White Worm Care.

[Pegasus]

Hi Dennis,

You do realise this is Top Secret Information and I will have to dispose of you after you have read it, don't you he he.

I feed mine just bread soaked in aquarium water, nothing fancy.

I keep them in moist deep medium in wooden boxes in a cool place, but have some prepared in tubs. I find the wood boxes work better long term as they absorb the moisture

Each box will consume a slice or two a day if I let them, but you can control this depending on the temperature you keep them in. All uneaten bits are removed each day irrespective.

One of my tubs would feed over a hundred fish every day if cared for correctly. I use feeders made from plastic jar tops with small holes in them.

The worms seperate from the food in masses and are clean to handle, and the fish go bonkers for them.

Regards,

Bill (Pegasus)

[dennis]

thanks for that bill

i just got some the other day

so u don't need to use milk

[Rob]

Just remember to only include them as part of a balanced diet. If you feed only white worms you'll get obese fish and there is a risk of their liver being damaged.

[ajbroome]

Rob said...

> If you feed only white worms you'll get obese fish and there

> is a risk of their liver being damaged.

Can you point me to a reference for that Rob? I've heard it said

time and time again but never by anyone who has actually seen it

happen and can directly attribute the symptoms with the food source.

Not saying that it's right or wrong, but I've fed generations of

killies on just whiteworms and brineshrimp without any problems

that I'd associate with the diet. Of course, variety is much better

that monotony especially with regard to diet...

As well all know, correlation is not causation... ;-)

Andrew.

[Ira]

I've been feeding my white worms baby cereal. Seems to work well and they'll eat about a teaspoon a day. But lately the culture has been getting a bit...Ummm...Sparse. I think I might have been pulling too many worms out. I'll try bread like you do for a while, pegasus. Last time I tried soaked bread they pretty much ignored it, but I only used small pieces.

[Rob]

Well, that will teach me for repeating stuff without the reference readily to hand - I've dug through books to get a couple of references for you Andrew - unfortunately they aren't reports of scientific investigation but comments in popular press aquarium books:

from Live Foods for the Aquarium and Terrarium, Willy Jocher, TFH Publications, 1973, pg 11:

"It would be quite wrong to feed fish on whiteworms alone; this leads to obesity, particularly in breeding animals."

from Aquarium Atlas vol 1, Hans A. Baensch & Dr Rudiger Riehl, MERGUS, Paperback edition 1997, pg 881:

"They [whiteworms] are rich, fatty and if given in excess will cause constipation and degeneration of the liver."

[Pegasus]

Hi all,

I find milk tends to foul the culture too quickly Dennis, but they seem to love warm aquaium water. Been using the same method forever it seems

Size of the amount of bread is defined by the size of the culture. A butter dish size would easily consume a quarter slice a day if it was healthy. Remove ALL uneaten food if it smells in the least.

Rob said,

"They [whiteworms] are rich, fatty and if given in excess will cause constipation and degeneration of the liver."

In all my years of fishkeeping I have found the opposite, eg, If the worms, (or any live food) are fed too much to often it acts as a laxative and not constipation.

Must admit, my fish will gorge themselves till almost bursting on white worm

Regards,

Bill.

[dennis]

how the best way to get the worms out of the poting mix

and feed them to the fish?

[Pegasus]

Hi Dennis,

If your culture is thriving there should be no need to remove them from the medium as they will eat through the food and work their way up the sides of the container or item that you have covered the food with.

You should always cover the food with either a glass sheet or a sheet of rigid plastic. This goes directly on top of the food and should only be slightly smaller than your container.

White Worm cultures can die off suddenly for no apparent reason, so if your culture begins to sour at all, reseed another culture with as many good worms that you can. Keeping two or three going is the way to go.

Hope this helps,

Bill (Pegasus NZ)

[Fingol]

Found a great food for white worm cultures: pressed pellets from rabbit food. My cultures have just goes balistic on it. I also found it doesn't spoil ike breead.

[alanmin4304]

I use luncheon sausage slices--- works a treat. The main thing I have found is that they need to be kept cool.

[jim r]

I use stale bread and reduce it to a powder which dissappears pretty quick. To remove them I use an old sausage stick as they tend to cluster around the sides just like Pegasus said.I then put them into a jar filled with aquarium water and drain into a flour sieve (to remove any potting mix) then dangle the sieve in the tank till worms have been eaten.