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Red
worms are your basic fishing earthworms. Most sources state they
are a complete diet for fish and nearly
the
best food you can feed them. In my opinion they may also be the
easiest live food to maintain- I have kept
these on and off for many years and have found shortcuts that
have made it incredibly easy and very low
maintenance, with a high return.
I keep them in covered (small holes drilled in lid) plastic
tub-style containers with moist peat- at about
the crumbliness of a medium, moist cake. I have found that the
depth needs to be greater than 6 inches-
about 8 to 12 inches seems to work best. They will live and
thrive in shallower containers, but they don't
reproduce. For food I purchase 5 lb. bags of chicken feed- I've
had the best success with the
"egg
hatching mix" (Crumble, not pellet, as the pellets are much
tougher to grind up), the "grow out mix"
will also work. In a food processor, grind up into quantities
you'll use, fully grinding it down to a fine
powder (which the worms can eat easily). Each day (or each time
the surface of the soil becomes all
dark
again) sprinkle the chicken feed powder lightly over the
surface of the peat. Until the worms are
numerous enough to eat all that you feed every day, the feed can
mold slightly- I simply brush my
fingertips along the surface to work it into the peat and simply
re-feed. The mold, however, is much less
than if you were to be feeding bread slices and other things I
have heard that people use. The chicken
feed is fairly neat, without any smell, and is both inexpensive
and easy to find at agricultural food stores.
To obtain the initial culture there are many online red worm
farms where, including shipping, you will only pay
about $25 for1000 worms (1 lb.). Because I am at a higher
altitude I have found that I have the best luck with
cultured worms that are locally grown and available at bait
shops, gardening shops, some pet stores and
hardware stores that carry fishing tackle. Red Worms reproduce
quickly, and generally double in number
about
every 90 days.
Keep the
remainder of the feed refrigerated, if possible. It'll last
about 90 days at room temperature, longer
when refrigerated or frozen. Many places may require you to buy
it in a minimum sized 50lb. bag., but it is
very inexpensive. I pay about $1.75 for 5 lbs, and a 50 lb. bag
is just under $14.00. Try finding a place with
an open bag that will sell it by the pound. Once I had to buy a
50 lb. bag, getting rid of the excess by taking
5 lb. bags and starter cultures of earthworms to local fish
meetings!
When the soil becomes heavy with castings (an
excellent plant soil), I will rotate out about half of
the soil.
I tend to believe the worms do best
when they are not disturbed- I used to aerate the soil weekly or
so to
keep it loose, but do not believe the
worms did as well. Results can be seen almost immediately
following
daily feedings of chopped worms.
Fish fill out quickly- particularly
egg laying females being
conditioned,
and batch size for
livebearers
will increase. After feeding be sure to siphon up any that isn't
eaten.
The only unpleasant task with red
worms is the actual chopping up of the worms to be fed. The
worms must
be rinsed off, and then
chopped up small enough for the fish to eat easily. Larger fish
will be able to eat
them whole. Some people
will first freeze the worms, then thaw as many as they need to
feed, cutting them up
then. There are devices
available to help with this, but I use a plastic cutting board
and a one-sided razor blade
to chop up fresh
worms quickly, when they are at their highest nutritional value
for the fish. I am working toward
raising the
worms in larger quantities, then grinding them up, and freezing
the worm paste mixed with a gel that
can be
easily cut and fed in measured portions.
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