Leaving live food in the tank for a week

[stefanie]

i have a 20 gal with 2 eastern (red-spotted) newts. i feed them mostly live blackworms, and occasionally a treat of live earthworms (chopped) or frozen blood/tubifex worms.

whenever i feed the live blackworms, i put them into a dish on the tank floor, where they live for about a week, until they're all eaten. the worms are checked on at least 4x a day (usually more), to make sure we can remove them before they start rotting, if they happen to die. i've been doing this for a few months now, and it seems to be working well. so far, none of the worms have died. well, maybe one or two, but never the whole batch, or even more than just a few. i feed them worms once a week, after the entire batch has been eaten. i also stir the sand a bit each week to uncover any buried worms.

anyway, i have 2 questions-

feeding them this way allows them to eat whenever they want. obviously, they dont eat the worms in one "sitting," so they always have food available. would it be better for them to be fed 2 smaller meals twice a week, or are they ok eating whenever they please?

also, one of the newts is a normal weight, and one is a little on the thin side but not underweight. the fatter of the two will eat food as soon as i put it in the tank, or if i dangle it in his face. i've never seen the thinner one eat, but he has gained a little bit of weight since i bought him, so he must be eating. do you think that feeding them in smaller meals might give the thinner newt less of a chance to eat when he wants to, or would he get used to eating when he has the chance?

 

[jennifer]

It's fine to leave live blackworms in the tank for a week. What kind of dish do you have that is able to keep them in??? Blackworms generally manage to climb out of almost anything.

The best you can do for the thin one is to have plenty of food around, and perhaps give it extra hand-feedings of earthworm, if it will take that. As long as it's eating regularly, I wouldn't worry.

 

[stefanie]

he wont take any food from my hand, but he is slowly gaining weight, so i'm not too concerned. he's not too skinny, just a little bit on the thin side.

the worms dont really stay in the dish too well. the majority of themstay there, but a lot escape and i have to stir the sand weekly to make sure they dont stay buried. i keep little bits of unbleached paper in the dish for the worms to eat, and i think the worms try to stay where the food is. also, the dish has gravel and the rest of the tank is sand, and the worms have a much easier time getting into the gravel. i dont know if that helps keep them there tho.

Thanks