Worms - Live fish food

I thought of feeding my Tilapia fish live feed once in a while. It does them good to have it occasionally. It likes worms specifically. I remembered I had a seminar once about vermiculture or taking care of earth worms so I decided to try it.

I went to a place in Quezon City where the worms could be bought. It is a specific breed particularly for composting. It is known as the African nightcrawler. It could be bought per piece or per kilograms. I got 100 pieces for a start, the guys there led me to the cemented sort of bunded area with mud. They took the worms out together with some earth bedding put it in a plastic and gave me specific instructions not to close the plastic bag to let air in.

I prepared their initial home of a plastic bin with holes in the bottom to drain the water out. First one in is a layer of wet strips of newspaper, then a layer of earth and dried leaves and other garden cuttings. The worms would eat the beddings once it runs out of food. The important thing about the bedding is that it should be kept moist and the plastic bin kept in a dark shady area. I transferred the worms into their new home. The next day I placed a handful of raw kitchen waste for them to feed on. These african nightcrawlers are valued for their composting ability. It would feed on kitchen waste like fruit peelings, just not the citric ones, vegetable trimmings provided these are cut to small bits for faster composting.

After a few days, I noticed small castings from the worms. These are fertilizers rich in nutrients that the plants need to grow. A screen could be used to separate the castings from the worms and beddings. These castings could be sold as organic fertilizer and the worms, a fisherman's tool for catching fish! In my case, an infinite source of Tilapia feed. The quantity of worms doubles every month given the right conditions.