Hi All,
I recently saw some worm swimming in the water column, and wonder are they Dero Worms?
From what I had seen from UA experiment, Dero seems to bunch into a ball like tubi, so what can these worms be?
Will try to get some pictures of these critters.
If they are slightly smaller than tubifex and are swimming in a fast "S" shaped pattern, they are most likely Dero Worms.Originally Posted by antjoey1122
When they are settled in a large clump, they will ball up. Occasionally single worms will swim (fast wriggle propelling).
LIFE IS UNBEARABLE WITHOUT A FISH TANK!!!
Best is to catch those worms and isolate them into another container, then feed them some shrimp or fish pellets, you will be able to observe them more closely and see if they are dero worms.
If you have a macro lens, can check if they have webbed finger/fan-like appendages on one end (that why their scientific name is dero digitata, aka "digits"), that is their gills and they will wave it around when balled up around scraps of food.
Sometimes they could turn out to be other worms like nematodes or other types of detritus worms, or even baby tubifex which eventually grow larger too, so just have to culture and see. Its quite fun.
Thanks UA.. Wish me luckBest is to catch those worms and isolate them into another container, then feed them some shrimp or fish pellets, you will be able to observe them more closely and see if they are dero worms.
If you have a macro lens, can check if they have webbed finger/fan-like appendages on one end (that why their scientific name is dero digitata, aka "digits"), that is their gills and they will wave it around when balled up around scraps of food.
Sometimes they could turn out to be other worms like nematodes or other types of detritus worms, or even baby tubifex which eventually grow larger too, so just have to culture and see. Its quite fun.
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Hi guys,Thanks UA.. Wish me luck
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I've got them... Hooray! I'm going to start culturing them.
https://youtu.be/RlZ7jeWVsaE
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Last edited by antjoey1122; 11th Oct 2015 at 20:40.
Actually these worms start crumping together after I tossed carrots into my tubifex worms culture. Think they love carrots. Strange behavior.
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Those worms in your culture tank do have all the unique characteristics of microfex/dero worms.
Yeah, they will pretty much eat anything, almost acting like a recycling compost bin. Its good to experiment and see which type of food they can eat the most efficiently with the least leftover residue (that'll help to reduce waste clean up and maintenance).
Hi UA,
I found my Dero Worms going to the surface of the tank. From what I saw from an article
http://www.fancyguppies.co.uk/page71.htm
They recommend air hose, I have for now added air hose.
Shall update the progress.
So far i've noticed that whenever the dero worms go to the water surface, its usually due to the build up of ammonia/waste or other toxic parameters in the water and the water usually starts to get abit stinky too (often after a few days of heavy feeding), so its an indication to change their water. I usually just do a 90% water change to refresh their container environment and they return back to staying at the bottom of the container.
While adding aeration in a mixed daphnia moina + dero worm culture tank would be beneficial, especially for the daphnia (as advised in the article in your post), based on a published lab research paper, dero worms seem to prefer lower-oxygen environments and apparently breed faster in those conditions.
You can refer to this research paper for more info: http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/55534/PDF
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An excerpt from the paper:
"Dero digitata populations in the non aerated treatment (mean ±SE=580±33 worms/pan) were significantly larger than populations in the aerated treatment (223±88 worms/pan;Figure 1). Worm populations continued to increase beyond 5 weeks, but the population study was terminated at 5 weeks because the worms became too numerous to count. There was a significant interaction with treatment (aeration versus no aeration) over time. Populations in the non aerated pans increased more rapidly over time than did the populations in the aerated pans. It remains unclear whether the agitation of the water caused by aeration is stressful to the worms, thereby reducing reproductive capacity, or whether these benthic oligochaetes prefer a low-oxygen environment similar to what is found at the benthic interface on the bottom of channel catfish ponds. Although dissolved oxygen concentrations were higher in aerated containers, non aerated pans did not have substantially low dissolved oxygen concentrations (Table 1)"
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Btw, i haven't actually tested adding a filter or aerating my own dero worm cultures yet (my setups are the simple jug container type), but i guess you can try it out and monitor if there is any actual difference in their reproduction rate.
Hmm.. Like to experiment with some..
I have a batch that infested my snail culture. :' )
They enjoy eating fish food and snails. Might offer a seperate culture container for them in the future. For some reason, I have dero worms in my invert tank too, though these ones are always living in fear of my shrimps.
Yeah, these worms do multiply quite fast in any tank that have no small fishes and lots of food sources... i also managed to get a population established in one of my plant grow-out tanks. Its a good way to create a back-up culture.
I would seed all my tanks with dero worms, but I dislike watching them swim around for some reason. Makes me want to feed it to my pipefish for ruining the tank view.
Somehow, I enjoy seeing them doing their 'S' or sine pattern 'dance' in midwater. Absolutely fascinating!
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