Possible dangers of feeding live Superworms to Arowana

[boomerk9]

Yeah the keepers over here do a lot of things that I wont ever try with my golden highback.
Tanning is one, hormones another, I've never even tried feeding superworm to mine, just crickets, shrimp meat and the occasional house cockroach.

 

[Hendre]

You can always behead the worm before chucking it in. No fuss in the tummy then

 

[islandguy11]

You can always behead the worm before chucking it in. No fuss in the tummy then

Yep that's what I do, and if they're gut loaded then frozen, when you chop the heads off and feed soon after it makes very little if any mess in the water. That said, I can also see where chopping the heads off of SW for peeps who might feed 50-100 during a session with multiple Aros wouldn't be very practical time-wise.

 

[stratos]

Protruding anus is a problem associated with overfeeding of king worms. I would guess the fish' digestive system gets affected somehow by a pure king worm diet.

I have been told by more than one aro farmer that aros should be at least 9-10 inches before being fed king worms. Internal bleeding and death can occur with smaller sized fish eating live king worms.

In the past I have gut loaded king worms with carrots and then frozen them. I never lost a fish to my knowledge by using this technique.

 

[islandguy11]

Protruding anus is a problem associated with overfeeding of king worms. I would guess the fish' digestive system gets affected somehow by a pure king worm diet.

I have been told by more than one aro farmer that aros should be at least 9-10 inches before being fed king worms. Internal bleeding and death can occur with smaller sized fish eating live king worms.

In the past I have gut loaded king worms with carrots and then frozen them. I never lost a fish to my knowledge by using this technique.

That's a great point in regard to possible issues esp. with younger Arowana, Thx for sharing.

I recently tried to gut load SW with carrots and pellets sprinkled with powdered Spirulina -- I thought the SW would dig the spirulina but interestingly they barely touched either the pellets or the carrots.

When I tried the carrots without Spirulina they ate it. Anyway before serving the halved pieces of SW I soaked them in 100% liquid spirulina and luckily my Aros didn't seem to mind the taste and gorged as usual. So about twice a week I plan to give them this SW-Spirulina combo.

 

[headbanger_jib]

My aros and Channa get super worms as well as meal worms, but only once a week and I have never cut them up or incapacitated them in any way before feeding them to the fish.

Been feeding super worms and meal worms for more than a decade now.

The only bad side I see towards feeding only mealies or supers is the high fat content.

Them biting their way out is something that sounds really difficult for me to accept, as they drown in less than a minute and stop moving. Although I have never been as observant as to find out how much of the superworm they would digest and not.

 

[headbanger_jib]

I recently tried to gut load SW with carrots and pellets sprinkled with powdered Spirulina -- I thought the SW would dig the spirulina but interestingly they barely touched either the pellets or the carrots.

When I tried the carrots without Spirulina they ate it. Anyway before serving the halved pieces of SW I soaked them in 100% liquid spirulina and luckily my Aros didn't seem to mind the taste and gorged as usual. So about twice a week I plan to give them this SW-Spirulina combo.

How often do you feed the super worms, may be starve them for a day or two and try again, that might encourage them to eat, I have found that these worms can go through almost anything. And yes I have tried styrofoam too.

 

[Hendre]

How often do you feed the super worms, may be starve them for a day or two and try again, that might encourage them to eat, I have found that these worms can go through almost anything. And yes I have tried styrofoam too.

They can actually live off of Styrofoam believe it or not!

 

[headbanger_jib]

They can actually live off of Styrofoam believe it or not!

Yeah, read an article that they have a certain bacteria in their gut that can actually break down styrofoam

 

[islandguy11]

My aros and Channa get super worms as well as meal worms, but only once a week and I have never cut them up or incapacitated them in any way before feeding them to the fish.

Been feeding super worms and meal worms for more than a decade now.

The only bad side I see towards feeding only mealies or supers is the high fat content.

Them biting their way out is something that sounds really difficult for me to accept, as they drown in less than a minute and stop moving. Although I have never been as observant as to find out how much of the superworm they would digest and not.

Thx for contributing Jibran, in fact I had you in mind while writing above posts, which is why I wasn't trying to condemn the practice as a whole, I know plenty of very experienced fish keepers like yourself haven't had any such issues.

In fact after you mentioning similar in another thread we touched upon the subject, I was quite leaning toward your approach but then recently came across the above article so then switched back to the more conservative approach of cutting off the heads (but then I don't have a fraction of the fish you have).

How often do you feed the super worms, may be starve them for a day or two and try again, that might encourage them to eat, I have found that these worms can go through almost anything. And yes I have tried styrofoam too.

That's a good point, that first attempt (with Spirulina) was the same night I brought them hope from LFS; maybe they just weren't so hungry. Next day I replaced the mostly uneaten food with carrots, and they eventually ate a good amount by the next day before I froze 'em up.

In any case most foods like fish, shrimp or even the thawed out SW seem to soak this liquid Spirulina up nicely: