Grindal Worms in Useful Amounts

[whuntley]

http://www.killies.com/forum/modules...view_album.php

You have to go to my gallery page to see the pictures. I still cannot maneuver around the site to link pics directly so they show here. Sorry. Every time I go to the gallery (or wherever pics are stored) for a link, I cannot get back to the message editor. I have to start all over.

There are comments attached to each picture, but basically I show a method that has worked well for several western US killy keepers. Many use round paint buckets, but it makes cutting the inside cover glass, that rests on the peat/sand medium, a lot harder.

Like any heavy-production system, you have to keep diligently harvesting to keep them growing well.

Hope the pictures suffice, but I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Wright

[whuntley]

Apologies, folks. but I used a Microslush utility to download these from my camera card, and it has somehow relabelled them and forced the pics to 16 color any time I try to transfer them. Grrr. They were fine, right out of my editor. Now they are mush!

I'll replace them shortly, when I figure out how.

Fixed. It was a corruption in my photo editor. Redid them in Paint Shop Pro 9 and they are OK, now. Funny thing was they looked fine in my editor and only were corrupted when looking at the downloaded images.

Wright

[ruyle]

Great pics, from your new Canon? So happens I have a Tidy Cats bucket
around here someplace. Now I just need to get the glass and a culture...

Bill

[whuntley]

If you can't find a starter locally, let me know and I can send you one.

Wright

[Svein]

Nice, Wright. How often do you feed your fish with Grindal?
Regards
Svein

[whuntley]

I feed them quite often when the cultures are going well (i.e., when I don't neglect them), but I do feed lots of other stuff as well. I feed Grindals nearly every day or every other day, right now.

I do not buy the ancient argument that they are too fatty. They simply are not. I still believe that feeding any one food exclusively is a road to deficiency, eventually. [Some prepared foods. like Trout Chow are fairly complete, tho.]

I feed Daphnia, Moina, high-grade flakes (including spirulina), mosquito larvae, frozen bloodworms, and black worms (when I can get them). I tend to skip all feedings, frequently, which seems to keep some species from getting fat and lazy. I miss one day a week, typically, when I have no tiny babies. [They get BBS constantly. The adults usually get the overflow.]

I need the Grindals in summer, because the 2-day shipping for black worms is impossible in hot weather. Tubifex are pretty much illegal in CA, and the Mexican suppliers have dried up, I think. Kordon has to import them from Eastern Europe for their sachets.

Wright

[RonWill]

Wright,
My first grindal culture was hand-carried by a visiting friend from Canada, which I subsequently distributed to those who needed them or willing to buy my idea of culturing their own live foods.

After 3 years of maintaining this particular strain of grindals, I realize these have a tendency to crash during a hot spell.

From online information, I find them to reach a smaller adult size, probably closer to white-worm than grindal. It could be that I've been culturing whites all this while or a species different from yours.

Recently, I received another culture from a fellow forum member, not the same type as what I had given him before, so let's see if I can first rid off the mites, then try and get it going.

If it still doesn't grow as big as my thumb, I'll holler ya for a starter

Svein,
During the cool months, when the culture was prolific, I fed my killies with grindals every alternate day but then again, I never believed in feeding only one type of food. Mix in tubifex, daphnia, BBS and trapped fruit flies [no frozen bloodworms since mine doesn't seem to like them]

Now that most of my non-annuals take well to Tim Addis's granules, I don't have to rely on live foods as heavily, even when it's delivered right to my door step.

[keehoe]

They looks kind of like sharkfin soup. Don't they?

[Svein]

I feed them quite often when the cultures are going well (i.e., when I don't neglect them), but I do feed lots of other stuff as well. I feed Grindals nearly every day or every other day, right now.
Wright

Thank's a lot, it was these words I probably wanted to hear . I'm agree that changing in food is very important, but up in the cold North it's difficult finding living food in winter.
Regards
Svein

[whuntley]

Svein,

You probably should also raise white worms. They are another not-very-fatty source of rich protein, but we have a problem with them dying in our heat, here. I don't have a refrigerator I want to dedicate to them, so summer is sure death for a culture.

Wright

[Svein]

Wright

About white worms, I just know about two different species; Grindal and "Enchytraeus albidus" Is there more white worms using for fish foods?

Svein

[whuntley]

Svein,

As far as I know, those are the two popular varieties of feeder worms that are larger than microworms or Walter worms. The Enchytraeus albidus, White Worms, will do much better in cold climates, and really do not like heat above about 20-22C. They are many times bigger than Grindals, usually (maybe 25-30 mm long and 1 mm thick).

Wright

[Svein]

Then I understand, and I have order "Enkytræer" now
Thanks.
Svein