Live Inchworms Treat?

[RichNJ]

So the springtime inchworms are starting to arrive.  I saw one repelling down above my deck.  I grabbed him and dangled him into one of my tanks.  A pre-cox rainbow grabbed him immediately in one bite.  So that got me thinking:  "I hope they are not poisonous."  Has anyone fed their fish inchworms collected from outside?

[Fish Folk]

Really hard to find info on these in an aquaculture context. Several rules of thumb:

(1) If you bring it into your tanks from the wild, you always do so at your own risk. This goes for leaves, stone, wood, mosquito larvae, earthworms…. basically all wild-caught native flora & fauna.

(2) Inchworms, properly, are the larvae of Geometer Moths. The introduction of all such live foods bring on a _risk_ of pathogens. Here is a gardening article worth reading carefully. Definitely stay away from feeding any worms / larvae / caterpillars with “hair” — they tend to be poisonous.

All that said… you could try it on a limited basis and observe how fish respond. If the food is good in their diet, you’ll see a great response from the fish over the course of a few weeks.

But… remember there are risks…

[RichNJ]

On 4/21/2023 at 9:36 AM, Fish Folk said:

Really hard to find info on these in an aquaculture context. Several rules of thumb:

(1) If you bring it into your tanks from the wild, you always do so at your own risk. This goes for leaves, stone, wood, mosquito larvae, earthworms…. basically all wild-caught native flora & fauna.

(2) Inchworms, properly, are the larvae of Geometer Moths. The introduction of all such live foods bring on a _risk_ of pathogens. Here is a gardening article worth reading carefully. Definitely stay away from feeding any worms / larvae / caterpillars with “hair” — they tend to be poisonous.

All that said… you could try it on a limited basis and observe how fish respond. If the food is good in their diet, you’ll see a great response from the fish over the course of a few weeks.

But… remember there are risks…

Interesting thanks, I never thought of toxins.  You never know with insects I suppose.

[T. Payne]

I feed them to my fish all the time, I have yet to have an issue as of yet.