Also if you got the red wiggler species of worms, some fish find them distasteful. They produce this smelly milky substance.

We have them here, before we feed them with wash them off in a bowl of water under the faucet for a minute or two (well water), by then they are all nice and clean and I've not had a fish, turtle, frog, bird, or rat refuse them!

[NWA-Planted]

I need to start me a culture...

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[Gsneufeld]

Thats the beautiful thing about an earthworm culture; all you need is to go in the backyard and pick up a few worms, and keep them in a bucket of wet dirt, and they apparently lay the egg pods on the surface.

Another thing I read online but haven't tried myself, apparently earthworms can live for several weeks completely underwater, so if you're keeping them to feed to fish, that can be a good way to make sure that they're really clean. giving them a chance to uh... "relieve themselves"?

[shrimpNewbie]

I soak them before I cut them up in chilled but not super cold water, its important to make sure they are clean a good way to keep them clean all the time is keeping them in whole sphagnum moss and feeding finely cut veggies and plant matter. Earthworm culturing is super easy if you want more worms they thrive in shallow soil in a long bin. Like a under bed Rubbermaid containers. The healthier the food you feed them the better quality the worms also try red wigglers which you can find at fish shops and even petsmart carries them. Keep feeding them to your fish they will eventually devour them before they sink down