I buy 1 portion blackworms from one of the local fish stores here about once
every 2-3 months. That is the way they sell them anyways, only $1 per
portion. I make sure that there is no leeches in them or any dead ones. You
can tell the dead ones easy, they are grey and fuzzy looking and get that
way in about 2 hours or less. Once I get the best of the best out of them I
put them into a 1 gallon flat rubber maid shoebox. Some times I will use the
brown paper towel but most of the time not. I only use spring water (deer
park) to rinse them with. I rinse them-in-least once a day, more if there
are dead ones showing up. Once they have been rinsed for the day I add about
1/2" of water to them and crush up some Tetra Min fish flakes real fine and
sprinkle it over them. I normally have-in-least 2-3 cultures going-in-the
same time, and the only reason for getting another portion from the store is
to refresh one of the cultures with new worms. Now I only have bettas right
now but when I have the larger tanks up and running I have more cultures
going. One culture if left alone other than feeding and rinsing will double
in size with in about 2 weeks. Then it becomes like compounding interest,
after four weeks I normally have more than I need and sometime give them
away to friends.
They are a little time consuming but every fish I have ever had LOVES them.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jase Roberts" <nanfa_list-in-jaseroberts.net>
To: <nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 11:59 PM
Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Live Culture Options
> Patrick,
>
> Yes, I'd love to hear how you culture the blackworms. A lot of searching
> hasn't turned up much more than the basic "paper towel" method as
> described on Carolina Biological's site-in-
> http://www.carolina.com/tips/worm/worma.asp. It seems there must be a
> better substrate and method of raising them...
>
> Anyone out there raising fly larvae (maggots)? Is there a way to do it
> without too much mess/stink? The rapid life cycle would seem to make this
> a fairly attractive option if it could be done easily.
>
> Thanks,
> Jase
>
>> Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:30:39 -0500
>> From: "Patrick Rose" <pncwd-in-picusnet.com>
>> Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Live Culture Options
>>
>> well now,
>> I do black worms and walter worms, the walter worms are a tad bit small
>> for semi adult sun fish. the black worms are easy to culture just a
>> little time consuming. Also be careful if you try them because if you end
>> up with one bad culture or one starting to go bad change it out and get
>> rid of it quick or else you will be sick by the next day when you walk in
>> the room. I can post more on how I do it if you choose to go that route.
>> The reds are also fairly easy to culture but they need much more space to
>> be productive. Confused flour beetles are a good option as well, they
>> seem to be fairly easy to grow also, although I have not tried these
>> before. Unless you just want to feed only live food you might want to try
>> to get them taking frozen or freeze dried foods, and use the live ones
>> for treats or one time a day feedings.
>> The above are only my opinions and we all know what opinions are like,
>> judge mine the way you wish.
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/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml