Live food.

[Ira]

Ok, I picked up a little container of mealworms and a little container of whiteworms. Now...What do I do with them? Other than feeding them to my fish, I mean. The instructions on the containers are pretty basic, keep the whiteworms in a fridge, keep the mealworms at room temperature. But, beyond that? Do the mealworms reproduce or am I stuck with what I've got? Do I wait for them to grow bigger? The ones in the container are pretty tiny.

[Pegasus]

All you need to know.

http://www.livefoodcultures.com/whiteworms.html

[Caryl]

Wooden boxes for your worms are better than plastic ones as they breathe, so stop the mix going so sour.

I kept my white worms in the hot water cupboard, not the fridge. They also like it dark.

They were fed bread sprinkled with a little milk and occasionally yeast. My daughter won a Science Fair category once with her project about white worms.

I know Squid (fishroom member) used to breed his white worms in a bath as he needed so many when he was breeding fish in large numbers.

[Ira]

Looks like I could just grab a container, I only have plastic, no wood, throw some potting soil in, throw the worms and some baby cereal in and be good. I think I have some baby cereal.

[Pegasus]

Caryl said,

Wooden boxes for your worms are better than plastic ones as they breathe, so stop the mix going so sour

Do you ACTUALLY read these posts Ira ???

Did you visit the link I posted?

Obviously not....

Your culture will "Sweat" and be dead in a week.

[Ira]

Do you actually read the links you suggest? It says, "we recommend that you consider using a plastic shoebox or a plastic sweater box for culturing." Anyway, seeing as I have a plastic container and don't have a wooden one, I'm going to try the plastic one.

[Pegasus]

Hi Ira,

Just saw your post, but I'd already compiled this so read it anyway

Just note that there are many methods, and mine, like many others works a treat.

Alright, we'll try again.

Make up a "Wooden box" around 150 to 200mm square and around 75 to 100mm deep.

Fill to within 25mm from the top with moist peat.

Have a piece of glass cut to fit inside the box and sit on top of the peat. The glass should not be too tight a fit as the wood may swell.

Dig a hollow in the centre of the moist peat and tip your culture in.

DON'T spread the culture about, but just place it in in one lump. Adjust the peat as required.

Soak a piece of bread (without crust.. thin slice) in aquarium water. The size of the bread should be around 50 to 75mm square. Place this directly over the centre where you put the culture.

Place your glass over the top of the bread/peat/culture mix and cover the lot with a piece of card to keep it dark.

Opinions vary, but I keep my white worm cultures cool, and have always had ample supplies of worms when needed.

Leave the culture alone for a day or so, as robbing the worms at this stage will give you poor results in the future.

Watch the culture carefully to see that the bread doesn't foul. If it does, and is left for any amount of time it will kill your culture off.

If the bread looks mushy and smells bad, Replace it.

Check the glass surface as you check the culture.

The worms will congregate on the glass sheet.

NEVER feed direct from the culture, but ALWAYS from the glass.

If you are squeemish, use a razor blade to scrape the worms from the glass, but the index finger works for me

In a few days time you should have enough worms adhering to the glass to make daily feeds.

Try different foods as Caryl suggested, but be careful not to make it too mushy as it could remain uneaten and foul the culture.

Try only SMALL amounts at a time for the above reasons.

If the worms are not congregating on the glass after a day or so there could be something amiss, so check your culture is still alive and well.

Want to keep it going ??

After a week or so your culture COULD be going well enough to split.

If there are very few worms each day, ignore this, but if you have an abundance of worms do the following.

Set up another box identical to the first, and go through each stage as outlined above, but this time introduce a SMALL clump of culture containing worms from your active culture. Use about a HEAPED TABLESPOON only from you good culture.

Replace what you have robbed with moist peat.

Plop this into your NEW culture box and cover with a small portion of soaked bread and then your glass and card. Again, place in a cool place.

Doing this method you have a "Back up" in case your culture goes sour.

Refrain from feeding from culture 2 until it has become well established.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Bill (Pegasus)

[Ira]

Since the glass is supposed to be a fairly tight fit I'm assuming that the container should be relatively sealed? I mean not air tight but it shouldn't be open topped? I'll give the culture a little while and see what happens, then I'll see if I can find something like a piece of glass to lay on the top. For the moment would a lid with a bunch of holes poked in it be good or what?

Oh, and for food, I've just dusted the top of the dirt with baby cereal after dumping the whole container of the culture on top and spreading it around. I did it before you said not to spread it.

[Pegasus]

Hi again,

The glass should not be too tight a fit as the wood may swell.

[Ira]

Not worried about them escaping, worried about it drying out too much. I'll check it daily and just give it a quick spray with a spray bottle if it's a bit dry.

I'm definitely not in any hurry, I'm doing this more out of curiousity than need for food. Maybe next I'll try some earthworms to feed my cichlids, hehehehe.

[Ira]

Just had a look at the culture again after punching a bunch of holes in the lid. It's full of little red bugs. I'm guessing that's a very bad sign.

[Caryl]

I often kept my cultures in an ice cream container with holes punched in the lid (more readily available than little wooden containers - couldn't be bothered making them specially). Don't worry about the red bugs, they are ok - another source of live food

[Caryl]

Just found this article I wrote for our club newsletter back in 1996...

White worms are a good live food for fish and easy to grow. Here's how...

Get a wooden box 25cm x 30cm x 10cm high (or use an ice cream container like me). Fill with friable soil (ie. crumbly dirt). I use peat mixed with a bit of sand and Sid Smithies reckons they like the addition of a bit of lime.

Put a cover of glass resting on the top of the soil (a bit of Perspex works as well). This keeps it moist, which is vital, and keeps out undesirable livestock (after all, you don't want sheep wandering through your white worms) - I didn't write some of this, I think they are referring to smaller livestock ie. mice. Then put a light-proof cover on the lot - either the ice cream container lid or a bit of cardboard will do. Make sure it is not airtight, as a worm's gotta breathe!

Put your starter culture (buy it from a pet shop or scrounge some off another club member) in two or three hollows in the soil and enough bread to cover a 20c piece over the top. You can slightly moisten the bread if you like. If you use milk though, the bread will tend to sour and go off faster. The worms must eat all the bread in two days, which is why you only give them a little bit to start with. Slowly build up the amount until you can gauge how much they eat.

When my culture is up and running, I just put a slice of bread in every few days. There are a number of foods you can use to feed your worms. Mashed potato, cheese, porridge, luncheon and bread are all recommended, as is pet food.

Once your culture has matured you can start harvesting. You should be able to remove them clean from around the bread, or off the glass lid. As soon as they are exposed to light, they burrow down into the soil so grab them quickly. They should form a tight ball of wriggling worms that you can pick up with tweezers or a teaspoon.

Here's a few quick hints on how to keep your worms alive and thriving...

1. Try to keep the temperature between 12- 14°C.

2. Keep the dirt damp but not too wet.

3. If your worms keep trying to climb up the sides of the container, it is too wet.

4. Uneaten food will go mouldy. Check regularly and change it if necessary.

5. Stir up the dirt every six months and add more if required.

6. Don't overfeed if going away. The culture will be ok for 1-3 weeks.

7. An earthworm or two helps the soil.

8. It takes about 4 weeks for the culture to reach full production.

NOTE: These worms are very rich (like fatty foods for us). Don't feed them to your fish more than twice a week or they will not be well. You wouldn't want to be responsible for giving your fish high cholesterol would you?

Having read that again, I don't know who told me to keep them in the hot water cupboard but I did, and they grew well - most of the time.

[ajbroome]

My whiteworm method.

I've never been a fan of the 'my way or the highway' approach

to instructions - read other peoples suggestions, experiment, and

go with what works for you...

I've used plastic trays (about 15 inches square by 4 deep) as

well as large shallow polystyrene fish boxes. About 2 inches of

the cheapest potting mix you can buy (supermarket stuff seems

to work). The theory with going cheap is that it has the least

amount of expensive fertilizers and so forth in it, not that I'm

convinced that they're the problem people claim. I keep the

mix fairly damp and put food under pieces of glass. My cultures

are all covered but not tightly (I want to exclude light, not air).

The plastic trays have a loose fitting piece of polystyrene on

top of the glass while the fishbox has its lid with a few holes

punched in the side.

For food I use boring old white bread, works a treat for me. It

will go mouldy though, if you use too much, so start off with a wee

bit and replace it when it's gone or if it goes green...

I keep them cool, on a concrete floor in the garage.

They take a while to get established, the trick is to start off

with a good sized culture if you can.

If I'd bought a starter from a pet store (probably supplied by

Biosuppliers) then I'd probably initially start it off in a couple

of 2L ice cream containers until numbers built up...

BTW: My fishbox culture has been going for 10+ years and

the plastic tray ones at least 6 or 7. It pays to have several

cultures going at once so that you have a spare if one falls

over and so that you don't harvest one too heavily at any one

time. I also choose *not* to believe the 'they're too fatty to use

too much' line.

For quick results, for smaller fish, I recommend Grindal Worms

which multiply much faster and can be kept at warmer temps.

Just my thoughts,

Andrew.

[Ira]

Thanks everyone. I've got mine sitting on top of the fridge, so that should hopefully be a little cooler. I better put something over it though, it's in a clear plastic container.