Live Whiteworms for Mandarins etc.

[lapin]

Go to the garden center in San Ramon or where ever you are in the Bay Area. get some seed starter mix. Mix that with your garden soil. For now dump out as much water as you can. Flip your container over onto a plate or paper towels. Dry out the container. Put a layer of dry soil on the bottom. Drain off as much water as you can from the mess on the plate or paper towels. Then put that back in your container. Try to cover it with another dry layer. Then wait a day and mix it up a little. It should be dryer. This would be a good time to split the culture into 2 containers. If you drown one you have a back up.

 

[SMB]

Culture is thriving and have split it into two containers to start one for friends.
Using store bought soil, fertilizer free, and feeding with the whole wheat bread strips/plain yogurt/yeast flakes. I keep the soil damp with a spray bottle and RO water. The culture really takes minimal work.
Royal Gramma, Coral Beauty, Tailspot Blenny, Citron Goby, Dartfish all eat the worms now. Have a Possum Wrasse who may be sneaking some but I have never seen it eat (other than picking) for 2 1/2 years.
The best news is the Mandarin now loves room service. At feeding time she always shows up at one corner of the tank where there is a little rock bowl. https://www.marinedepot.com/Kent_Ma...28zgRCnypNr_-hmxK8ZU6njA2SXkmwhYaAm5gEALw_wcB

Using a feeding tube I deliver the food to her spot and she can eat pretty much in peace. The change in the Mandarin over the past six weeks has been dramatic. She was very skinny when she came out of quarantine (from LFS). I did add pods to my 2+ year old tank and I think that got the fish started. But now the weight gain and increase in size has been amazing. She now takes worms in the AM and pellets in the PM and spends the rest of the day picking.

The WW seem to stay alive for some time and what the fish don't find the Hermits do; so I don't think there is a great deal of breakdown from uneaten food. The worms are not my sole item on the menu for the other fish but I think WW are a good addition to the diet.

Would be interested to hear if anyone has tried them with other small mouthed picky eaters like Copperband Butterflies etc.

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Culture is thriving and have split it into two containers to start one for friends.
Using store bought soil, fertilizer free, and feeding with the whole wheat bread strips/plain yogurt/yeast flakes. I keep the soil damp with a spray bottle and RO water. The culture really takes minimal work.
Royal Gramma, Coral Beauty, Tailspot Blenny, Citron Goby, Dartfish all eat the worms now. Have a Possum Wrasse who may be sneaking some but I have never seen it eat (other than picking) for 2 1/2 years.
The best news is the Mandarin now loves room service. At feeding time she always shows up at one corner of the tank where there is a little rock bowl. https://www.marinedepot.com/Kent_Ma...28zgRCnypNr_-hmxK8ZU6njA2SXkmwhYaAm5gEALw_wcB

Using a feeding tube I deliver the food to her spot and she can eat pretty much in peace. The change in the Mandarin over the past six weeks has been dramatic. She was very skinny when she came out of quarantine (from LFS). I did add pods to my 2+ year old tank and I think that got the fish started. But now the weight gain and increase in size has been amazing. She now takes worms in the AM and pellets in the PM and spends the rest of the day picking.

The WW seem to stay alive for some time and what the fish don't find the Hermits do; so I don't think there is a great deal of breakdown from uneaten food. The worms are not my sole item on the menu for the other fish but I think WW are a good addition to the diet.

Would be interested to hear if anyone has tried them with other small mouthed picky eaters like Copperband Butterflies etc.

It’s funny that you ask this as I will find out in a few as i have a copperband in qt and will be feeding white worms to the qt in a little.

 

[cracker]

I'd like to know because my copper band looks skinny which isn't good .She eats like a pig .

 

[JaihWill]

Anyone still growing cultures and know where I can get some?

 

[SMB]

I’m still using them daily. The culture has never been a problem and I have given several starter packs to friends.
There are several sites on line to get started.

 

[JMM744]

Lots of sellers on eBay. Keep them fed and they really populate quickly.

 

[Peach02]

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. :eek:

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.

Do you know if they ship to Australia and are there any negative effects of the worms eg eating coral?

 

[SMB]

Do you know if they ship to Australia and are there any negative effects of the worms eg eating coral?

Black worms die as soon as they hit the water. White worms last several hours to days. My Zoas eat them. I know of no side effects other than over feeding.

 

[Big G]

Anyone still growing cultures and know where I can get some?

https://madriverseeds.ecrater.com/p/28173031/white-worm-starter-culture-organic

 

[ectoaesthetics]

Thought I would share this with the white worm bunch. I ran across a University article on culturing white worms that they were using for some project. The had a VERY interesting method for harvesting... I do not culture white worms currently, but figured I would bring it up. They keep a heating pad set to "Low" then place the culture on it for 5 min or less. Apparently the worms hate the heat and it drives them to the soil surface. Apparently it also allows for larger harvest at lower densities meaning that the soil becomes depleted slower and that the culture lives longer without have to create a new fresh soil container for them as often. Thought it was a cool trick. As everyone seems to have a different method for attempting to pull these guys out of the container. Wish I had a culture to try it on so that I was not just recommending theory. :)

 

[Paul B]

I play RAP music and I find the worms clumped up outside my front door. :eek:

 

[Jason_J]

Great article. Link in post below.

 

[ectoaesthetics]

That link didn’t work for me, but here is another (not the one I read orig but discusses it as well). The other one also cautioned not to heat to 30 C ... 85 F for the hardcore Americans in the room ;).

http://agresearch.umd.edu/sites/agr...ct Sheet 223-2017 How to Grow White Worms.pdf

 

[PiggyPuffin]

would anybody in Chicagoland be able to set me up with a white or grindal worm starter culture? My mandarin is pretty small so I think grindal worms may be a better option at this stage. I can trade for tisbe/apo pods.

 

[Silly clownfish]

I found a seller on Amazon, a couple bucks more than eBay, but free shipping for prime members. Not 2 days shipping though, took about 5 days.

for the folks who had their soil getting too wet - some potting soils have hydroscopic beads so you don’t need to water the plants a frequently. This type of soil could be a problem. The ph also advise not to ise such soil for vegetables, so it might not be healthy.

I used a coconut hull “soil” that is sold for reptile bedding (I also have a box turtle -have had her almost as long as Paul had his tank).

 

[lapin]

I found a seller on Amazon, a couple bucks more than eBay, but free shipping for prime members. Not 2 days shipping though, took about 5 days.

Is this a recent purchase?

 

[Silly clownfish]

Just bought them on Amazon about a month ago. Sold by Ministry of Warehouse for about $15. Stupid name, but the worms are doing well.