With axolotls becoming more and more popular as pets, we constantly see new questions being asked from the community about how to care for their axolotl and what to feed them.
This does seem to go in trends of whatever people are talking about feeding their axolotls on social media that month but we have recently noticed a number of people asking about using black forms for axolotl food.
Black worms, especially live black worms have been seeing a drastic increase in their popularity as a food option for aquarium keepers over the last year or so.
With so many aquarium keepers using black worms as a food source for their fish, it is only natural that we would see a spike in the number of people using looking to use them with other common pets such as axolotls.
Due to seeing so many people constantly reaching out and asking about feeding axolotls black worms, we wanted to publish our own article going overusing them as a food source.
Our hope is that we will be able to help our readers better understand their nutritional values and when you are able to use them with your pet axolotl to help improve the nutritional profile of your pet’s diet.
Can You Use Black Worms For Axolotl Food?
You can use black worms as an axolotl food with live black worms being a very popular treat food option for baby and juvenile axolotls.
Once an axolotl is fully grown, black worms can often be missed due to their small size and axolotls often not being very good at striking for their food.
We usually recommend that you always go with live California black worms for your axolotls if possible but Australian black worms can be used with axolotls but they are difficult to find in North America and Europe.
Depending on your location, you may see the term “California black worms” or “European black worms” on the packaging of your black worms but they are both the same species of Lumbriculus variegatus worms where as Australian black worms are a totally different species.
Some people have tried freeze-dried black worm with their axolotl but for some reason, many axolotls seem to ignore the freeze-dried option.
If for whatever reason you are not able to find live black worms for your axolotl, we would recommend that you try regular sinking pellets as most axolotls and other amphibians tend to absolutely love them.
Nutritional Value Of Black Worms For Axolotls!
Black worm are a great source of protein for axolotls but are generally considered to be too high in protein to be used as a primary food source so should only be used as a treat food on occasion.
Although black worm do contain a wide range of vitamins and minerals, they tend to be in trace amounts so black worms are often used as more of a general use multi vitamin type treat for axolotls rather than to boost a specific nutrient in their diet.
This is very common in fish keeping and amphibian keeping but our general recommendation is to use a high-quality axolotl food for the primary food source of your axolotl and then add on various treat foods such as black worm or blood worm as required.
This allows you to keep the diet of your pet axolotl interesting without you overdoing it with a food source that is so high in protein.
The regular axolotl foods that have been designed for use as the primary food source also tend to have an excellent nutritional profile anyway with some of them being nutritionally complete for your axolotl when it comes to its vitamin and mineral intake.
This can open up a wide range of additional treat food options for your pet axolotl as they are not reliant on specific treat foods to top up certain areas of their diet where they are deficient in certain nutrients.
Should You Feed Your Axolotl Black Worms?
It is usually perfectly fine to feed black worms to a baby or juvenile axolotl as the axolotl is small enough to easily eat the black worms with ease.
Although you would think that it would be even easier for an adult axolotl to eat black worms due to its larger mouth, it also moves more water as it swims and will often push the black worms away as it approaches and not end up being able to eat them as easily as baby or juvenile axolotls.
I’m sure the majority of our readers have seen the videos online of adult axolotls swimming towards food, accidentally pushing the food out of the way due to the force of the water as they swim and still striking and acting as if they caught the food in their mouth.
Although this is funny to watch, it can be problematic with smaller food sources such as black worm and you may think that our adult axolotl is eating when it actually isn’t and can sometimes result in dietary issues such as less calories being consumed than you think.
Although you can try black worm with your adult axolotl if you want, it may be a good idea to get something like a aquarium feeder to release the black worms into your tanks water near your axolotl’s mouth to make it as easy as possible for them to eat the worms.
Although this may sound unnecessary, axolotls are notoriously clumsy and will often accidentally miss their food, especially live food or small, light food that their water pressure can easily move.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over feeding black worms to an axolotl to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you decide if you want to try black worms with your pet axolotl and although they are a great source of nutrients, they can be a pain to successfully feed to an adult axolotl but if you think outside of the box, you are usually able to think of a way to feed black worms to axolotls of all age.
