Nearly 2 years ago I bought california blackworms on aquabid. Unfortunately many died before I could use them all however for about 6 months I kept them alive just by changing the water often (was using tap) and giving some food. I was using frozen pumpkin which now thinking back is probably the reason why I don't still have some =/ OH and they were not being kept in the fridge I had a 28qt rubbermaid container for them.
Anyway last year late march I broken my leg and got "nailed" literally meaning I had a metal spike placed through my bone to help hold the pieces in place while it heals. 5 days in the hospital then weeks before I even got out of bed except to... Was lucky enough to have someone to bring me what I needed. In anycase the worms needed a water change every 2-3 days or there would be a die off I know this from experience. And now its been weeks =<
I got back to them and de-canted to remove the dead and stink of the water and put in a little food. Kept doing this about once a week even tho all I could see was a few wigglers. Until the last 2 days I had been taking care of them on an "if i get to it" basis which basically means the "culture" if I should even call it that didn't grow much. They did have an air stone tho for the 2 years they lived in that container.
Now this is where I am today... I believe all the leech like planaria are gone and what I have left seems to be 2 species of worm. The ones I believe are blackworms are actually red in color and the other which are likely tubifex which are black and red. The red ones are bigger around, dont seem to stretch much (the tubifex are like rubber bands) and when touched they tend to wriggle the tubifex curl up. I was using 2 wooden kabob sticks to seperate the worms from what I will describe as a rubbery mucus ball. The tubifex seemed able to glue themselves to the stick the red worms would not do that.
Here is a video and a snapshot of the worms. OH another difference is that the tubifex in the mucus ball wriggle fast the red worms wave slowly in the water. I don't believe the red worms make the mucus balls but they will share it!
[YT]IrJU2fYa_Uw[/YT]
I am going to try and culture these in the same way I am culturing dero worms which means algae wafers and daphnia to help take care of the infusoria bloom. That said they seem to like the fragments of dog food I put in with them.
I am curious why my blackworms are red. Even the blackworms I had before the crash were growing new segments at the tail end which were red!
Anyway last year late march I broken my leg and got "nailed" literally meaning I had a metal spike placed through my bone to help hold the pieces in place while it heals. 5 days in the hospital then weeks before I even got out of bed except to... Was lucky enough to have someone to bring me what I needed. In anycase the worms needed a water change every 2-3 days or there would be a die off I know this from experience. And now its been weeks =<
I got back to them and de-canted to remove the dead and stink of the water and put in a little food. Kept doing this about once a week even tho all I could see was a few wigglers. Until the last 2 days I had been taking care of them on an "if i get to it" basis which basically means the "culture" if I should even call it that didn't grow much. They did have an air stone tho for the 2 years they lived in that container.
Now this is where I am today... I believe all the leech like planaria are gone and what I have left seems to be 2 species of worm. The ones I believe are blackworms are actually red in color and the other which are likely tubifex which are black and red. The red ones are bigger around, dont seem to stretch much (the tubifex are like rubber bands) and when touched they tend to wriggle the tubifex curl up. I was using 2 wooden kabob sticks to seperate the worms from what I will describe as a rubbery mucus ball. The tubifex seemed able to glue themselves to the stick the red worms would not do that.
Here is a video and a snapshot of the worms. OH another difference is that the tubifex in the mucus ball wriggle fast the red worms wave slowly in the water. I don't believe the red worms make the mucus balls but they will share it!
[YT]IrJU2fYa_Uw[/YT]
I am going to try and culture these in the same way I am culturing dero worms which means algae wafers and daphnia to help take care of the infusoria bloom. That said they seem to like the fragments of dog food I put in with them.
I am curious why my blackworms are red. Even the blackworms I had before the crash were growing new segments at the tail end which were red!
