Any issues with feeding fish earthworms?

[ichthyogeek]

Once I move, I fully plan on starting a compost bin. I've heard some great things about using grindal or white worms in polyculture with the larger earthworms. But I'm not really sure what to do with the larger worms, since most of the fish I plan to keep are the kind that are the same size or smaller than earthworms. There are a few predator fish I'd be interested in keeping, like lionfish, so are there any issues with feeding worms to the tank? I should note that while the common worm for composting is the red wriggler (Eisenia fetida), I'm not planning on keeping them (they apparently release some sort of liquid that fish don't like to eat), and instead plan to use some sort of other worm in conjunciton with the grindals/whites.

 

[SDK]

You can feed earthworms to large predatory marine and freshwater fish. I probably don’t have to tell you to feed marine fish a variety of other things as well.

Your biggest issue will be that captive fish (in my experience) don’t find earthworms all that palatable. I have bred earthworms for herps over the years and also knew to stay away from the red wrigglers. I never had great success getting fish to really take them. Even big freshwater predators like Oscars and Siamese Tiger fish would take a piece of krill over an earthworm. Same with P. volitans on the marine side.

 

[ichthyogeek]

You can feed earthworms to large predatory marine and freshwater fish. I probably don’t have to tell you to feed marine fish a variety of other things as well.

Your biggest issue will be that captive fish (in my experience) don’t find earthworms all that palatable. I have bred earthworms for herps over the years and also knew to stay away from the red wrigglers. I never had great success getting fish to really take them. Even big freshwater predators like Oscars and Siamese Tiger fish would take a piece of krill over an earthworm. Same with P. volitans on the marine side.

This is good to know! I was worried about excess thiaminase or something similar in fish that were fed worms regularly. Depending on the fish (I'd like to get a dwarf lion, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ), worms won't be a monodiet, but hopefully part of a diet rich in gut loaded molly and other fish fry (so. many. molly fry.), shrimp, squid, and some form of bivalve.