White Worm Culture Show Off

[Miami Reef]

How do you harvest the worms without getting a bunch of dirt? I have a huge culture but no clean way to extract worms.

The worms start clumping on top of each other. What are you feeding them?

 

[Suneru]

I feed bread dipped in yoghurt. Although after reading this thread I might just feed yoghurt.
I have many big hungry mouths and I can’t seem to get enough for a decent feeding.

 

[Miami Reef]

I feed bread dipped in yoghurt. Although after reading this thread I might just feed yoghurt.
I have many big hungry mouths and I can’t seem to get enough for a decent feeding.

Have your tried letting your culture build a large population before feeding them to your fish? Once the worms start growing on huge numbers you can’t stop them. Even if you feed large spoonfuls of worms multiple times a day.

The solution to the issue is by not feeding the worms as much to the fish and keep splitting the containers until you have double the amount of containers you have now.

Until then, you can feed frozen food. :)

I tried feeding bread with the yogurt, but my worms always preferred the yogurt over the bread. You can be successful with bread and yogurt, but I would change the food once the worms stop being enthusiastic about the yogurt. The yogurt gets too hard and starts being unappealing after 2 days. The more the worms eat, the more they’ll grow.

 

[chousecat]

Very interested in doing this especially as I have a mandarin, one question I have is that people are talking about splitting cultures. When do you know its time to split cultures? Does that just refer to like putting one half of the worms in a separate container?

Whats also a good source for white worms to start off a farm? Thanks!

 

[Kmst80]

Very interested in doing this especially as I have a mandarin, one question I have is that people are talking about splitting cultures. When do you know its time to split cultures? Does that just refer to like putting one half of the worms in a separate container?

Whats also a good source for white worms to start off a farm? Thanks!

At some stage the soil of your white worm culture is compacted and dirty(worm castings). And your culture is getting overpopulated. Best sign for that is when the worms climb up the walls. I simply do what you call a split,throw half of the soil on the compost and give them fresh soil. This way I reduce the population and half of their soil is fresh. Next time remove the other half. Instead of throwing half out you could start a second culture,up to you.

 

[Snoopdog]

I have two different cultures from two different sources. We noticed the second source, the containers have tons of mold in them when we change out the food. Could the second culture have had mold spores in the soil?

 

[Gtinnel]

I have two different cultures from two different sources. We noticed the second source, the containers have tons of mold in them when we change out the food. Could the second culture have had mold spores in the soil?

I’m no expert but in my experience the food will get moldy when you feed too much. I have had it happen with all of my cultures at some point.

 

[Kmst80]

I have two different cultures from two different sources. We noticed the second source, the containers have tons of mold in them when we change out the food. Could the second culture have had mold spores in the soil?

What are you feeding? Is the mould just under or around the food?
I used to feed bread and it got constantly mouldy and i had tonnes of fruitfly. Changed to Greek yoghurt and mould and flies are gone and they eat it like crazy.
If the mould is everywhere you got to much moisture or no aircirculation.

 

[Snoopdog]

What are you feeding? Is the mould just under or around the food?
I used to feed bread and it got constantly mouldy and i had tonnes of fruitfly. Changed to Greek yoghurt and mould and flies are gone and they eat it like crazy.
If the mould is everywhere you got to much moisture or no aircirculation.

Daves method, wheat bread, yogurt and yeast. The entire top of the soil in those containers will be mold in three days. No other cultures do it from the other culture source.

 

[Kmst80]

Daves method, wheat bread, yogurt and yeast. The entire top of the soil in those containers will be mold in three days. No other cultures do it from the other culture source.

Odd, I thought mould spores are everywhere so should show up equally in all containers or not.
I would in said containers grab as many worms as possible without soil and put in new container with fresh soil and see if that changes it.

 

[Snoopdog]

I have never seen white worms or black worms in my local stores, definitely not live ones. I think one of our pet stores used to sell them but cannot source them anymore. For those that have seen these in local stores, how do they sell them? In water, dirt?

By the way my cultures are doing well. I have not exactly had a population explosion yet, but I am just over 2 weeks of growth.

 

[HomebroodExotics]

Excellent. I think live food cultures are one of the next step in reefing to get healthier fish. I need to get some larger worm cultures going as well.

 

[Snoopdog]

For those that have been doing this a while, how long before a culture crashes on average? How long before a culture starts producing enough worms daily to harvest?

 

[Snoopdog]

I wanted to point out something like likely was holding back my cultures. I bought a really nice wine cooler and placed it in the garage, because when I started doing this the temperature was "mild". Also the cooler was rated for garages also. We have been doing everything right, moisture, the right food and good soil and cultures. Only 1 or 2 out of 8 cultures were doing decent. The cultures that were doing better were in smaller containers. Those containers only fit in the bottom of the cooler since the bottom is angled.

So we started going over what could actually be wrong. I took a digital temp gauge and noticed there was a huge disparity on the temps. The cultures at the bottom were around 65 degrees, the temps up top closer to 75 degrees. So in places were like I live you are just going to have to bring the cooler inside, garage will not cut it. I imagine the temp sensor on most of these things are closer to the bottom where the compressor and coil is that up top, which makes sense. I will report back in a few weeks with what we find.

 

[Tathamet]

I wanted to point out something like likely was holding back my cultures. I bought a really nice wine cooler and placed it in the garage, because when I started doing this the temperature was "mild". Also the cooler was rated for garages also. We have been doing everything right, moisture, the right food and good soil and cultures. Only 1 or 2 out of 8 cultures were doing decent. The cultures that were doing better were in smaller containers. Those containers only fit in the bottom of the cooler since the bottom is angled.

So we started going over what could actually be wrong. I took a digital temp gauge and noticed there was a huge disparity on the temps. The cultures at the bottom were around 65 degrees, the temps up top closer to 75 degrees. So in places were like I live you are just going to have to bring the cooler inside, garage will not cut it. I imagine the temp sensor on most of these things are closer to the bottom where the compressor and coil is that up top, which makes sense. I will report back in a few weeks with what we find.

I never checked temps in different sections in mine but the temperature was always about 5-10 degrees warmer than the coolers thermostat was set to as well. I always had my cultures and an extra thermometer at the very bottom. This is in the basement of the house so temps are already quite a bit colder down there. Mines set to 55f and it sits around 60-65.

I personally think the wine coolers are kinda useless lol (unless you drink wine lol) but luckily I had 2 that I got for free years ago which I had originally modified to incubate snake eggs. It works really well for the worm cultures in the basement but that’s all I use it for haha.