09 White Worms (small worms, related to earthworms)
Description
This article is from the Aquaria: Food FAQ, by Oleg Kiselev, Don Wilson, and Steve Bartling.
09 White Worms (small worms, related to earthworms)
Uses:
These worms are up to 1" long and are good for feeding fish
3"-6" long.
Culturing:
Similar to Grindal worms, but these worms do not do well at
high temperatures. If possible, keep them below 70F; during the
summer, they will survive if kept moist and in a cool place,
i.e. a north facing carport. White worms can be grown in
potting soil in plywood boxes, about 16" x 12" x 6" deep, with
a close fitting, moisture-resistant top such as a sheet of
glass. They will eat the same foods as Grindal worms, but a
number of sources suggest that white bread soaked in milk is a
very good food for these worms. Another option found to work
extremely well is to raid the materials heading for the
compost, and prepare a mixture of old lettuce, fruit, and bread
crumbs or oatmeal. Add water and blend it, as thick as the
blender can handle, and still be able to turn over this soup.
Add maybe a cup each week (it's mostly water anyway, which is
needed to keep the cultures moist), in a small trench dug down
the center of the dirt.
The medium typically and most successfully used by one of us
(DW) is dried, rehydrated bread crumbs with some brewers yeast
added. Bread crumbs are prepared by collecting old crusts (even
moldy ones) and storing them in your freezer, then drying them
in the oven at 175F. The bread is then crushed into into crumbs
and, if stored in sealed containers (such as plastic ice cream
buckets) the crumbs will last forever. When it is time to feed
the worms, use a large bowl and mix the powdered bread with
enough water to make a slurry, then ladle it into a trench in
the culture. Use only as much as the worms will eat in a week.
The amount of water in the slurry should be varied - when the
worm culture tends to dry out in the summer months, use a
wetter mixture to replace the water but if the culture is
already too moist, use a drier mixture.
One might ask how long such a culture will last before going
sour. It is a good question, to which there is no clear answer
yet; one of use (DW) has 3+ year old cultures which have been
seen to produce as strongly as ever, without odour.
Keep these worms in complete darkness. They will come out of
the soil and coat the food, devouring it shortly and clustering
in a writhing mass. The aquarist can pluck this mass of worms
from the soil and use it to feed the fish. The worms will hide
in the soil as soon as the light strikes them, so be swift
about grabbing them! Another means of separating worms from the
dirt is to get a tin can with both ends removed and fasten a
piece of plastic window screening over one end (with string, an
elastic band, or whatever works). Sit it in some type of
tapered glass container (such as a measuring cup) with water in
the container, so the can sits above the water (1/2" between
the top of the water and bottom of the mesh). Place some of the
soil and worm mixture in the can and place a light over top
(i.e. a gooseneck lamp, with one of those mini-spot bulbs). The
heat will drive the worms out, through the mesh, and into the
water. This takes a couple of hours or more. The worms come out
clean, and can be fed to the fish directly, placed in a worm
feeder, or frozen for future use. This works well for white
worms, large and small, so assuming Grindal worms can be grown
in soil, it should work for them, too.
However, if you don't mind getting your hands dirty, a faster,
more effective means of separating them is to put the worm
laden dirt into a container, add water, swirl the mixture, then
pour out the dirt. The worms will collect in knots. Remove the
knots by hand to another container, then continuing to swirl
and pour off the dirt in both the old container and the new
one. This way, clean worms can be obtained within minutes.
Whiteworms should be fed to your fish with a worm feeder, so
that the fish can eat them over time. They can be also be
placed directly into a bowl on the bottom of the tank, where
they will remain until the fish eat them. This may apparently
be particularly useful for killifish breeders, which have only
peat as a substrate. Be careful not to overfeed by adding
whiteworms directly to the tank; the excess will burrow into
the sand, where they will be inaccessible to all but the most
eager diggers, such as Hoplosternum. Where the aquarist has
separated too many worms for one day's feeding, the remainder
should be promptly frozen and used later.
Sources:
same as Grindals.
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