Grindal Worms: What to feed them?

[caseSENSITIVE]

I made a few R(J)onnie Boxes on which to culture grindal worms. I am wondering what should I feed them? According to the journal, Ronnie began with fry food, specifically Mikropan; and by the end of the journal, he's feeding them oatmeal. Is one preferred over the other? Why?

I have a bunch of regular fish flakes that I would like to employ as food for the grindals and wonder if that will be adequate.

Please advise. Thank you.

[stormhawk]

Hi Case,

When I did have grindals, courtesy of Ronnie himself, they fed well on most powdered foods. Oatmeal crushed into a powdery form and scattered across the top of the culture media made an adequate food. He did mention about using fish food as a food source for these worms. By feeding them with fish food like crushed flakes, mini granules and powder, we are enriching these worms prior to feeding. Its like gut-loading crickets as practised by reptile breeders.

[RonWill]

According to the journal, Ronnie began with fry food, specifically Mikropan; and by the end of the journal, he's feeding them oatmeal. Is one preferred over the other?

Hi p-lvp, these worms are not particular about what's being served and often, it's fun to just experiment and see what difference it brings about.

I tried Mikropan because of listed vitamins and minerals on the label, something like gut-loading. Oatmeal, blended finely, was the staple food as it leaves the least residual. Other things that one can try are spirulina, fish flakes/tablets, bread, rolled-bran, etc.

What's important is not to overfeed as uneaten food will foul up and kill the culture very quickly.

If you're using a tight container, the air within should be quite humid and it's not necessary to mist the food. Just sprinkle and lay 'em dry.

Most worm cultures, including composting vermicultures, don't like it warm. Anything between 20~26ºC should be fine.

With RJ-boxes, the water bath should ideally be around 5~8mm deep and if you find the worms dying like lemmings, it's most likely that air exchange is very inadequate, driving the grindals out of the sponge for more air.

The trick with RJ-boxes is the balance between gaseous exchange and humidity. IME, having ample oxygen as the culture grows, is more important.

I've arrived to the conclusion that while conventional media cultures are generally less productive/prolific, they're more climate-tolerant.

Synthetic cultures can go through boom and busts, while the bacterial colony establish itself, but mostly favoring cooler storage.

[TyroneGenade]

Hello

I fed my grindals crushed/grated peanuts and spirulina flake.

I fed peanuts to boost the unsaturated fat/oil content of the worms to make them more nutrious. I fed the spirulina to boost their amino acid contents etc... I would feed wet bread every now and then too boost their numbers.

Hope this helps some...

[whuntley]

What's important is not to overfeed as uneaten food will foul up and kill the culture very quickly.

If you're using a tight container, the air within should be quite humid and it's not necessary to mist the food. Just sprinkle and lay 'em dry.

Most worm cultures, including composting vermicultures, don't like it warm. Anything between 20~26ºC should be fine.

I'm a bit surprised at how well my Grindals are doing, in a part of the house with wide temp. swings. At 11:AM, the soil measures 29C, but I just added a bit of cooler water. I'm sure it gets well over 30 in the afternoons, but growth is so vigorous that they often swarm up the walls of the shoebox, like microworms! I can often just wipe off a good feeding with my index finger.

Soil is a peat/potting mix, and their only food is Teena's kibbles! Her food has a good balance of nutritional goodies, and the worms seem to love it. The pellet shape seems to have been a permanent cure for overfeeding.

I press a 3/8" ( 1 cm?) pellet of kibble into the damp soil surface every inch or two, and cover the bulk of that surface with some pieces of styrene from a fluorescent lamp ceiling cover (old, broken tank cover?).

Works for me! [This method, and the culture, came to me from Howard Wu.]

My attempts at the artificial medium have ended in failure, so far. I may not be attentive enough to their needs. Soil cultivation seems much more forgiving.

Wright

[RonWill]

I made a few R(J)onnie Boxes on which to culture grindal worms. I am wondering what should I feed them? According to the journal...

Dear P-Lvp,
I was going through some of earlier posts and wanted you to know that the 'R' in 'RJ' is not me.

Ralph John Lossman is the man you should thank for putting in the real leg-work, to experiment and fine-tuned the method, to what you read in the 'journal'. It was his generosity to share and my images were the result of his guidance.

RJ hangs out at Killie-Talk and if his method works for you, let me know and I'll forward his email addy, so you can thank him personally. [It's always nice to know that the effort has been appreciated]

Wright, I believe the use of grinded cat chow as food for grindals, was covered in KT. Dog biscuits will work too and the boom is impressive, but it also 'burns out' the culture faster.

I'm not sure if it's because the media couldn't sustain the dense population or the lack of oxygen. However, if you harvest as quickly as they propagate, it is do-able.

I didn't manage to get good result with un-grinded biscuits/pellets as these becomes moldy very quickly. Why would you think that "the pellet shape seems to have been a permanent cure for overfeeding".

Would appreciate knowing why your "attempts at the artificial medium have ended in failure". I've noted that starting off with a high grindal population doesn't allow the bacterial colony to react in time with the high bioload. Warm weather is another possibility.

Over the last few bl**dy hot months, some of these synthetic cultures crashed miserably beyond salvage. Since then, I've reverted some of my cultures to soil/peat as they're 'more forgiving' when ambient temps are high.

Share with me, how you rigged up the soil-based cultures.