Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been looking into food to feed my firebelly newts that I am going to get in a few days. I have read that blackworms are a good source of food for them and I have also found a dealer near me that carries them. My question that I have yet to ask partains to how I must feed them. The local pet store recommends that I dump around 120 Blackworms into the substrate and they will poke their heads out of it. I don't believe this is the best way to feed them. If anyone knows how I should feed blackworms I would greatly appreciate it if you told me! Thanks!

No, that's not going to work as a staple diet. The newts might get one of the worms occasionally, but they would need other food too. You can buy little plastic worm feeders that hold the worms for a short while. You can set up the tank without any gravel substrate. (If you do use gravel, it should be a thin layer anyway.) You can put the worms onto a dish under water, and that will hold them for a little while (at least give the newts a chance before the worms get to the gravel). Basically, I'd say you need to use other foods too, such as chopped earthworm or frozen bloodworm.
http://www.caudata.org/caudatecentral/

I don't recall, but aren't blackworms also called blood worms too (which is incorrect right?) anyway, i've found that these worms (the blood ones) ususally stay in a mass, or clump when dumped into the water. This clump is easily grabbed by my newts, I always feed them live bloodworms and they usually get all of them in the first few seconds. A few sometimes get knocked off the mass and dig into the gravel, but they get sucked out with the water changes.

If you have tweezers or somethig you can always hold the mass near the newts mouth and they will sometimes snatch it.

Some pet stores call blackworms "bloodworms", so there is confusion. If you have ever seen frozen bloodworms, though, you'll see the difference. Bloodworms are the aquatic larvae of Chironomous (flying insects) - they vaguely resemble very large red mosquito wigglers. Blackworms, on the other hand, look like worms, sort of like very, very thin dark earthworms. Live blackworms will clump together in a mass for a while before they escape into the gravel.

Jennewt,
Why are blackworms not a good staple food?

Chopped earthworms are much larger chunks, so they may not work as an alternative for small newts. Some newts are only interested in live food, so frozen bloodworms may not work either. What live food alternative do you recommend for small aquatic newts?

Oh, I didn't mean they aren't a good staple food. They are. But in a tank with gravel, if the worms all go into the gravel, the newts might not get enough to eat. The problem is the gravel, not the blackworms really.

Regarding earthworms, they can be chopped to any size. I have fed huge nightcrawlers to tiny 1-inch newts. It's just a matter of chopping it down to tiny bits with a razor blade. But you're right, not all newts will go for this, as it doesn't wiggle any more.

Thanks for the clarification, jennewt.

My experience with blackworms in the gravel has two extremes. In one case, they served the newts well as food when we were away for a while, so the newts were plump and happy when we returned. In another case, we fed some newts with blackworms regularly, putting in each time what we thought they would eat in one sitting. But more and more worms escaped into the gravel, until there was an overpopulation and the water quality went down all of a sudden and the newts had to basically be rescued from the mess.

Concerning nightcrawlers or earthworms, I've been cutting them with scissors until now, which doesn't allow tiny pieces. I'll keep the laser blade option in mind for small newts.