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CBW - Californian Black Worms


Chris.L

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Nothing wrong with Tubifex worms if they are cleaned thoroughly under a dripping tap for two or three days. This flushes them out of any rubbish and leaves them suitable for the fish.

They were one of our main live foods in the early days, and 'every' LFS supplied them as a normal live food for fish. but possibly through some bad press they have now become unavailable.... unless you collect your own, so now they freeze dry them and charge five times the price for a pack of cubes that look like wood shavings. :)

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Yeah buying livefood (other than as a culture) is pretty limited. My LFS sells live daphnia pretty well year round. Sometimes the daphnia supplier will send along some black worms. That's why I was wanting to know what Californian Black Worms are, as I know there are black worms in NZ (same sort of length as tubifex, but thicker and darker coloured) - I'm just not sure if that's what CBW are though.

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Thanks for the link Chris.

Now I'll have to rumage through assorted books to try and figure out what species the black worms in NZ are. From the description it's a little uncertain if they're CBW or not (mainly the quoted length causes problems, as the black worms I've come across were longer than 1 inch, but then following subsequent links from Simply Discus they say 1-2 inches which is better). In following subsequent links there was also a method to culture them - which seems pretty easy.

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Rob said...

> ... but are these similar to tubifex worms but thicker and darker?

The ones I saw in the US would fit that description, yes. I've

also seen something similar available in Australia. Whether they're

all exactly the same critter is another question. I don't know

if that even matters. I'd imagine many small clean worms from fish

free waters would have potential as food for many aquarium fish.

Pegasus said (about tubifex)...

> possibly through some bad press they have now become unavailable....

Tubifex were widely available in NZ about 20 years ago but due

to a perception that they may be a vector for 'whirling disease' (a trout

based issue) transport of tubifex was banned, thus making them

unavailable to aquarists from shops.

> In following subsequent links there was also a method to

> culture them - which seems pretty easy.

CBW can be cultured although I don't know if the same applies

to the NZ version. Tubifex can also be cultured, I've known

two people to do it in NZ with some success (one is Peter Sebborn,

so you could give him a yell if you wanted to know more).

Tubifex make excellent food for many fish if obtained clean.

Andrew.

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