Re: NANFA-L-- Red worm eggs?

dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
Mon, 31 Jan 2005 15:27:30 -0600

Earthworm eggs are contained in a cocoon, made of mucous and chitin-like material secreted by the organ called the "clitellum" (the raised ring of tissue about 1/5 of the way back from the anterior end). These cocoon's vary in size, but the one's of seen (for the commercial worms called "red-wigglers, which btw are not native to NA and should not be released into the environment), are about 2-3 mm long. That's from a bit smaller than up to the size of a BB. The size of the cocoon is proportional to the size of the worm. The cocoons are lemon-shaped, creamy colored, and translucent.

The sand-grain sized structures might be worm cocoons if you have very small adult worms. New cocoons are the same length as the clitellum of the adult worm that produced them. Regarding the question about feeding. Worms are suitable for fish food-in-whatever size fits the fish you have. It might not be very efficient to feed very small worms, and of course, you have to have adult worms to maintain a colony.

Dave

David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
telephone: (405) 466-6025; fax: 405) 466-3307
home page http://www.lunet.edu/mcneely/index.htm

"Where are we going?" "I don't know, are we there yet?"

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark <nanfa-in-jonahsaquarium.com>
Date: Monday, January 31, 2005 11:41 am
Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- Red worm eggs?

> You might want to look-in-the "specks" with a lense or scope of
> some
> kind. They could be mites or some other very small organism or
> group
> of organisms. I've never seen redworm eggs, but I'm guess they
> are
> larger than sand grains... well-in-least the sand I am familiar with.
>
> --
> Mark
> Conejo Creek drainage
> California USA
>
> <))><
> /------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
> / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
> / Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
> / 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/archive/nanfa/guidelines.html To subscribe,
> / unsubscribe, or get help, visit the NANFA email list home page and
> / archive-in-http://www.nanfa.org/archive/nanfa/
>
>

/-----------------------------------------------------------------------
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ 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/archive/nanfa/guidelines.html To subscribe,
/ unsubscribe, or get help, visit the NANFA email list home page and
/ archive-in-http://www.nanfa.org/archive/nanfa/