# earthworms in terrarium



## oli (May 13, 2010)

I have some night crawlers and was wondering if it would be a good or a bad idea to let them go in my dart frog terrarium? I'm not even sure why I thought of it, but figured they are good for soil, even though I have coco fiber as a bedding. My terrarium is planted up proper with moss and other plants. Just curious here really. Thanks...


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## donstr (Jun 21, 2007)

From what I've read it's not a good idea because they break your substrate down too fast. 

The isopods and springtails do a fine job cleaning up any detritus with the added bonus of functioning as prey.


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## zcasc (Dec 8, 2009)

Earthworms typically prefer cooler temperatures, and even if they do have the ability to burrow enough into your substrate, the tropical conditions in a PDF tank can produce some AWFULLY slimy, gooey, and well...dead, earthworms. 

Trust me, there is nothing like the smell of liquid earthworm.


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## Deli (Jun 24, 2008)

zcasc said:


> Trust me, there is nothing like the smell of liquid earthworm.


I second this. I go fishing Very often and sometime forget and leave the container out in the open for a day or two. VERY stinky.


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

I actually stock all my vivs with earth worms....but i would suggest the red wigglers...they are a smaller variety of earth worm that dont get nearly as huge, long/thick as a typical night crawler. They are good for airating the soil and i think beneficial in general...never seen it but i suppose its possible that frogs eat baby worms at night when they come to the surface. most bait shots/pet stores have the red wigglers...i believe they are often labeled for trout fishing


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## Arrynia (Dec 27, 2009)

Deli said:


> I second this. I go fishing Very often and sometime forget and leave the container out in the open for a day or two. VERY stinky.


LOL! Been there myself...P-U!! I honestly would not want any earth worm in my vivs for the reasons stated above.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Dendro Dave said:


> I actually stock all my vivs with earth worms....but i would suggest the red wigglers...they are a smaller variety of earth worm that dont get nearly as huge, long/thick as a typical night crawler. They are good for airating the soil and i think beneficial in general...never seen it but i suppose its possible that frogs eat baby worms at night when they come to the surface. most bait shots/pet stores have the red wigglers...i believe they are often labeled for trout fishing


Ever since I learned about toxicity issues with Eisenia (red wrigglers/red worms), I have been very hesitent about using them as a feeder source 
see Toxicity of coelomic fluid of the earthworm Eiseni... [Comp Biochem Physiol C Toxicol Pharmacol. 2001] - PubMed result 

Ed


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## oli (May 13, 2010)

ok cool, thanks for the info, the night crawlers will stay in the fridge for the next fishing day then!


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

Ed said:


> Ever since I learned about toxicity issues with Eisenia (red wrigglers/red worms), I have been very hesitent about using them as a feeder source
> see Toxicity of coelomic fluid of the earthworm Eiseni... [Comp Biochem Physiol C Toxicol Pharmacol. 2001] - PubMed result
> 
> Ed


Hmm learn something new every day. Is that infact the species commonly sold in bait shops and/or pet stores? 

I'd always just throw a few in, i never actually saw the frogs eat them or any babie worms... though I did see newts eat them. So maybe the frogs werent feeding on them as I never had any deaths in adults that I couldnt attribute to escape or that dang Ice storm that wiped me out.

Guess i'll reconsider throwing em in the next viv though


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

As to being commonly sold see Eisenia foetida - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

There appears to be some variation in feeding them to different herps.. I have yet to hear of deaths in caudates but as an example garter snakes will eat them and then throw them up and possibly die. 

A lot of animals do not find them palatable (for example, when I tried them on neonate Typhlonectes, they had to be fairly hungry before they would eat them and I never got the same growth rates as when I started the caecilians on bloodworms). 

However given the wide variety of vertebrates that either find them distasteful or toxic, I no longer use them. 

Ed


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## JimO (May 14, 2010)

That could explain why I'm such a lousy freshwater fisherman.


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