Live earthworms in tank.

[HayleyK]

This sounds really stupid but I was wondering if leaving earthworms in my tank for them to hunt is okay as I have sand. It's like the texture of beach sand. I know they are likely to ingest sand but half my tank has glass ontop of the sand and didn't think earthworms could move properly in the water. Obviously I would place the worm on the glass part but was curious if the worms bury themselves in the sand if it were to reach it?

 

[PatchworkClocks]

Went searching around, and apparently worms can survive for a few months in water-saturated soil. I'm not sure how well they'd do in sand, though. And I'm also not sure if it would be a good idea to just leave the worms there. I know they don't make as much of a mess as things like pellets would, though. So, basically, yes earth worms can survive in an aquarium as long as there's soil below the sand. However, I don't know if it's a good idea. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I'm curious about it as well.

 

[HayleyK]

They should be fine to leave in the water, I leave them in a cup of water for a while and then they don't let out excretions . I know they can survive in there... my original question was will they bury themselves in the sand, as I don't want that to happen. I know soil and sand have different textures/oxygen levels (I believe) so I thought they might not bury themselves. And I didn't want to experiment that with my tank lol

 

[elfelty]

One of my females seems to make a habit of catch and releasing her earthworms. I think since she's a bit smaller than the rest she doesn't really need to be fed as often. Anyway, the worms will survive for 2 days or so of biting and wiggling around before they die and if she hasn't eaten them then I'll remove them. I have a little less than an inch of sand in that tank and I've never had a worm burrow in there before.

In my male tank I have found that if the worm isn't eaten in the first 3 hours or so that it'll end up next to one of the caves, but not under the sand which is a little bit thicker there. And they won't eat it if it's not putting up a fight so I just take it right out. These are all earthworms at least 4 inches long.

 

[HayleyK]

I've got a hill in my tank so there's like half an inch of sand (part glass on top) and then a hill of 3 inches. So - you've never had a problem of worms burrowing in sand even in a day or two?

 

[Jen10s]

Never had a problem with earthworms burying themselves - I feed my Axies in a feeding jar and sometimes the worms escape but don't seem to burrow. Blackworms are a different story, they are tricky little devils and burrow straight away :happy:

 

[HayleyK]

Thankfully my babies only eat earthworms or frozen blood worms. No tricky little devil business for me


Thanks for all the replies!

 

[layna]

I wouldnt advise leaving the live earthworms in there, ive seen some ive fed to my axies wriggle away and bury themselves under the decor ect and its really quick then later when ive been doing a water change ive found the dead worms where they burried themselves