The downside of live feeding

Because I am firmly in the 'feed nightcrawlers" camp and cheerfully advocate it to anybody who asks (and since my dad joyfully tosses worms to his cichlids when he turns them up in the garden I think I'm technically second generation on this, although I have yet to convince him that my axies aren't like the newts I used to keep in high school. He's coming up in a few weeks, maybe staying in the same house as them will convince him)....I feel I should present what I consider to be the one real downside of feeding nightcrawlers.



I have three pets that I adore and keep in tanks that undergo temperature control, testing, frequent water changes and spot cleaning with a turkey baster anytime I see poop. This is fine, i view the maintenance as just a little more time with my axies. Happy to do it. Because I feed them nightcrawlers, and because dead worms don't keep, what I effectively have in support of the three pets i adore is a bin full of pets for whom I feel nothing (and eggshells and bits of vegetable peel and such) in my basement. Pets that I remove a few at a time, wash and cut in to manageable lengths. Which is a little weird.

Just think of them as part of the circle of life, I guess. I had a friend who raised mice to feed his snakes. Similar.

OH, I do. It just hit me yesterday while I was pulling out some worms /checking the worms that I was letting live a little longer. I mean, what the hell. My babies have fluffy gills and fat bellies. Life is good.

Appropriate for the species I mean. Not bloated.