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Earthworms Live Foods for Aquarium –  Summer is just around the corner and I’ve got a real bad case of Spring fever. It seems to get worse every year. This is the time of the year when cheap fish food becomes available. What I mean by “cheap” is free food. All you have to provide is time and the containers. Grasshoppers, crickets, and earthworms are starting to show up in the yards, parks, and fields.

by Dave Ball
President of the Southern Colorado Aquarium Society
Aquarticles

Earthworms Live Foods for Aquarium – Earthworm get around us

We’ll get to the first at a later date, the good old earthworm is the subject of the day. How many of you want a fish food that is good for your fish? I mean one that is natural, high in protein and has very low maintenance. Earthworms fit that bill. They are not on the list of foods that fish eat naturally but they eat them anyway. I started my cultures over a year ago when curiosity took hold along with the expense of keeping my larger cichlids and catfish fed properly. I had read several articles on keeping earthworms as fish food. Some people had no luck at all and others had complete success. The people who didn’t have success didn’t seem to give it enough time before harvesting. Others only used one culture or an improper medium.

Earthworms have been farmed for generations just for the fish bait and garden stores. You can go to the library and pick out several books on worm farming and cut it down to suit your needs. If you can, set one up outside. I don’t have that option. For me to set up a worm bed for my fish would be like asking for self-torture. So, a way to set-up an indoor worm culture was my only option. I first went out to a nearby park after a rainstorm collecting some night crawlers just to make sure that my fish would eat this new food. I knew they would, but why go through all of the work if they were going to refuse them? Well, I am sorry to say not a worm survived and some of my fish went on a hunger strike for a few days. Now I’ve spoiled them.

It is easy to start a worm farm by yourself – Earthworms Live Foods for Aquarium

The easiest way to get started is to buy your worms from a farm. You can get a thousand for less than $20.00. That includes shipping and they come to your front door. Mine came from a farm in Bronwood, GA. The cost was $16.00 for the first thousand. That’s under one cent apiece! How’s that for cheap? If you buy bigger lots it gets even cheaper. Where do you find this place? Look in the back of Outdoor Life magazine for the ads under live bait. You will have many choices. I chose critters called “Red Wrigglers”. These are small, About 3″-4″ in length and less than the diameter of a pencil around. Perfect for my needs. They showed up at my door in a little plain brown box with bright hot pink lettering that said “LIVE EARTHWORMS!”. Just joking about the color, but it’s amazing how the word “Live” can be read by family members even when they’re in another room. I was asked what on earth I was going to do with them. “Fish food” was the answer and everybody rolled their eyes. They think I’m nuts.

To get started you need the following:
2 – Plastic sweater boxes (12″ x 8″ x 5″ – larger if room allows)
1 – 8lb. bag Sterile peat moss, no fertilizers
1 – 8lb. bag Sterile Canadian sphagnum moss/peat moss mix, no fertilizers
1 – Starter culture of worms
Water

Now the fun begins! Just kidding; this is real easy. Mix the two kinds of peat moss at a 50/50 ratio in the sweater box. I use the Canadian moss because it helps hold moisture longer without getting packed down too much. This helps when it comes time to feed the worms. After it is mixed (it doesn’t have to be perfect, the worms will do the rest) add some water, just enough to make the soil damp. The best way to check this is to grab some soil in you hand and if you can squeeze a drop of water out of it, it’s just about right to get started. In time you will know just how damp, not moist, to keep your cultures. Make some holes in the lid about the size of a pencil. Don’t make too many at first, only about 6 – 8. These are to control humidity. You will probably have to make some more later on depending on how tight the lid fits. For example, I have one box with 14 holes and another with 23. This also comes into play if you stack your cultures. I chose not to. Split your culture up between the two boxes. You can use the medium that they were shipped in also. It won’t hurt anything.

How to take care your worm bin – Earthworms Live Foods for Aquarium

Feeding is easy. Use oatmeal, corn meal, instant potatoes, old bread and mashed potatoes. Any of the above dry foods can be sprinkled on top of the medium with a little water. I like to make a hole in the middle of the culture and bury the food. This keeps the medium from getting compacted. If you use leftover mashed potatoes or pasta, make sure it is free of any butter, margarine, or oil. Gravy is optional (not really). The food should be in pure form with no condiments. Feed the culture only after the prior food is consumed. This will take 4 to 7 days depending on the size and density of the culture. It takes about 3 months for the reproduction cycle to get into full swing. I know it will be hard but leave them alone except for feeding. Check on them from time to time and you will start to find little ones. What I am going to do and will have started by the time you read this is to pull the breeders from the two main cultures to start a third. I won’t mess with that one except to feed and add breeding stock. This will give me more of a culture base to work with.

Earthworms Live Foods for Aquarium – When it comes time to feed my fish, I just dig some up, wash them off and toss them into the tank I want to feed. For the smaller fish I’ll take a worm by one end hold it over the tank and cut it up with a pair of scissors. These are my scissors. A word of warning: don’t use the scissors that are lying in the kitchen drawer. There IS HELL TO PAY if you are caught using them to cut up worms. This is from first hand experience. Go buy your own. It’s much safer. Here’s one last little bit of advice. I’ve had some small insects inhabit the surface of several different types of soil based worm cultures. I think these are mites. I know this sounds bad but these little guys keep the surface of the medium clean and free from mold and fungus. This is a guess, but on a culture of white worms that didn’t have these insects, mold, fungus and other crud got so out of control I had to throw it out. These mites are just there for the free meal. Keep the culture fed and they will keep it clean. They have never been a problem for me. I hope some of you will give this a try. I keep cultures under my book-stand in my fish room out of sight. Now I have plenty of food for practically nothing. Give earthworms a try, if it doesn’t work just throw them in the garden. It’ll make up for the scissors incident. Have fun growing your live foods.

Any question about Earthworms Live Foods for Aquarium, please contact:

Anphu Earthworm Co., Ltd

5/8 Streest No 15, Binh An Ward, Dist 2, Hochiminh City – Vietnam
Tel/Zalo: 8498.3346179 – Fax: 8428-62810261
Email: wormvns@gmail.com

Including Earthworm in Organic Poultry Diets is widenly applied in worldwide agriculture….

Introduction Including Earthworm in Organic Poultry Diets

It is common for free-range chickens to consume earthworms. Earthworms are very efficient at converting plant and animal wastes into biomass that can be used as a feed ingredient in animal production: a ton of animal wastes will produce about 100 kg of worms (Edwards, 1985). Earthworms are a good quality protein for use in animal feeds, but the practical use of earthworm meal is influenced by economics. Technology is available for large-scale production of earthworms, but separating the earthworms from the organic wastes in which they are growing is labor intensive, thus hindering the use of earthworm meal in developed countries. The potential is greater for producing earthworm meal in developing countries where labor costs are lower.

Composition of Including Earthworm in Organic Poultry Diets

The nutritional profile of earthworms is comparable to other protein sources currently used in poultry feeds, especially fish meal (Edwards, 1985). On a dry matter basis, earthworms contain 60-70% protein, 6-11% fat, 5-21% carbohydrates, and 2-3% minerals and a range of vitamins, including niacin. Earthworms are higher in the essential amino acids, such as lysine and methionine, than either meat or fish meal. Earthworm meal is high in essential long-chain fatty acids.

Table 1. Nutrient content of earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris) (Finke, 2002)

Feeding Earthworms to Poultry – Including Earthworm in Organic Poultry Diets

There is very little information on the use of earthworm meal in poultry diets. A study in Indonesia showed that 10% earthworm meal could replace a large portion of the fish meal in the diet with no adverse affect on body weight gain or feed efficiency. Feed intake was reduced at the 15% inclusion level (Prayogi, 2011).

Care must be taken when growing earthworms for use in animal feeds. Heavy metals and other pollutants are taken up by the worms and can be passed on to the birds consuming the earthworms (Sharma et al., 2005). It is important, therefore, to know what material was used in the vermicomposting process.

Anphu Earthworm Co., Ltd

5/8 Streest No 15, Binh An Ward, Dist 2, Hochiminh City – Vietnam
Tel/Zalo: 8498.3346179 – Fax: 8428-62810261
Email: wormvns@gmail.com

The Useful Of Earthworm Powder For Human Care as Lumbricus Tonic has no known, toxicities, contraindications or interactions.

Hisashi MIHARA
Hiroyuki SUMI
Hideaki MIZUMOTO
Tomoyuki YONETA
Ryuzo IKEDA
and
Masugi MARUYAMA
_________________________
Department of Physiology
Miyazaki Medical College
Kiyotake, Miyazaki

INTRODUCTION The Useful Of Earthworm Powder For Human Care

The history of use of the earthworm as a therapeutic drug source for various diseases extends back for several thousand years in China and other parts of the Far East. However, practical pharmacological studies have not been performed except on lumbrofebrin as an antifebrile (1). In 1983, we reported that very strong and novel fibrinolytic enzymes could be extracted from the earthworm, Lumbricus rubellus (2). These enzymes were fractionated and purified as six novel fibrinolytic enzymes, and named collectively as lumbrokinase. We have also found that earthworm powder contains two kinds of inhibitory substances for the platelet aggregation induced by collagen and ADP. One of these inhibitors of platelet aggregation was identified with adenosine. However, the other was a novel substance of MW 260. The structure of this substance was decided on the basis of NMR, mass spectra and infrared spectra (3). This novel substance also displays a relaxation effect for the canine saphenous vein induced by prostaglandin F in vitro and
an inhibitory effect on the active partial thromboplastin time (APTT). In view of the above-mentioned effects, the earthworm powder appeared to be a potentially very useful agent for thrombosis. We therefore undertook experiments on the oral administration effects against intravascular fibrin clots using earthworm powder in dogs and humans.

Human Experiments – The Useful Of Earthworm Powder For Human Care

DISCUSSION
An account of the earthworm being employed as a drug was given in the oldest known Chinese book, Shen Nong Ben Cao which is thought to have been published between the first and third century. Chang Xui Chenghe Cheng Lei Ben Cao published in 1229, indicates that the earthworm had already been used for cerebral apoplexy before the book was actually published. This is a very important point, not least because, at the present time, more than 60% of cerebral apoplexy
involves cerebral thrombosis. Clearly, this is very closely connected to the above report. However, despite these ancient descriptions in oriental medial books, detailed pharmacological studies have not yet been undertaken except on lumbrofebrin as an antifebrile (1).

We recently obtained novel fibrinolytic enzymes from the earthworm, Lumbricus rubellus and named them collectively as lumbrokinase (2). We therefore attempted to utilize this earthworm as an oral thrombolytic agent. It is a problem as to whether functional proteins can be absorbed into the circulation from the intestine or not. However, many interesting investigations on the intestinal absorption of enzyme proteins have recently demonstrated that small amounts of enzyme proteins administered orally can be absorbed from the intestinal tract into the circulation (8, 9, 10). In fact, as shown in the present animal experiments, it is possible for orally administered earthworm powder to digest intravascular fibrin clots. Administration of earthworm powder orally to volunteers was therefore carried out. As clearly demonstrated by the present results, oral administration of earthworm powder was able to increase the fibrinolytic activity of the blood. From the data obtained, we believe that the increase in fibrinolytic activity may be due to t-PA-like activator, either that transported across the intestinal membrane or that newly synthesized by endothelial cells. The increase in FDP observed after 24 hours of administration also shows that fibrinolysis occurred within the body. It was unclear whether the increase of FDP demonstrated either fibrinolysis or fibrinogenolysis in the present experiments. However, when the levels of D-D-dimer were measured in some cases following administration of earthworm powder, an increase in D-D-dimer was observed like that for FDP (data not shown). The observed increase of FDP would thus appear to indicate that intravascular fibrin was digested by the administration of earthworm powder. In particular, the FDP levels were very sharply increased on the next day after commencing the administration of earthworm powder, and decreased a few days later. It is interesting to note that higher increases of FDP were observed in older volunteers in than younger volunteers. This suggests that fibrin clots are usually present to a greater or lesser extent in the vascular bed of healthy persons who are more than 30 years old, and can usually be digested by the administration of earthworm powder. In the one case who had been receiving earthworm powder for 3 years before the present experiments, the FDP did not increase and the t-PA antigen level was already high before the experiments. It is concluded that no fibrin deposits were present in this case prior to the experiments due to his long administration of earthworm  powder.

One other interesting finding obtained in the present study was that t-PA antigen increased after the administration of earthworm powder. This implies that such administration can release endogenous plasminogen activator. The release of endogenous plasminogen activator seems to be very important in the treatment of patients with thrombosis. When we carried out treatment of patients with cerebral thrombosis by urokinase injection, cases in which the t-PA antigen value was increased after the injection of urokinase showed positive results, whereas cases in which no
increase in t-PA antigen value had been observed showed no effect (11). We are now trying to extract a fraction, which is able to release endogenous plasminogen activator, from earthworm powder.
Streptokinase, urokinase and t-PA are currently in use as thrombolytic agents. Streptokinase is very effective for thrombosis, but it displays an antigenicity in humans, and cannot therefore be
utilized repeatedly. Another known fibrinolytic agent is urokinase extracted from human urine. However, since only very small amounts of urokinase can be extracted in this way, urokinase is very expensive. In Japan, the use of urokinase has therefore been limited to 50,000 international units per person per day by the government. However, if more than 200,000 units of urokinase are needed, no appreciable effect can be expected. Recently, recombinant t-PA has been employed for thrombosis. However, even recombinant t-PA is rather expensive to produce. Also, streptokinase, urokinase and recombinant t-PA can be administered only by intravenous injection, so that fibrinolysic therapy with them needs to be undertaken in the hospital only.

In contrast, earthworm powder can be given orally, which is very convenient for patient use. For this reason, earthworm powder has a potential application as a thrombolytic agent as demonstrated in this paper, and also exerts an inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation, an anticoagulation effect and a relaxation effect for the vascular system, which are all effective for thrombotic therapy. We conclude therefore that earthworm powder represents a very promising agent for the treatment of thrombosis.

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Lumbricus Tonic – The Useful Of Earthworm Powder For Human Care

A combination of herbs and earthworms, or lumbricus, used for thousands of years in Southeast Asia to tonify the sympathetic and parasympathetic functions of the
central nervous system, thereby supporting digestive function in the stomach and the gastrointestinal tract.
Its tonic properties also make it beneficial support for the liver and other organ systems. In China, Korea, Vietnam and most of Southeast Asia, lumbricus has been used for their therapeutic benefits for thousands of years and referred to as Earth Dragons. In Korea, these earthworms are believed to promote general health and prevent a wide variety of diseases.
Furthermore, the earthworm is a primary ingredient in the traditional Vietnamese remedy known as, Miracle Medicine that can Save Lives in 60 Minutes. Several Vietnamese-based studies have demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of the earthworm for supporting immunity and cardiovascular health. Because it originates from the soil, the earthworm has a dense nutritional content as well as anti-oxidant properties.
Lumbricus Tonic is a multi-agent supplement of which the principal ingredient is lumbricus, earthworm powder in combination with Atractylodes alba, Poria cocos, and Acorus gramineus. This formula is used for supporting digestion and assimilation, liver function, relieving liver congestion, and enhancing hepatic antioxidant and detoxification function.

Ingredients-Proprietary Blend 1500 mg:
Lumbricus (earthworm powder) – Supportive for muscle relaxation and tonification of the sympathetic nervous system, thereby being potentially beneficial for digestion.
Atractylodes alba – Supportive for the functions of the stomach and spleen, (organs responsible for food digestion in Eastern Philosophy) thereby being potentially beneficial for low appetite, poor
digestion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, bloating and indigestion. Atractylodes has been shown to be of benefit for abdominal distention, pain and gurgling sensations in the abdomen as well as adversely affecting viruses.
Poria cocos – The most widely used herb in Chinese herbalism. Supportive for the spleen, lung, kidney, triple warmer, bladder, heart and gallbladder, Poria cocos is a Yin tonic benefiting fluid metabolism by regulating body fluids. It benefits the circulation of Ch’i in the triple warmer and is
important for the health of the internal organs. It is calming to the nervous system and is considered a heart tonic, lung tonic and plays a role in blood sugar regulation.  Acorus Gramineus – Used traditionally as a digestive tonic supporting the circulation of digestive juices, for ringing in the ears, excess phlegm, abdominal bloating, achiness and poor memory.

Other ingredients: Magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide.
Lumbricus Tonic has no known, toxicities, contraindications or interactions.

Anphu Earthworm Co., Ltd

5/8 Streest No 15, Binh An Ward, Dist 2, Hochiminh City – Vietnam
Tel: 8498.3346179 – Fax: 8428-62810261
Email: wormvns@gmail.com

Zalo: +840983346179