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Dwarf Red Earthworms

Zanaspus

New Member
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8
Location
43228
A bit of history about me. While I do not (yet) own a T, I come from a background of keeping aquarium fish for 40 or so years. One of the best foods for larger fish is dwarf red earthworms. They are about the easiest culture of all life foods I've kept (and I've kept a lot most of you have probably never dealt with). I find precious little info as worms as food for Ts. Specifically, I would like to see if anyone knows the nutritional value.

What I have seen is that they leave a mess. Given my time in fishkeeping, they can also leave a mess there. What fishkeepers have learned to do is essentially "gut strip" the worm, i.e. chop either "head off, and with the back of a knife squeeze out the guts (mostly soil) leaving only the "meat" of the worm. Would this still leave a mess? I think the dwarf reds would be ideal, as they can be sectioned to any appropriate size and still actually move.

I understand that when using the end pieces or whole worms leaves the possibility of fast burrowing, but midsections can be kept in overnight with zero probability of burrowing,

P.S.: I think Tom Moran's youtube channel should be stickied somewhere. He's eaten every free hour of my time since the weekend.

P.P.S.: If any of you keep fish and have questions, feel free to message me.
 

Zanaspus

New Member
Messages
8
Location
43228
Well Tony, despite my limited knowledge, I'll take a swing at this.

The biggest problem I see with this approach is that unlike other common T foods, earthworms have no chitin. In the aquarist's world, this is not an issue, since the main role of chitin in fish health is that it acts like a laxative (a good thing). Generally, we are feeding these to larger fish which virtually never get constipation (which can be quite deadly).

So the real question becomes, "Is chitin crucial to tarantula health." Since they need to build new exoskeletons, I suspect it is, but I'm not experienced enough to confirm this.
 
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