are sandworms safe for feeding...

[Fat Homer]

Okay, so i have a question i need to ask on behalf of my friend who is an LFS owner...

Basically he wanted to know if it would be safe to feed sandworms (the type people use for fishing) to feed a fire eel, or any of the other FW spiny eels?

The reason hes asking is coz in Hong Kong you can't just go to a bait and tackle shop to pick up earthworms / night crawlers, but they do have sandworms for sale... and since he now stocks fire eels (around 12") ones, he wanted to know what else to feed besides small bloodworms...

So i ask the MFK experts, is it safe to feed freshwater eels these sandworms or is it best to avoid these all together and stick to bloodworms?

 

[MonsterMinis]

not sure if sandworms are safe or not.. but ghost shrimp will work if you have any that won't take the bloodworms. live blackworms are also safe if you can get them. imo/ime fire eels won't eat anything "bad" as in if it does have any toxins they refuse to take it. I've also had good luck with frozen krill. some people will also offer superworms/meal worms. not sure if the exo skeletons are particulalry safe to digest though. hopefully this info helps.

 

[Fat Homer]

^ Thanks for the info, the shop owner said hes been feeding it live ghost shrimp and blood worms, but when i mentioned night crawlers / earthworms as being a good way to beef up an eel, he asked what about sandworms, since we can't just pick worms up here from bait shops like over in the US...

 

[MonsterMinis]

tbh if they are getting ghost shrimp atm thats probablly one of the best foods that he can offer them along with the bloodworms. most other inverts also would be fine to try even small crayfish. If the shrimp are cost effective I would suggest he stay with them. as in the wild a majority of their diets are FW shrimp and inverts. worms are nice if you don't have access to large amounts of fw shrimp. Which in the US is our problem and why nightcrawlers are readily used/suggested.

 

[Fat Homer]

^ Thanks for the explanation... i'll be sure to tell the shop owner know sticking with shrimps etc are fine...