Feeding fish earthworms from the yard.

[KINGMED]

While raking and mowing the lawn today my wife and I (me mainly)found some tiny/small earthworms under all the old leaf debrea. The yard is not sprayed so I was wondering if these would be O.K. to feed to aquarium fish and or goldfish. I heard if you do you should put them in wet paper towels for a few days and let them clean out or squeeze the stuffing out of them (not meant to be cruel), to get all the poop and dirt out. Is this O.K. or is this needed if they can be feed to the fish? I was thinking this would be O.K. to do since most fish love worms.

[Dave66]

King,
You can feed worms from the yard, no problem. To 'clean' the worms, you run your thumb and forefinger gently but firmly down the worm's body to expel the metabolized matter within, but usually there's no reason. Remember, nobody squeezes out the worms, etc., that wild fish eat.

I culture tens of thousands of small red worms for my fishes. Since I know what they eat, I don't squeeze them out before feeding them to fish, since a little dirt doesn't hurt them.

Dave

[mrs fishpatrick]

I normally just feed them to my jewels, you can put them in a bowl of water for 30mins and they will poo al the dirt out

[smaug]

I chuck them into my koi pond all the time,as much as possible actually.I also feed little worms to my planted tank fish,its a feeding frenzy.I do not clean them out,no point really.

[KINGMED]

I was wondering if such things as rolly pollies and small millipeds or centipeds found in the dirt can be fed also?

[smaug]

that I wouldnt do.millis and centis have toxins.stick to worms.

[Northernguy]

Night crawlers tend to explode well!:19:

[Crispy]

My fish thrive on earthworms. I always recommend them for fussy eaters.
They are quite messy (especially bigger worms with bigger fish), so it might be good to do on a day when you're water changing anyways.