Who to feed mealworms?

[TwoTankAmin]

I did an order of Repashy and in the box were some promotional foods. One of these is ProBugs Eco-Fresh Mealworms (20 gm). I have very little experience with live types and none with this food and have no idea which of my fish might eat it. Somehow I think most of the smaller fish, tetras , corys, danios etc, cannot. This would leave clown loaches, angels and some of my adult hypancistrus plecos. But they are a max of 5 inches or so and many are smaller.

Once the package is opened it says to feed it immediately using tongs and that I can freeze unfinished worms for a max. of 7 days.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

If nothing else, I can bring it to my fish club meeting mext week and give it to somebody who can use it,

 

[NoodleCats]

Chop and squeeze the guts out into the water and feed that. Small guys love this. I do this with my guys, I squish the soft fresh melted ones for foods.

Your loaches will appreciate it most I think, if the reaction off my pangios is any indicator for that lol

 

[fishorama]

Oh, meal worms are fairly large with a hard indigestible chitin outer layer. Maybe your adult altums or big adult plecos or adult corys...if mealworms sink...My only experience is with birds. The smaller birds would try to squish out the guts & the fling the leftover outsides away. My lovebirds were afraid of them. It "seems" like the chitin might be constapating. I know Oscar keepers feed them but they're much larger than any of your fish...

My last Repashy order came with a different "worm" sample. I don't remember what right now but I think I asked here & maybe NoodleCats knew...I'll look later...

I tend to think you should just give them away at you next club meet rather than risk feeding them. Or put them outdoors for wild birds...

(edit) I'm glad Noodle chimed in. I will not be chopping & squeezing out mealworm innards for any fish, favs or not

 

[NoodleCats]

An old video of my pangios enjoying squished fresh molted meal worms (second stage, before they turn into beetles)

 

[TwoTankAmin]

This is what they look like:

 

[NoodleCats]

This is what they look like:

I'd cut length-wise with a sharp knife or scalpel and scrape the middles off the shells with a spoon for those.

Or, throw them in a blender with some veggies and turn them into a gel food using gelatin

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I am taking the easy way out and giving them away next Friday at my club meeting. Plus we do not own a blender, I have all sorts of kitchen stuff save for that. I did a short stint hatching BBS and a few month affair with red worms use in composting. But I pretty much gave up on live or close to live. The one exception is collecting pest snails from breeder tanks and dropping them into tanks with assassin snails.

I have a lot of quality food that is easier to use- Ebo mussel and insect sinking granules and I just order some Fluval Bug Bites for plecos to give them a try. I want to give up using kensfish foods as my commercial option.

Part of my consideration is how spread out my tanks are. It takes me at least a half hour to feed Repashy to all the tanks. Frozen is a bit faster. But commercial is under 10 minutes.

@NoofleCats
Thanks for all info, I wish I was willing to try it, but I have gotten a bit lazy in my old age.

 

[fishorama]

I couldn't find my Repashy free sample post for what kind of worms I was given, some kind I'd never heard of. I think I fed some to my big cories but they weren't much of a hit. I threw the rest away since the packet was opened & my plant club meets only sporadically these days.

NoodleCats, you're much more...what do we call it? Brave? Experimental? Willing to try new stuff? & I do appreciate your approach to fish (& bird ) keeping & that you tell us just what you've tried & how that worked for you & your fish. Those are some happy pangios in your video! We may have to name you the mealworm gut squishing queen...you know I mean that in a good fun way, lol. Somethings are too much bother but we all see your fish love that you "bother" to keep so well!

 

[NoodleCats]

I couldn't find my Repashy free sample post for what kind of worms I was given, some kind I'd never heard of. I think I fed some to my big cories but they weren't much of a hit. I threw the rest away since the packet was opened & my plant club meets only sporadically these days.

NoodleCats, you're much more...what do we call it? Brave? Experimental? Willing to try new stuff? & I do appreciate your approach to fish (& bird ) keeping & that you tell us just what you've tried & how that worked for you & your fish. Those are some happy pangios in your video! We may have to name you the mealworm gut squishing queen...you know I mean that in a good fun way, lol. Somethings are too much bother but we all see your fish love that you "bother" to keep so well!

Lol I just have mealworms on hand, been culturing them for years. Our crested gecko eats them, as do our pet ants and spider lol so of course I'll feed them to others who can as well. Heck, one of my cats go nuts for them.

I am taking the easy way out and giving them away next Friday at my club meeting. Plus we do not own a blender, I have all sorts of kitchen stuff save for that. I did a short stint hatching BBS and a few month affair with red worms use in composting. But I pretty much gave up on live or close to live. The one exception is collecting pest snails from breeder tanks and dropping them into tanks with assassin snails.

I have a lot of quality food that is easier to use- Ebo mussel and insect sinking granules and I just order some Fluval Bug Bites for plecos to give them a try. I want to give up using kensfish foods as my commercial option.

Part of my consideration is how spread out my tanks are. It takes me at least a half hour to feed Repashy to all the tanks. Frozen is a bit faster. But commercial is under 10 minutes.

@NoofleCats
Thanks for all info, I wish I was willing to try it, but I have gotten a bit lazy in my old age.

No worries! Mealies are fatty as well, but they do make a good treat. I've also raised fry on them before too. Black emperor tetra did great on them.