Rearing live worms

[nkthen]

For the first time, I fed my fishes with live worms.

I put them into a feeding container and man! they really love it!

I also kept the reminder of the worms in a plastic bowl, with airholes at the top.

This morning, all my worms are dead. How do I maintain the lives of the worms?

[Nicky]

You are probably refering to tubifex worm. If so, you can keep them alive by either putting them into a pail of water and bubbling the water throughout the day/night. Alternative you can put the worm into a container and have water as shallow as possible (so shallow that the top portion of the heap of worms is exposed) and replacing the water as often as possible. Using this method you will see a rather disgusting sight of 'rotting' water in the morning in the hot climate of Singapore but as you flush the container with water, you will find that big portion of the worm is still alive.. those that are dead will be floating around as you flush with tap water. LFS also use alow running water to keep their trays of worm alive. That is the same as air-pump as O2 is introduced continuosly.

That said, tubifex is very dirty and feeding them may do more harm to your fish.
Take a look at the thread that I had started.
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=21675

[paperman]

Sorry, Nicky but just wanted to check with you. If we rule out tubifex, what will be the other alternative for live food ?

[nkthen]

Hmm... In that case I rather feed frozen blood worms

[Nicky]

Sorry, Nicky but just wanted to check with you. If we rule out tubifex, what will be the other alternative for live food ?

I read somewhere that people use those mouth-wash to kill germs/bacteria in tubifex worm.. the process described is a long drawn process that take days to prepare the worm before all the unwanted stuff are purged from the worm body. I find the process tedious plus with the climate in Singapore the worm does not do too well. That's why I'm trying dalphine culture. But there's really lots of things you can try. See
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=22044

[paperman]

Nicky, thank you for the links - very interesting, will spend tonight reading all. I have always tried to avoid tubifex as my family members are always very squirmy about them and to make matter worse, my fish tanks are in the living room. However, friends keep telling me that live food is a must for the fishes or at least 2 to 3 times a week. A friend of mine is now washing his tubifex with mouth wash but I find it too troublesome. Also, the smell of tubifex and especially the day after when they turn bad, is simply awesome !

Alright, I have decided, I will skip tubifex and move on to daphnia. From the links, seems like nobody has any success yet on the cultivation of daphnia ?

Always wanted to try live feeds like vinegar eels, micro worms or grindal worms but do not know where to buy the initial starter to get a culture going. By the way, how is the smell of these cultures ? Will it smell bad or any where near the tubifex ?

[GaspingGurami]

I keep my tubifex alive for 4 days by floating it in a plastic coffee strainer at the top of the tank.

Tubifex are very fattening. After feeding you'll see more surface scum so it's useful to have mollies or surface skimmer.

[cwtan12]

Tubifex is still my favourite live food especially for fries. They are fatty and can really enhance the fries growth. It's better than any other live food from LFS here in terms of growth enhancement. I have tried with grindal worms, daphnias, brine shrimps, baby brine shrimps, decapsulated brine shimp eggs, guppy fries, blood worms, maggots, mosquito larvaes etc (name the others you can find locally and i think i have used before). I still swear by tubifex.

Dont buy those that can't clump tightly. Those are not healthy. Those clump among themselves very tightly can survive very long if you keep them well.

When you bring it home, open the plastic bag and dump all of them into a pail. Spray them with tap water in 1 direction till a mini twister is formed in the pail. wait for 1-2 minutes till almost all the worms are clumped together before pouring the water out. Repeat the process till the water is crystal clear.

Some people add some methlyene blue and/or yellow powder and/or malachite green to the water. I find that the tubifexes soaked in those always cannot last long. The chlorine from tap water can kill some of the parasites or bacteria.

If the water in your tanks is clean and is at the correct parameter that your fish needs, I dont think they can fall sick easily by feeding them with tubifex.

Tubifex has no problem survive for more than a week provided the pH of your water is low, low temperature and you bubble the water. Just remember to change water at least twice a day.

[nkthen]

Thanks for the information, so what I need to do is upon purchase:
1) Spray them with tap water to form a mini twister, etc. as you have mentioned
2) Put them into a coffee strainer and put them into my fish tank so that the water is constantly moving

When I want to feed the fish, just transfer from the strainer to the feed funnel.

Looks OK?

[cwtan12]

Thanks for the information, so what I need to do is upon purchase:
1) Spray them with tap water to form a mini twister, etc. as you have mentioned
2) Put them into a coffee strainer and put them into my fish tank so that the water is constantly moving

When I want to feed the fish, just transfer from the strainer to the feed funnel.

Looks OK?

i do not like any net or strainer because the worms will cling there and it's difficult to remove all. Just pour away the excess water carefully. Then use plastic fork and place them in a bean curd tub/ plastic cup (the amount you want to use) and use dropper to feed.

[nkthen]

OK, just bought tubiflex worm today and have followed what cwtan has suggested.

I've run the worms under tap water and 'cleaned' it and have placed them in a small plastic bowl with bubbles running right now.

After 5 hours, they will look lively, hopefully it will be fine.

I was told that if those uneaten worms get to the gravel, they will die, decompose and cause algae. Are they right?

[XnSdVd]

Everytime i see threads like this i wonder why people don't just dump the whole bag in the tank and let them breed naturally.

*Ahem*
Tubifex are just small aquatic earthworms. Nothing more. They are not "dirty" just cultured in a nitrogen rich environment(run-off from pig stys) They do not die when they are left on the gravel, in fact they burrow into it. This is natural and good for your plants in the same way terrestrial earthworms are good for terrestrial plants. And once they do that they start breeding in the substrate. The offspring are cleaner than their parents in that their food isn't pig shit, it's leftover fishfood, fish shit and decomposing plant matter often found in tanks.

They consume these and in doing so speed up the decomposition process and turn useless biomass(that black stuff you find in filters) into edible protein and fat for your fish.

[cwtan12]

Everytime i see threads like this i wonder why people don't just dump the whole bag in the tank and let them breed naturally.

*Ahem*
Tubifex are just small aquatic earthworms. Nothing more. They are not "dirty" just cultured in a nitrogen rich environment(run-off from pig stys) They do not die when they are left on the gravel, in fact they burrow into it. This is natural and good for your plants in the same way terrestrial earthworms are good for terrestrial plants. And once they do that they start breeding in the substrate. The offspring are cleaner than their parents in that their food isn't pig shit, it's leftover fishfood, fish shit and decomposing plant matter often found in tanks.

They consume these and in doing so speed up the decomposition process and turn useless biomass(that black stuff you find in filters) into edible protein and fat for your fish.

to control the timing, amount and frequency of feeding.

[XnSdVd]

Ahh but the fish regulate their own feeding that way in that they have to hunt for the worms themselves. I'd imagine it's good mental exercise for them

[Johnc]

Ahh but the fish regulate their own feeding that way in that they have to hunt for the worms themselves. I'd imagine it's good mental exercise for them

I used to do that years ago. Dump a dollar's worth of worms into the tank and let them breed. No problem and no need to feed the fishes for weeks.

Recently I tried that again for my 2ft Scatophagus tank. Worked well for several weeks; but soon the scats grew very huge (I was desperately to give them away -- tried the Science Centre, Zoo etc). One day for some reason, the water started fouling. Over the next two days I had to change water a few times before it finally cleared. I think the worms died. As far as I could see there were no worms left in the gravel after the episode.

/John

[jacquetlc]

Personally I enjoy feeding my fishes (Rams, Glowlight, Garumis) tubifex worms!!! I enjoy them fighting and pulling the worms string by string and swallow them while half worm wriggle from outside their mouth!

I would suggest purchasing the container that costs about 50 cents for tubifex worms to be contained inside tank. it has a small suction that can adhere to the side of the tank.

Next, purchase about 30 cents - 50 cents of tubifex worms. (Depends on LFS, some give more than others. Main aim is to fill up the tubifex container, so that you don't have to keep them alive outside tank.)

Then *hi-5 XnSdVd* I'd pour the whole lot in. Then circulated water in the tank would keep the worms alive during the period of feeding (lasts about 3 - 4 days for my fishes).

The worms that escaped from the container would sometimes lie on my lapis or dig into it. Anyway, I've been doing this and it has caused no algae or what ever problems.

By the way, I've got 3 OTOs, in my 1.5 ft cubey tank. Prob. it helps.

[XnSdVd]

I used to do that years ago. Dump a dollar's worth of worms into the tank and let them breed. No problem and no need to feed the fishes for weeks.

Recently I tried that again for my 2ft Scatophagus tank. Worked well for several weeks; but soon the scats grew very huge (I was desperately to give them away -- tried the Science Centre, Zoo etc). One day for some reason, the water started fouling. Over the next two days I had to change water a few times before it finally cleared. I think the worms died. As far as I could see there were no worms left in the gravel after the episode.

/John

I'd imagine your worms used up all the food in that tank and starved to death en mass. That would've caused a nitrate spike and killed those that would've fed on the dead, thus turning your tank into bacteria soup.

[nkthen]

Everytime i see threads like this i wonder why people don't just dump the whole bag in the tank and let them breed naturally.

*Ahem*
Tubifex are just small aquatic earthworms. Nothing more. They are not "dirty" just cultured in a nitrogen rich environment(run-off from pig stys) They do not die when they are left on the gravel, in fact they burrow into it. This is natural and good for your plants in the same way terrestrial earthworms are good for terrestrial plants. And once they do that they start breeding in the substrate. The offspring are cleaner than their parents in that their food isn't pig shit, it's leftover fishfood, fish shit and decomposing plant matter often found in tanks.

They consume these and in doing so speed up the decomposition process and turn useless biomass(that black stuff you find in filters) into edible protein and fat for your fish.

Wait a minute... You mean just DUMP the 50 cents worth of worms into the tank and let the fishes take care of themselves?

Well, that is interesting and I've not heard of that.

[XnSdVd]

yup, just dump the whole bag in. but mine's a 6ft tank so.. yeah, a good guide would be 1 teaspoon per sqft or gravel area

[nkthen]

Mine's a 1.5ft tank so I think it's about half the 50 cents worth of worms.

You sure it's OK ah? No side effects on the tank? Won't the fishes be overfed?

Just wanted to be sure, hope that you don't mind.