Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thinking about VB's worm-infested beds, would it be possible to harvest these to feed to the fish, by flooding them and waiting for the worms to escape to the surface when the oxygen goes down (like earthworms do when it rains)? Or do red worms not have the same behavior as earth worms? Do you think the beds would become anaerobic enough to hurt the biofilter before the worms appeared?

Give it a try Dave, I dont think it would hurt the beds as long as you don't take a couple days waiting on the worms....

I'm not sure there would be enough weight of worms to bother. While I have piles of worms around the inlet into the bed (place where they get most solids - hence they like to hang out there) - I'm not sure that any grow-bed is going to sustain a massive amount of worms - and you need a massive amount of these worms to get any weight. If I was to grow worms for use as fish food - I'd definitelly have a big sucker worm farm - that way the scraps and stuff from the beds would go in there along with all other kitchen scraps and stuff.

IMHO, worm farms are definately the go. Get rid of all of your vegetable waste, and feed the fishies as well. Also good for catching fish elsewhere too.
You do need to be careful what you put in your worm farm though, some places say that you can put animal waste in there, but I don't think that would be advisable if you were going to feed your fish with them.

funny that a) this thread should pop up ow and b) that i actually happened to read it! (summer=no time)

i had a small pot (6") filled with dirt on the top of my growbed the last month or so, lifted it up tonight to remove it and found a LOT, like a tangled mess, of worms under it. Maybe this could be a harvest method? dig your gravel out to the point where you can just see the flood level and wack a pot of nice earth there?

Now that would be simple, wonder if a a pot of worm bedding material (moist shredded paper) would work as well. Were the worms in the pot or just under it Steve?

didn't check inside, GF.

will have a look tomorrow for ya, buy i think just under it.

bedding material or food will bring them up

Nice harvest method for a fishie snack either way.

yes, but up into the pot where you will have to sort them out.

Mike Rowe from dirty jobs visited a worm ranch....... they used a novel method to bring worms to surface of material for harvest. A piece of bread was dropped on top of pile and worms congregated under it. PS, these worms eat Poo... lots of POO!

I couldnt get linked exactly, so click on link below, on the left, click on dirty jobs, 63 episodes... slide down to the bottom and click on Foul and Fabilus and poof!

http://dsc.discovery.com/video/index.ht ... =935463420

In my worm farm, they love damp hession(old potato sacks), especially when it is warm.
I wouldn't use worms in a food system if they have been composting poo from an animal that eats meat. Read lots of bad stories about what can be passed on through them. Too risky for me.

I wouldn't either SMF, there's nasty things (cidatids?) that can survive almost anything (except cooking)
I know you can find them in the guts of rabbits, and if you feed it to you r dog, the dog can pass it on to you... yuck!
So it may not be good for your fish. Should you cook your fish though, I don't see too much of a problem.

That rules out sushi though!!!!

only if you feed your worms meat :-)