Feeding my fish worms and grubs from outside ok?

[ocellatus]

Buy a bunch of earth worms, put them in dirt and put vegetable matter in as necessary. Banana peels work great. Use a rubber maid bin. Make sure it's at least 2 x 2 x 2. A smaller one would work but you'll get more worms with more space. Leave them for a month ( keep adding vegetables) and take some out every now and then to feed to your fish.

This is pretty close to my method for a culture that's been running well for 2 years now.

A few additions based on my trial and error:

- avoid citrus, the worms enjoy them but too much acidic food will harm the culture
- avoid potato skins - the will grow into plants, even in the dark
- banana skins, carrot peels and tea bags are a big hit
- you need to drain the liquid from the culture every so often. The "worm tea" is actually urine, and will spoil the culture if left too long. I have a small drain hole with a screw on the bottom for this purpose.
- crush and sprinkle in dry egg shells often. A mortar and pestle works very well for this purpose. The increase in alkalinity balances the urine / any citrus, though the culture still needs to be drained weekly.
- hope you like fruit flies. More seem to hatch when you forget to drain / add egg shells

Types of worms:
- earthworms bred slowly and struggled in my setup. They were outcompeted by the reds.
- red wrigglers breed very quickly and work very well in this setup
- night crawlers didn't work at all

Cheap, easy live food, with no chemicals, pesticide, or dangerous bacteria.

They consume a lot of household waste as well!

O

 

[xrayjeeper83]

Ive heard using newspaper instead of dirt. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Younglin]

- hope you like fruit flies.

I bury the banana peels and keep the lid on. The lid only sits on top, not sealed. But I have never had a fly problem. I never see fruit flies.

Ive heard using newspaper instead of dirt. Any thoughts on this?

Never done it myself but I don't see it going well. Worth a try though.

 

[AQUAMONSTER]

So night crawlers wont really work then

 

[baseballman1321]

dont you have to mist the dirt everyso often because you got to kkep it most?

 

[AQUAMONSTER]

yea

 

[apennell07]

i always just crawled around in the dark on my hands and knees in my back yard after a rain with a flashlight. the night crawlers come to the surface and you can grab them, a real pain though they feel the slightest vibration and they sense the light. so u gota be quick. theyre usually only half outa the hole so i try to grab them closest to the hole and gently pull them out with out breaking them. also use a dim l.e.d. head lamp. sometimes after a heavy rain you can find them on sidewalks, driveways, sides of roads..

 

[ocellatus]

I bury the banana peels and keep the lid on. The lid only sits on top, not sealed. But I have never had a fly problem. I never see fruit flies.


Hmmmm..... I usually just dump the compost bucket on the top layer. I keep the lid tight with small air holes drilled through the top, and there always seems to be a few of the little devils flying around....

I've set these up a few times, and the flies only seem to appear after the culture has been running awhile. Something to do with the rise in acidity?

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a try.

O

 

[Younglin]

dont you have to mist the dirt everyso often because you got to kkep it most?

I just pour a cup of water in every few days.

 

[baseballman1321]

were can i get red wigglers