Re: NANFA-- raising (or at least keeping) blackworms

Jeffrey Fullerton (tcmajorr_at_westol.com)
Wed, 03 Oct 2001 11:13:15 -0400

> Has anyone had any success keeping blackworms? In tucson, I could pretty
> much get 1 oz of worms to last a week or so, but I had a fair amount of die
> off. If you've ever kept blackworms, you know how nasty this is. The idea
> of 15 oz of these critters croaking in the fridge is not amusing. I also
> don't want to chuck that kind of money down the sink
>

Hello Everyone

Follow the instructions on the Carolina Biological Supply page and you
will have pretty good results. I raised them for a while in a large
plastic tote tray rigged with a bulkhead drain and connected to an
established aquarium. I used a very low powered pump to circulate water
thru the culture. This is alot easier than continuous water changes.
Unfortunately I lost the culture a few months ago because the tank it
was running off of sprang a leak and lost all its water overnight. Not
only lost the remaining pair of bantam sunnies before I could get them
into the new pond, but I had an aweful mess in the fish room and a few
days later the worm culture crashed from the lack of water exchange!

I've been thinking- it might be a better idea to run a worm culture off
a tank that has no fish in it - maybe just plants or biofiltration
media. That way it might not be necessary to junk the culture if there
is a disease outbreak in the collection.

I will order another batch and start a new culture sometime this winter
once I get through my greenhouse project (reason I've been scarce on the
list). I already have a footer poured and a structure on order. Hope to
have it finished before cold weather- then I'll have a great place to
winter semi hardy fish & plants and culture live food; aside from the
intended horticultural applications.

Jeff

> ìThe evils of mankind are caused, not by the
> primary aggressiveness of individuals but by
> their self-transcending identification with
> groups whose common denominator is low
> intelligence and high emotionality.î
> ~ Ludwig Von Mises
>

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