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Blackworms and whiteworms

J

jesper

Guest
Hi,
Do any of you know of any website that sells and does international shipments of these two worms? I can't find any of these in Sweden. Preferably one in Europe.

Cheers
/Jesper
 

caleb

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There are often adverts for whiteworms in fishkeeping magazines in the UK, do you have anything similar in Sweden?
 
J

jesper

Guest
We have but I haven't found any ads for these two worms, though I have only checked online thus far.
I will keep trying to find them here, just hoped that someone could recommend an online site so that I could avoid going around buying loads of fish magazines....I will try to sneakpeak in some though hehe.
Thanks for the tip.
 
J

john

Guest
Going on what I've read of blackworms and heard from hobbyists here I would advise you not to acquire them unless you can do so locally. They seem to be rather delicate and it may not be advisable to get them via mail order.

I advise you to get hold of grindal worms (smaller, more prolific and heat tolerant versions of whiteworms).
 
J

jesper

Guest
Mmmm, maybe I should go with Grindals insted of whiteworms. Grindals are so small though.

The reason why I want blackworms are that they will survive in the tank so I can use them as a combined snail/food.
 
S

swan

Guest
In my experience, California blackworms do just fine by mail order. It may make a difference how they are packed and how long they are on their journey. aquaticfoods.com sends them overnight in a styrofoam insulated container with a cold pack. Maybe you have a different kind of blackworms in Europe that are more delicate.
 

mike

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I've never seen blackworms offered for sale in the UK, so I suspect the chances of buying them are slim. Sounds like you need to go big game hunting and culture your own!
 
J

jesper

Guest
"Culture Methods
>
>It is nearly impossible to be unsuccessful in culturing these worms
>and colonies can be maintained indefinitely with very little effort.
>Use a shallow, wide dish such as an 8" Carolina culture dish the
>equivalent or an enamel or plastic pan. Add about 2-3 cm of
>non-chlorinated water to the dish. Use lake, pond, or spring water
>if available or, if necessary, tap water that has been exposed to
>the air for a week or so. Cut up white or brown institutional paper
>towels into strips about 1 cm wide and add some to the water to
>provide a decomposable organic substratum for the worms. Add worms
>(which are available from Carolina Biological Supply Co.) to the
>dish. Feed the worms compressed shrimp pellets ("sinking fish food")
>available at pet stores. Do not provide more food at one time than
>the worms can eat in a day. Overfeeding can kill the colony. Replace
>the water when it becomes anoxic (or not. When the water is anoxic
>the worms will exhibit their characteristic respiratory posture with
>the posterior end flat under the water surface.)
>
>The worms are very tolerant of stagnant conditions with low
>dissolved oxygen and can subsist without food for long periods.
>Replace water as it evaporates and don't let the dish dry out
>completely. They cannot tolerate desiccation. You can make
>subcultures at will following the above procedure. The worms will
>reproduce by fragmentation under these conditions. If you wish to
>hurry the propagation process, you can cut the worms into pieces and
>each piece will regenerate the missing parts to become a complete
>worm."

Copyright 2000 by
Richard Fox
Lander University
 
J

jennifer

Guest
Jesper - those instructions will probably work, but don't expect fast reproduction. It might take months until you have enough to harvest.

Shaun - what kind of earthworms? See:
http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/8/11073.html
The problem is that the worms that are culturable are bad-tasting to a lot of sals. If you still want to do it, you can find a zillion sets of instructions on the web. I grow them in a big plastic tub - outdoors in summer, garage in winter. They eat my kitchen scraps.

John - I vote for adding "live foods" to the list of forum topics.
 
J

jesper

Guest
Yeah, well I am a patient guy
biggrin.gif


Jen - Why do you say that culturable worms are distasteful?
Eisenia foetida - bad
Eisenia Hortensis(dendrobaena veneta) - yumyum

Newts love these worms(Eisenia Hortensis) and they are easy to culture. I am so glad I started culturing them, with some help from Morg they are now reproducing fast too. You should post your tips Morg.
I have enough to feed all my newts and they cost me nothing besides the 100 worms I started with(10 euro), soil, the corrigated cardboard I feed them and the plastic container they live in.
They also eat some of my garbage so that I can postpone going out with the trash a day or two - hehe!
I don't give them meat though - they love meat but it smells....

(Message edited by jesper on January 18, 2004)
 
C

coen

Guest
I wonder what the dutch name for blackworms is, so I can search for it or order them at my local petshop
 
J

john

Guest
Don't know the Dutch name but I bet if I tell you the German one you will be able to figure it out. It's something like Rute Muckenlarven or something. Red Mud worms I suppose.
 

morg

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Mike
starter cultures of blackworms are available from Blades biological in the UK, but I would not advise trying home culture.

Yes the worms do survive ok, but reproduce very slowly.
I had a culture going for over a year and was only able to remove a few blackworms every fortnight or so to use as newt food.
 
F

fabian

Guest
Hi John, Coen,
I would be interested too what black worms are. I think they are not "rote Mückenlarven" in German because this would translate "red mosquito larvae" and this doesn't fit to the cultering description. Any Latin or German name to blackworms (or as Coen would prefer dutch). Or a picture? They are different from Tubifex?
Fabian
 

mike

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Thanks Morg, I was wondering about trying that, so you've saved me the trouble.
Lumbriculus variegatus - may help with finding other names.
 
C

coen

Guest
I don't think they sell them anywhere in Holland.

Doing a search for "Lumbriculus variegatus" on the dutch google doesn't show anything, unfortunatly.
sad.gif
 
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