As long as there is oxygen diffusing into their blood stream, it doesn’t matter that they are in water. This makes the area beneath the gravel a well oxygenated place, and worms can survive in these conditions.

Some oxygen pumps will also have oxygen pumping through the ground of the aquarium through the gravel. In a water tank, the water should be pretty well dissolved with oxygen since most aquariums will have an oxygen pump to provide oxygen for the fish. The worms breathe by oxygen dissolving in the moist skin which then diffuses through into the bloodstream. Worms breathe through their skin, which needs to be moist.

Most importantly, do you think I could be doing any harm to the tank if I continue to drop a worm in now and then? Thanks for your info!!” ~ Bobbie McCoid that they produce be keeping the water clear, or is it just hubby’s diligence in frequent water changes? I also noticed that the water in the tank has been very clear and I was wondering if you think the worms could be credited with that also. I could not tell if they were alive as they went through the hose, but it made me think that maybe there were still alive since they were still whole.ĭo you think they could have been alive under the gravel? We do have quite a lot of aeration in the tank. I have since dropped in a few, maybe a couple per month, and those also make it to the bottom and disappear (we have small fish, but lots of them.) I thought they would just die and disintegrate, but when cleaning the tank and suctioning the gravel the other day, there were several intact worms that got sucked up from the same corner of the tank. No surprise they tried to eat ’em, but the worms were too big and got away and wiggled under the gravel. We have a 120 gallon freshwater tank and, yup, I dropped a worm or two in to see what the fish would do. “I was curious if red wigglers could survive under the gravel of a fish tank.

Download red wiggler worms