Feeding

(just realized this probably should be moved. I didn't mean to post this here, sorry!)

Hello! New to the forum and axies in general. Though I've been reading up on them for months and months, I only just started keeping one a week ago.

Currently he's (he's too small to tell if he's really a he, but that's what I've been calling him) eating cut up earthworms, but unless I drop it right in front of his nose, he doesn't seem to be aware of its existence. He won't eat off of the tongs I got for him, or my hand directly. He only seems to eat it from the sand if he KNOWS it's right in front of him. Sometimes I find myself dropping, retrieving, dropping, retrieving, dropping.. until he notices. And when he does, he normally snaps it up right away.

My question is this: how long can the worms stay in the water without mucking it up? I'd like to be able to drop some pieces in and let him discover them and eat them at his leisure without harassing him about it, but I don't want the water quality to suffer because of it. I'd also like to be able to relegate someone to feeding him if I go away - it's already enough that I have to ask them to cut the worm up into little bits, I'd rather not have to ask them to have to drop it back in countless times.

Also, have a pic of my setup. :>

I've heard that leaving earthworms in the tank overnight will not foul the water as quickly as if you were to leave blood worm or any other food. I'm sure if you just left it, he'd eat it at his own pace.

P.s I like your tank setup

Thanks for the tips! And about the setup, I'm pretty proud of it, especially since it's my first time aquascaping anything more than a 5gal betta tank lol.

Since I posted this, he ate an entire earthworm, even after I had left two of the pieces in there! Little victories haha.