The Puffer Forum

I've read that some people give their f8'S earthworms to eat. Is this safe? They are full of dirt and, around here, cow poo. I was curious if anyone has fed this? Also I bought some oysters for the holidays, can I give a little to the puffers?

I feed a LOT of earthworms to my fish. Oysters should be frozen & then thawed before feeding.

Do you get them from your yard or buy them?

both. I buy them at Walmart.

Pufferpunk wrote:both. I buy them at Walmart.

I am curious, do you freeze them first or feed them live as earthworms can also carry parasites.

I wouldn't use earthworms myself, but a lot of soil in this area is polluted to some extend iirc.

I don't even rinse them off--just shake off the dirt.

As a compulsive neurotic, I keep earthworms in boxes of commercial bedding in the cooler areas of my garage. They are fed and kept slightly damp. Our land was a farm until ~1900, then fallow until we built here just over 25 years ago. I am not a purely organic gardener, but the land is certainly safe from toxins other than those in rain. I have used earthworms for decades with absolutely no difficulties. They are a gerat conditioning food for the largish Cichlids I used to keep and breed, and as treats for puffers. They can be fattening if overfed, as can most conditioning foods.

If you want to have their guts purged, you can keep them a few days in chopped long-grain sphagnum moss (my usual purge technique, but not one I use routinely). They can also be kept a few days in grass cuttings if those are chemical-free and lightly misted with water. I don't have any lawn (allergies), so that is not a technique I use.

The earthworms I use are farmed.

I tried the oysters and they didn't like it! Each took one bite and swam away. The ghost shrimp are eating the pieces that fell to the bottom.

earthworms yes u can feed them. rinse them off and feed. some chop them up others might give whole. i would assume freezing would work great as well.
oysters idk how that works they seem just to big depending on what type you get but i have done mussles what i do is simply remove the meat from shells and blend it up take the shells smash it with a hammer outside and mix the meat and shells with gelatin and freeze. my puffer loves it but it's a mess to clean out the shell fragments. i have not had any problems with my puffer feeding this way. only reason i did this was they were half shelled mussles otherwise i would try giving it whole.

btw if you are wanting to feed earthworms look up something called "vermicomposting" extremely beneficial project for anyone. not hard to keep a system going and the worms come free consistantly by the masses. theirs all types of worms u can use i use the typical red wigglers only although i hear many fish prefer the big nightcrawlers.

you can also try looking up BSFL composting i hear fish love BSFL and again not hard to make a system if u start vermicomposting just put food on the surface and they will come. you need to live in warm climates for BSFL though for worms they can live almost anywhere except freezing temps