Can I feed red wigglers to fingerlings

[Michael Welber]

I have 25 new fingerlings and want to feed them red wigglers in addition to fish food. Will they eat them? Should I cut the worms into smaller pieces? What about BSF larvae?

Thanks.

[Converse]

   Yes you can feed red wigglers to fingerlings...It depends on what species of fish you are talking about- and are they actually "finger" sized, or just past the frye stage? (The size of their mouth matters.) You can cut the worms up, but that will take some doing.  Just be sure the pieces are actually getting eaten, if you do chop them.  True Red Wigglers (Eisenia fetida -scientific name) are a small worm, and they can usually be consumed by small fish...Just test it out.  You can also make sure to feed out the smaller of your worm population to the smaller fish (that is what we do).   BSFL may be too big for your fingerlings to eat - but give it a test too.

     You do want to be sure you do not get a build-up of uneaten  worm pieces or BSFL pieces in the place your fish live.  This would cause problems for your water chemistry balance.. 

 Bon Appetit!

 - Converse

[Michael Welber]

Yes, these are just fingerlings, probably only an inch or an inch and a half right now. I have them in a bucket inside my 300 gallon tank and the bucket has holes around the sides and at the bottom. I cut them this a.m. so I'll check later to see if they ate them. Thanks.

P.S. I know they are wigglers. Typo.

[Yron M. Retuta]

Red wigglers can also be fed via container/canister with holes around, the fingerlings will just nibble or try to pull them out as the worms try to escape. This will make sure that there will be no rotting/uneaten worm at the bottom of your tank.

[Michael Welber]

Good idea. Thanks.

[Yron M. Retuta]

No prob. Can you post a pic of actual "feeding frenzy" once you made the canister feeder. I'd like to see them in action. 

[Converse]

  The canister feeder sounds good.

   There are a few pieces of information that may be of help to you though.  Redworms can live for months at the bottom of ponds and fish tanks as long as there is dissolved oxygen in the water to breathe.  Of course, when fish are present, the life expectancy of any worm is dismal.  Live redworms in a fish tank are not a concern.  The concern is with pieces of chopped worms or BSFL that are not eaten, accumulating the in the fish tank (which  why testing the fish to see if thy will eat them , is a good idea, if you plan to chop).  You do not want dead or uneaten anything building up in your tanks.

  My best to you in this.  Let us know how things go!  I hope his is helpful information.

- Converse