Invasive species as potential live food?

[ScareCrow]

Hi All,

I've found a couple of the below in my garden. From a bit of googling they're Australian flatworms Australplana sanguinea, which is an invasive non-native and apparently predate upon earthworms.
I was wondering if I could use them as a live food source? I can't find anything to suggest that they're toxic.
My corys like earthworms but so do I, so feeding them these might be beneficial both to my garden and the fish.
I'm not going to be able to eradicate them but as they can reproduce by division squashing or cutting them potentially risks creating more. I've tested their breath holding and escaping from water abilities and they're not good, so unlikely to be a risk of them reproducing in water.
Sorry to copy you in directly @dw1305 but unless there are any annelid experts on here (apologies if there are and I've missed you) I'm guessing you'd be the most likely to know.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

From a bit of googling they're Australian flatworms Australplana sanguinea, which is an invasive non-native and apparently predate upon earthworms.

That looks right <"Australoplana sanguinea | NatureSpot">.

I was wondering if I could use them as a live food source? I can't find anything to suggest that they're toxic.

I'm not sure about toxic (I think they maybe), but I'd be really surprised if the fish eat them. I've never found any fish that will eat flatworms.

My corys like earthworms but so do I,

You can keep <"Lumbricus rubellus"> or <"other epigeic worms"> easily in a small compost bin. I don't bother now as I don't have any larger fish, and there is a solid "earthworm layer" in the compost bin with thousands of worms in it.

I've found that fish aren't keen on <"Eisenia fetida"> (Brandling or Tiger worm) but they eat everything else.

cheers Darrel

 

[ScareCrow]

Hi all,

That looks right <"Australoplana sanguinea | NatureSpot">.

I'm not sure about toxic (I think they maybe), but I'd be really surprised if the fish eat them. I've never found any fish that will eat flatworms.

If you keep <"Lumbricus rubellus"> or <"other epigeic worms"> easily in a small compost bin.

I've found that fish aren't keen on <"Eisenia fetida"> (Brandling or Tiger worm) but they eat everything else.

cheers Darrel

Thanks for your reply Darrel,
I'm just guessing that they probably will have some toxin, the few species I've encountered have so, imagine it might be a shared trait but not sure.
I thought the fish might be more likely to eat these as they predate earthworms and so if I chop them up there might be some residual earthworm smell to stimulate the fish.
I'll not try it then as I don't want to harm my fish.