How to Catch Garden Worms for Your Oscar
Article submitted by Delboybully
Soon after you start keeping oscars you will hear that they love earthworms, night crawlers as they are often referred to in the usa. To obtain worms, you can either buy them in a fishing tackle shop, or you can go digging for them. Probably the easiest method is to catch them in your very own back garden. Football pitches and golf courses are also extremely good venues for harvesting worms.
Of course, it isn't that easy. First of you need a torch because you will be doing this at night a lot of the time. Go into the garden after dark, or on a wet rainy day. The worms will be stretched out on the ground with one end still in their hole. Sneak up on them very quietly, if they feel the vibrations they will disappear down the hole in a flash. Grab hold of the worm, preferably on the end near the hole. The worm will try to hold on for dear life. This is very important, if you just pull, the worm will snap in half so just apply some pressure until the worm runs out of puff and slips out of the hole. It won't take very long before you get the hang of it. Keeping your grass short makes harvesting worms so much easier. You get the best of both worlds, lots of worms, and a happy other half. Try to avoid using pesticides in your garden. You don't want to run the risk of these getting into your Oscars diet.
I feed whole worms to my Oscars, if your Oscars small, just cut them up with an old pair of scissors. Worms have dirt running through the centre of their body. When the Oscars eat them, the dirt is expelled through the gills. It may cloud your tank slightly but won't last very long. If you don't like the thought of having a cloudy tank then you can get rid of the dirt quite easily. Cut both ends off the worm. Run your finger along its length to remove the dirt. Unfortunately this can be a messy job.
On a good day you can collect a lot of worms, probably more than enough for a few days. To keep them alive, get yourself a container with a lid. Make sure it's not airtight, your worms do need to breathe. Place damp newspaper in the container and put the worms on top. As long as the newspaper is kept damp, the worms should stay alive for a few days. I have kept worms alive for a week with no problems.
It is great fun watching Oscars eat worms, especially when you get an Oscar on each end. Oscars love worms, they are a great source of nutrition, and even better, they are free!