Paul B
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Reef Tank 365
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Rock Pool Reef Keepers
I have been feeding new born brine shrimp, blackworms and white worms to my mandarins for many years and they are all excellent foods. My mandarins get live foods as do all my fish every day which I believe is a big key to this hobby for a number of reasons, but I just want to discuss whiteworms for now.
About 5 years ago (I have a horrible memory so it could have been during the Nixon years or last Tuesday) I started a whiteworm culture. It was like $15.00 (remember the thing about my memory) and you get a bunch of worms in a little dirt.
I put them in a plastic shoebox with some bread and kept it wet and after a couple of weeks you have thousands of worms, maybe millions but I am still counting.
The absolute best thing about live white worms is that they stay alive in salt water like at least two days. When you feed live blackworms, as soon as they hit the water, they do this little macarana dance and croak before they hit the bottom so slow eaters like mandarins eat a couple then go and take a nap while the rest of the worms are eaten by crabs, snails, manatees or whatever you are using as a CUC.
White worms are also "Free". Well, after you buy a culture anyway. Every week or two, (6 months if I forget about them as I sometimes do) I put half a slice of frozen multi grain bread in the container with some full fatted yogurt and a little nutritional yeast on it. I then spray some plain water on, RO/DI if you are a compulsive nervous wreck, and put the thing in the dark.
When I open it it is full of worms just dancing and singing all over the place. Thousands of babies also.
When you get too many, they clump up on the sides of the container where you can put your girlfriends finger in there to scoop them up. Most girlfriends love that as my wife would.
But if you don't have enough for that, I take out a clump of worms and dirt and put it in a container. Run some tap water through it a few times and pour off the fine dirt leaving big particles of dirt and worms. Leave it along for a few minutes, maybe go and watch Oprah give away Cadillacs, to homeless cats. The worms clump together so you can suck them out with a straw. I use a baster thing.
Then take the rest of that dirt and strain it in a net and dump it back in the worm container.
Squirt the worms in your tank, especially where your mandarin is and he can feast for days. Mandarins can't eat too much at one meal, especially if it's lent.
It's a great and healthy food that lasts for days. The worms won't dig in your sand and get lost because, well, I don't know exactly, they just don't.
Here is my mandarin eating white worms in his little diner. I built this to keep the copperband away and he hates me for it.
About 5 years ago (I have a horrible memory so it could have been during the Nixon years or last Tuesday) I started a whiteworm culture. It was like $15.00 (remember the thing about my memory) and you get a bunch of worms in a little dirt.
I put them in a plastic shoebox with some bread and kept it wet and after a couple of weeks you have thousands of worms, maybe millions but I am still counting.
The absolute best thing about live white worms is that they stay alive in salt water like at least two days. When you feed live blackworms, as soon as they hit the water, they do this little macarana dance and croak before they hit the bottom so slow eaters like mandarins eat a couple then go and take a nap while the rest of the worms are eaten by crabs, snails, manatees or whatever you are using as a CUC.
White worms are also "Free". Well, after you buy a culture anyway. Every week or two, (6 months if I forget about them as I sometimes do) I put half a slice of frozen multi grain bread in the container with some full fatted yogurt and a little nutritional yeast on it. I then spray some plain water on, RO/DI if you are a compulsive nervous wreck, and put the thing in the dark.
When I open it it is full of worms just dancing and singing all over the place. Thousands of babies also.
When you get too many, they clump up on the sides of the container where you can put your girlfriends finger in there to scoop them up. Most girlfriends love that as my wife would.
But if you don't have enough for that, I take out a clump of worms and dirt and put it in a container. Run some tap water through it a few times and pour off the fine dirt leaving big particles of dirt and worms. Leave it along for a few minutes, maybe go and watch Oprah give away Cadillacs, to homeless cats. The worms clump together so you can suck them out with a straw. I use a baster thing.
Then take the rest of that dirt and strain it in a net and dump it back in the worm container.
Squirt the worms in your tank, especially where your mandarin is and he can feast for days. Mandarins can't eat too much at one meal, especially if it's lent.
It's a great and healthy food that lasts for days. The worms won't dig in your sand and get lost because, well, I don't know exactly, they just don't.
Here is my mandarin eating white worms in his little diner. I built this to keep the copperband away and he hates me for it.
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