Tubifex worms

[Matthew]

Does anyone culture these worms - If so what do you find works best for their culture.

[MrEd]

Hi Matthew. Yeh I culture them in an old bath tub. You'll obviously need a starter culture and depending on the population will, like fish, depend how much to feed them .... or though they are way more forgiving! You don't want too much food in there as it will go off and pong and may introduce bad bacteria when you feed them to your fish. I add a small amount of dryed cherry tree leaves (tree grows next to the bath) though most leaves will do but I steer clear from the toxic plants, like Rhodo's and oak etc. I have added lettuce to encourage Daphnia and the worms hoe into them also and the odd banana skin goes down a treat. Keep it in a cool place over summer, mine is under the shade of a decidious tree which also gives warmth over winter. I have placed a fine chicken wire screen over the top top prevent too much leaf matter getting in in Autumn.

I just leave them to it and only harvest around the rim of the bath being careful not to harvest too much. I have noticed also after heavy rain they rise in mass out of the bottom sludge and cling to the algae on the sides in their thousands and if the water overflows they will go with it so I have a collection container next to the bath also. If the water is a clear peaty brown with no odour unless stired (and then not offensive), or green with infusoria, you are on the right track. My fish love them and it is a good aditional live food source plus I get good breedings using them to fatten up fish ... just don't overdo it! Good luck!

[Matthew]

Cheers Mr Ed,

I figured that the culture would be similar to what you have said, but it is nice to have this clarified.

The culture I have is going strong at the moment - including numerous mosquito larvae as a bonus, and it looks similar to the Daphnia tanks it is sitting next to.

Have you had any problems with feeding these to your fish causing disease? or does having a "controlled" culture eliminate any nasties from your tubifex?

Cheers

[MrEd]

I have had a bad case of Dropsy lately, in one tank system for the first time, but I have been feeding tubifex to all my others (9 tanks) so can't say they were the cause. I suspect it was infact 2 fish I bought in that were carrying it as they died first and developed it shortly after their introduction. All said and done I'd have to say no and there those out there who say they are harvested from sewerage outlets so they must carry bacteria and indeed "those" probably do! Carefully cultured tubifex dining on leaves however would contain no more bacteria than an Earth Worm!

[alanmin4304]

Thirty years ago every pet shop in town sold live tubifex and we use to provide it to the shops. One shop used to buy 45 lbs twice a week and virtually every fish keeper used to feed them. People are paranoid about them living on filth but they actually live on high protein and we used to get them from the river adjacent to an outfall from a freezing works and the effluent was red with blood during discharge. I have bred and raised 50,000 fish/year and fed them almost exclusively on tubifex without any disease problems. You leave them in clean water for a few days to flush out before feeding them

[Barrie]

and when we bought them from the shops, the first thing we did was keep them in the fridge (next to that nights meat)

other than my 6 toes, there was never a problem

[alanmin4304]

As I recall they were more expensive than steak.

[tHEcONCH]

But tasted better :lol:

[MrEd]

Interesting .... so I'm guessing it was the health Dept who banned them?

Do you know if they had an "actual" reason, ie someone got sick, or were they just being a Gov't Dept?

[Barrie]

were they banned or just not sold commercially?

[alanmin4304]

I don't think they were banned they just disappeared when the discharge to the river was cleaned up and they ran out of food. The maf put a restriction on moving them to the North Island because they claimed it would spread whirling disease. They thought they came from the CCC sewage oxidation ponds and anyone who new better did not correct them for fear of them disappearing. I use to send them to people in Auckland and Tauranga until they stopped that. There is a large pet shop business here which was largely funded by expoting freeze dried tubifex to the very wealthy people who live in the desert and prove their extreme wealth by having large goldfish ponds in the desert. They was interesting times.

[jayci]

What is the difference between tubifex and bloodworm?

[Zev]

Have a look here:

http://www.gsas.org/Articles/1997/tubifex.html

[mr pleco]

the actual cause as i remember ( i remember the days of having a bucket full ) to stop selling them was that MAF had it in their head they could carry the disease TB dont ask me to spell it id have to google it but was possible ,in their eyes if you hadnt had yr shots or had a cut or break in yr skin, but yep about twenty years ago worked at HHF in MT Roskill and we sold them by the bucket load as i remember it was about $2 a handful

would love to get a culture started if anyone is willing to sell me some (have bath will travel :lol: )

[Matthew]

I am happy to share some of mine although I would rather the culture became established before disrupting it.

The way I see it - the more people with them then the more likely I will be able to gain a new starter culture if my one packs a sad.

[alanmin4304]

We used to come back from the river with many buckets of gunge that was about 80% worms. You keep them in the dark and tip the water off the top and they rise to the top starved of oxygen---to be scooped off. We then moved them to trays 1/2 full of 1/2 inch crushed metal with water running through it to clean them out. For those that know the area, they used to come from the South Branch of the Waimakariri river along from the Belfast pub.

[Barrie]

Matt

I need to come around and have a good look at your place soon I think.

Im away from tuesday untill Sunday so expect to see someone in a trench coat taking photos sometime after that

[alanmin4304]

Your killies will love you.

[Barrie]

Alan

From memory, thats all I fed them... probably the odd bit of Mozzie and daphnia but that was there staple diet

[MrEd]

Hey Alan .... I curious how you found the Belfast Pub site .... did you literally stumble upon it??? I'd love to find a wild source and am curious as to the know what to look for?

I might be able to spare you some Mr Pleco to get you started but they're a bit scarce at the moment as I collect daily for my breeding Angles (or bleed'n Angels)..... boy do they eat!

Worms are a handy food source for them as if food falls too low the Angels won't touch it and rots but the worms just burrow in waiting to be gravel vac'ed and re fed!

[alanmin4304]

Everyone has there own way of doing things and you should do what works for you. I used to have 8 pairs of angels breeding in bare tanks with only a slate to lay on. As Barrie said they were raised for generations with vitually only tubifex and they would spawn about every 10 days. Brine shrimp/ microworm, then tubifex. Never had white worm then, didn't need to bother. Found the place in Belfast by keeping my ears to the ground. They are around outfalls to the river which the Regional Councils are gradually cleaning up. Have a look around any regular outfall which has high protein. People think they live on filth but they only do well on high protein like blood from a freezing works. You will find a few around outfalls from a cow shed but you need enough for them to get starved of oxygen and seperate from the gunge if you are going to do it commercially, and I think those days are gone as we get more environmentally friendly.

[Matthew]

Barrie

Just make sure the trench coat doesn't fly open in the wind

[Barrie]

that would also be scarey to me mate

[alienara2]

I know this post is literally half the age of my oldest boy but does anyone still culture bloodworms? Or did anyone actually start a culture up here in Auckland?

[alanmin4304]

What we used to sell to the shops as tubifex was actually lumbriculus (blackworms) and Rodney Fletcher could sell you a starter culture I believe.They go best on high protein food and most people feed them kitten pallets or trout pallets