Question: What do worms eat?

Lydia Bach answered on 20 Nov 2014:

Heya,

different kinds of worms eat different things. The rag worm for example, which is really common in muddy sea shores, can be a predator, a herbivore and a detritivore at the same time.

As a predator rag worms feed on other smaller worms, but also small snails or shrimps. When there is no prey around they can change to become herbivores, and feed algae and single celled plants algae called diatoms. Should there be no prey or algae around they can switch again to feed on detritus. Detritus is essentially any dead matter they can find in the sediment!

A rag worm has to eat about 30% of his own body mass every day – but has a lot of choice!