Can you share experience on your setups and methods? tank size, water circulation, feeding frequency, water changes, etc?
Blackworm culture advice wanted
- Thread starter erik333
- Start date
my advice would be don't do it.
man do they stink.
breeding is no problem, keeping them out of my daphnia buckets was a problem. apparently those things can get on a net if it's within 5 feet of their water.
but just as the culture starts to take off, so did the odor.
harvesting is easy, buy a coarse sponge, put some food in the middle and fold in half and set on the bottom for a few hours and you've got a sponge full of worms that you can shake them out of or just hang in a tank for a slow dispersal.
man do they stink.
breeding is no problem, keeping them out of my daphnia buckets was a problem. apparently those things can get on a net if it's within 5 feet of their water.
but just as the culture starts to take off, so did the odor.
harvesting is easy, buy a coarse sponge, put some food in the middle and fold in half and set on the bottom for a few hours and you've got a sponge full of worms that you can shake them out of or just hang in a tank for a slow dispersal.
they are truly disgusting.. it stunk up my whole house. you have to keep water temp cool, otherwise it will die.
They will make your house smell. And if they die, your house will smell like death.
Instead of blackworms, why not culture red worms instead? They're easy to take care of and don't smell. I bought 500 of them and they came with a bunch of bedding. I put them in a small Igloo container in the garage, then I just put in cut up lettuce every week. It's been 2 months now and they're doing great and my datnoids get a lot of fresh worms to eat.
Instead of blackworms, why not culture red worms instead? They're easy to take care of and don't smell. I bought 500 of them and they came with a bunch of bedding. I put them in a small Igloo container in the garage, then I just put in cut up lettuce every week. It's been 2 months now and they're doing great and my datnoids get a lot of fresh worms to eat.
I had a large culture doing well in a mature, unheated 20 gallon long tank for about a year before it crashed due to my negligence. I used a sand substrate and filtered the tank with an Aquaclear 20 power filter. I did weekly water changes just like on all my tanks but I do have untreated well water so that worked well. If you have city water or water that contains chlorine or chloramine, it would need to be treated with water conditioner and aged for a week before using for water changes.
The biggest problem is trying to harvest the blackworms with my setup with the sand substrate. I would just siphon out the sand, water and worms and move them over to the tank that I was feeding. The worms would live in the new tank and burrow into the sand and the fish would pick them off at their leisure.
A good book for more information on most live foods is Culturing Live Foods by Michael Hellwig. There is also an in-depth article on one of the forums that has a lot of info but I can't seem to find it because the Search feature still isn't working quite yet.
I never had a problem with the blackworms smelling or stinking up the house. If you are just purchasing some portions, they need to be kept in a shallow container in the refrigerator in aged water with a loose fitting cover. Daily aged, cold water changes and rinsing of the blackworms is the key to keeping them fresh. I've kept up to one pound of blackworms fresh this way for up to a month, though ideally they should be fed some algae wafers or similar to keep them plump and nutritious. Removal of any dead worms and the occasional planaria or leech should be done daily.
The biggest problem is trying to harvest the blackworms with my setup with the sand substrate. I would just siphon out the sand, water and worms and move them over to the tank that I was feeding. The worms would live in the new tank and burrow into the sand and the fish would pick them off at their leisure.
A good book for more information on most live foods is Culturing Live Foods by Michael Hellwig. There is also an in-depth article on one of the forums that has a lot of info but I can't seem to find it because the Search feature still isn't working quite yet.
I never had a problem with the blackworms smelling or stinking up the house. If you are just purchasing some portions, they need to be kept in a shallow container in the refrigerator in aged water with a loose fitting cover. Daily aged, cold water changes and rinsing of the blackworms is the key to keeping them fresh. I've kept up to one pound of blackworms fresh this way for up to a month, though ideally they should be fed some algae wafers or similar to keep them plump and nutritious. Removal of any dead worms and the occasional planaria or leech should be done daily.
They don't stink unless you let them go rotten. I culture them in a 3 gallon tank with about inch of Fluval Stratum. I used a small powerhead to keep water circulating and a small sponge filter. I fed them Golden Pearls and Decapsulaed brine eggs and powdered Spirulina cause i just happen to have it. You could feed flakes.. Need to change the water 50-70% of the water once a week with Declorinated water. This tank sat on my kitchen counter.
the video below I started with 3 ounces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTG9TQmyirU&list=UUoBxDjcqbfKZ8qiQhTpLtlw
the video below I started with 3 ounces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTG9TQmyirU&list=UUoBxDjcqbfKZ8qiQhTpLtlw
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?90266-The-ultimate-Hobbyist-California-Blackworm-Keeper
scroll down to the 5th post, great description on how to do it.
btw if they smell bad something is wrong,, i kept black worms for many years when i had
my discus and they only smelled when they died or was not properly cleaned.
scroll down to the 5th post, great description on how to do it.
btw if they smell bad something is wrong,, i kept black worms for many years when i had
my discus and they only smelled when they died or was not properly cleaned.
I'm surprised you can keep them without stinking. I've never had anything smell that nasty. I keep daphnia and scuds stink free. the worms were breeding fine. I had to dump and restart my daphnia and scud buckets that had been running for years because they started stinking too when they cross contaminated.
if there were dead blackworms in my scud culture they certainly would have eaten any before they started rotting, and twice as fast if they were rotting. there were definitely live ones in there.
if there were dead blackworms in my scud culture they certainly would have eaten any before they started rotting, and twice as fast if they were rotting. there were definitely live ones in there.