Bait worms as food?

I just found this place a month ago and now I'm trying to make up for the mistakes I've made with my paddle tails in the last four(!) years. I only have the two, so I'm not interested in breeding their food, instead I'll buy earthworms from the local fishing store. The worms are kept in the refrigerator, which I guess'll slow down their metabolism, but I'm concerned they might still be starving and of poor nutritional value. Anyone has any experience with this? I imagined I'd put them in a small container under the sink and "fatten them up", so to speak, with bread, fish food and egg shells, but if anyone knows of some way to really speed up this process, or knows if it's even necessary, I'd appreciate it. I caught my newts courting, or at least what looked like it, a few weeks ago, and if they're going to start doing *that*, I'd like to give them the resources they'll need (and of course i want to treat them well, courting or no).

Any advice greatly appreciated.

P.S.: Could I feed with saltwater bait worms (Nereis) as well? I decided against it, thinking their greater saline levels would cause problems, but, well, they just look like they'd be yummy.

(Message edited by kalaila on January 28, 2004)

Kalaila
Yes the newts should benefit if you feed the worms up for a few days on a good quality fish food.

I wouldn't advise that you feed the saltwater worms to any Amphibians, I suspect they would be lethal to most, if not all types.
Damian

as a corollary to this: what's the opinion on feeding coffee grounds to worms to be used as feed? should i use decaf to avoid getting jittery sals? (the decaf thing is a joke, but i was wondering what the general opinion/safety is on used coffee grounds)

Kaysie, I use coffee grounds in my worm bin and hadn't thought to worry about it. Every plant product under the sun contains some sort of bio-active chemicals, whether it's caffeine or something else. The worms would ingest so little of it, I can't see it being a problem. Unless the worms are getting only coffee grounds as a diet, I doubt it could be problem.

Jen, is it beneficial to the worm (and in turn, the sal) to ingest coffee grounds, or just a means of getting rid of food waste in the compost heap with no ill effects to the animals? i cant remember who told me to feed them coffee grounds, but i thought i'd look into it.

I don't think there is any benefit really, it's just one of the many kinds of kitchen scraps that compost worms will eat. If you later use the worm-processed soil for plants, it will have a nice black color from the digested coffee grounds

Thank you for the replies, and sorry I'm so late responding; I've been working a lot.

I started feeding the worms Friday, and the newts ate a few pieces, but weren't very interested. I was also surprised the worms would smell that bad when I cut them, but I just checked up on redworms and now I think that's what I have . I'd thought they were solid red, but I guess not. I'll have to go dig up earthworms on my own, then, though I *am* concerned about parasites. Hopefully they'll be as eager to feed as the redworms.

Thanks again. I'll have more questions, 'cause I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Hi,
With redworms I suppose you mean eisenia foetida? They can smell bad and most newts won't eat them.
However there's another worm that is also called redworm and that is eisenia hortensis(dendrobaena veneta) which is perfect as newt food - These worms can normally be bought in fishing shops since they are a little bigger than foetida and thus better as a bait worm.
Check if you can buy these worms.

Yep, I did mean Eisenia fetida, though looking at this site ( http://www.nurturingnature.co.uk/main/education-a.htm ) I guess it could be E. veneta. I'm not in the habit of cutting up earthworms, so I just assume the smell of my worms was worse than that of 'normal' worms, and I did observe yellow fluid. Are you sure Dendrobaena veneta is E. hortensis and not E. veneta? Redworm doesn't seem like an apt name for E. hortensis if the picture on that site is representative. And if E. veneta exhibits the same behaviour as E. fetida, as the site suggests, then wouldn't the newts refuse to eat that as well? Of course, the site is more than three years old.

Just trying to figure out what I'll be looking for. I'll try asking for E. hortensis at the fishing shop, though the redworms weren't labelled with any kind of name, so I don't have much hope that it'll work.

Thanks.
---

Hi,
There are no worm named eisenia veneta - this name is a mix up of the old name and the new name of the same worm. The old name was dendrobaena veneta and the new name is eisenia hortensis.

Do as I did, I bought some and asked for the number to the worm farm to call them and ask!
You might be better off to ask for dendrobaena veneta though cause the name change is pretty recent and most people still use the old name.

Okay. I thought it might be something like that. Thanks.