Thoughts on earthworms in the crabitat?

Post by **JediMasterThrash** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:23 am

I was thinking that adding more aeration to the substrate would be great, and worms could help a lot with that.But would they crawl into crabs shells or otherwise pester molters?Does anyone have experience with worms in the tank? Is it safe and recommended?Can I just dig them out of the ground? I don't put chemicals on my lawn.

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:45 pm

I'm not sure how standard earthworms would fare with all the salt. I know there are some varieties that live near the ocean, but unless you also live near the ocean I doubt your local wormies are the right kind. And can they live in sand/Eco Earth? It's not quite the same as soil and might not have the correct minerals and stuff. Other than that I don't know about the other questions. Would they bother moulters? It's a good question.

Jedediah · Post by **Jedediah** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 4:56 am

Many earthworm species like cooler temperatures and the crabitat is too warm for them, even in the deep substrate. But if you can find redworms, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_foetidathey actually like it warm and they do well in crabitats, at least in mine I supply them with extra leaves to eat, although I don't know if that is strictly neccessary.I don't know how well they would be able to deal with EE mixed/sprayed with salt water, though.

KittyCaller · Post by **KittyCaller** » Fri Jul 23, 2010 7:15 am

Aren't red worms a type of bait? Edit: Apparently you might also find some at a local plant nursery. If you end up buying some, maybe you could at first set them up in their own tank and try to get them to breed. (There are some good sources online on how to do it) Then any subsequent offspring should be "clean", or free of any pesticides or whatever.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Mon Aug 16, 2010 2:43 pm

I keep a worm farm for my gardens (red wrigglers), and I sometimes use the castings for my crabs. Once either a baby or an egg got into my tank and hatched into a worm. I saw it crawling around and decided to just wait and see what happened with it. Eventually I didn't see it anymore, so I assume that it died and was consumed/subsumed. It didn't appear to do any harm, and it probably did a little underground work converting leftovers into worm castings.