Worms to replace 'trash fish' feed?

[Ken Westervelt]

Tuna, salmon, eel, and other carnivorous fish are fed ground-up fish meal. Many think this is an unsustainable practice. Every pound of meat-eating fish requires between two and twenty pounds of fish meal. This continues the drain on our ocean life. Alternatives can and should be looked into.

One protein source is readily available, and currently being used in many areas around the world. Composting earthworms have potential as a substitute. These worms feed on vegetable scraps, wood, and other organic material. In return, they produce a rich compost. Some varieties reproduce at a rate of up to eightfold per year. Harvesting is a little messy, b

Given a large enough worm stock to start with and a steady food supply, worms ought to be a good supplement or possibly an outright substitution for fish meal. Does anyone have experience with this?

[The Garbage Guru]

The part i have experience in is this.I used to use fish meal to shrimp with.And not only is it expensive,but the fish meal i used is made of pogies.And vast quantities of larger fish live off of pogies.If you eliminate them,you will cause a catastrophic failure in the wild species of certain larger fish.I switched to what is called here,swine breeder hog pellets.Shrimp go crazy over these.And i might add by catching shrimp this way,with a cast net,you are harvesting only shrimp.Where as,shrimp boats kill everything including baby fish,sea turtles and dolphins.I can take pictures of this discarded bycatch.It is enough to make you cry!

[jim kirkman]

I seen something on youtube before where the guy was using his composting worms to feed his fish that he raised to eat and his chicken.

[Ken Westervelt]

Larry - That's a shame that a targeted bait isn't used more often. Not entirely sure how that pertains to raising fish in captivity, though. ;)

Jim - Do you remember the fish he fed? Maybe a link to the video?

[jim kirkman]

The more I think about it. I think he was using black soldier fly larvae. I know a lot of people on here use this with thier compost also. It was an australian guy on youtube who had a BSFL container that was pretty cool.
I assume many wild fish would eat roundworms though since they are used for bait. Plus I know I red that people sell to bait stores also for fish food and reptiles.

[Stephanie]

Tuna, salmon and eel are supposed to live in the wild and eat fish. They aren't supposed to live in pens and be fed fish meal. BUT....that's a whole other debate. I think if you feed farmed fish worms, the fish wouldn't taste like we think they should taste. Plus, I would wonder if the farmed fish would receive the required nutrients from worms.... We need a vermicomposting, marine biologist to gives us an accurate answer. I hope we have one in our little community.

[Andrew from California]

As you say, harvesting worms to feed fish is messy. BSFL self harvest and are cleaner to handle. Here's a couple of videos:
Feeding BSFL to fish
Feeding BSFL to chickens

One possible life cycle scenario:
fish eat grubs #1 > people eat fish > grubs #2 eat fish scraps > chickens eat grubs #2 > people eat eggs & chickens > grubs #1 eat chicken poo, eggshells & chicken scraps > back to the beginning of the cycle.

Of course at any given point the grubs can be fed kitchen waste that can't be given to worms. Also, grub poo can be fed to worms which convert it to VC. Finally, the VC is used to raise veggies for people to eat and the scraps go back to the worms. Almost makes me wish I had enough land to raise fish & chickens. :)

[Andrew from California]

"I would wonder if the farmed fish would receive the required nutrients from worms..."

Not sure about worms, but BSFL are apparently very good for fish & chickens. This site has lots of info about BSFL. The far right column has links to a reference page that details the nutritional content of the grubs.

[The Garbage Guru]

Ken,the point i was making was that if you had alternative it would slow down the damage done through the endless cycle.But not to gross anyone out,but do you know what they feed farm raised shrimp in china?Human waste.And shrimp have that dirty little vein.And do you know what's in that vein?Yuck!

[Diana]

Ken I know the food chain is for a reason..... BUT I just couldn't feed my babies to fish... My husband saw how big my worms are getting and said oh! Nice fish bait..... Well if looks could kill my husband just might be worm food hisself LOL just kidding but my worms are here for the tea and wast they can give me.
Good luck with you worms and fish