Copperbands

[Cdiggy]

Paul I would love to hear how you grow your own black worms. Been thinking of doing this for a while. I also heard white worms are good too and the salt water doesn't kill them as fast but anything you could share about your worm farm would be great!

 

[Mike S]

^ +1. Lots of good advice in this thread. Thanks!

 

[Paul B]

I really don't know how people keep fish without live worms. If it were not for live worms I would not be in this hobby because I don't want to deal with all the problems like ich, fish dying and all of that. Worms keep my fish in breeding condition so I have no need for a quarantine or hospital tank and have not in 30 years. Besides live worms I also hatch brine shrimp every day for the small fish and mandarins which are also spawning continuously. Clams which I buy live and freeze and some frozen Mysis is all that I feed. A chowder clam cost me about 80 cents and lasts about a month.

Blackworms need shallow, moving water and they hate to go through powerheads so put them in a tank, bucket, shallow trough, your wife's underwear drawer, etc. Put a small pump in a container to keep the worms from going in as they swim about as good as Paris Hiltons dog with a cinder block tied around it. The water will go over the top of the container and not in the pump. You can keep them in the refrigerator unless your wife works out like mine does and she could take me in a fair fight.
Whiteworms live in soil and breed like crazy so you never have to buy them after the initial culture that you buy on line. They are sometimes a little pain to separate from the soil but they are probably as good as blackworms.
Whiteworms live almost as long in salt water as the fish do and they are great for mandarins as they will wriggle for hours. Blackworms live for seconds or as long as Lindsey Lohan stays out of re hab.

 

[jimroth]

Do you use PE or Hikari mysis? I've found the Hikari to be much cleaner. It also seems to be smaller.

Thanks for the detailed response Paul. Any tricks to keeping live black worms in larger quatities. I occasionally buy them now and change the water every few days? If they are going to be on the regular menu I'm wondering if there is a better way to keep them on hand.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

The Hikari mysis do seem cleaner, and in my experience the fish don't like them as much! Hikari Jumbo Mysis is particularly a hard sell, it's a little larger than PE bulk mysis and it doesn't get the same feeding response in my tanks. I am trying to rinse all the pack juice out these days since I've had phosphate issues in the past.

BTW Paul B. nice dive pics esp . the Big longnose!

I don't think I'm gonna want any matzohs for a long time!

 

[redfishbluefish]

......... I am trying to rinse all the pack juice out these days since I've had phosphate issues in the past......

Jim, FYI, the rinsing of food to eliminate phosphate is a myth. I'll see if I can quickly find the link that explains rinsing food being a waste of time.




EDIT TO ADD: Found it HERE. If you don't want to read all the chemistry crap, go about 2/3 the way down to, "Rinsing Foods and the Effect on Phosphate."

 

[Paul B]

I don't think I'm gonna want any matzohs for a long time!

I only give them to my Jewish worms.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I only give them to my Jewish worms.

Oy vey!

 

[TanksNStuff]

I wouldn't mind trying white worms too. Where do you get them Paul?

 

[Paul B]

I don't remember because they keep multiplying. I just goggled white worm culture and they sent me a started culture. They no longer eat Cheerios or Matzo's, but they love instant mashed potato flakes.. Go figure