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Blackworm Management...

DeCypher

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I've been having some troubles with my blackworms lately. I've been feeding this batch to my newts for about 2 weeks. They are starting to smell very gross and there are a lot of dead white worms clumped together. I've been thinking about breeding them, or at least take them out of the fridge. What do they eat? Can I breed them? Also, will the strange-smelling, old worms be accepted by my newts?
 

Otterwoman

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Sometimes they die. These ones are dying and the white ones are dead. I wouldn't feed dead rotting worms to my newts, because they could get sick and die.

I have tried to breed them, but in my experience, even healthy ones are acrid smelling and I wouldn't want to do it in the same house in which I lived.
 

michael

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Do you rinse? I rinse mine everyday with cold dechlorinated water.
 

twistedfisher

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Black worms can be cultured quite easily in a simple set up.

Firstly take a 5.5 or 10 gallon tank and fill it about 2" from the top.

Secondly take a plastic container that will fit inside the tank and drill 1/32" holes 1 1/2" up from the bottom all the way around about an inch apart.

Thirdly attach the container to the side of the tank. Now this can be done a few ways but the one i prefer is to use some piece of plastic coat hanger siliconed onto the side of the container, then simply hooked on the tank. Another easy way is to use pieces of wire coat hanger to make hangers for it. Yet another is to use plant weights and bend them into hooks and attach with silicone. In the end your mounting is up to you just remember to make it removable so you can get in there to clean out the tank every now and then.

Finally you need a power head/water pump to put in the bottom of the tank and pipe the output up through a spray bar that will spray into the plastic container with the worms. Try to aim the spray bar so that it hits the back side of the container and the worms will stay to the front.

Now that you have the set up done its time to place the worms and to feed them. Put your starter worms into the plastic container and get your powerhead/pump running. You will notice that the worms will stay to the front outta the strongest current but will not try to leave. Adjust the flow so that the spray isn't overly strong but is enough for a good current to be present.

The best food that i found for the little wiggly things is carnivore pellets. drop a pellet into their container and once it is gone add another. You will have to take your time to figure out how much and how often to feed based on the amount of worms you have in the culturing container.

As ive stated before I have had fish for over 25 years and in that time I've either cultured a part or all of my own food to feed my fish.

Once again i hope this helps and wish i still had a picture of the old set up i had going to share with ya.

Any questions feel free to message me and ill try to help as best i can.
 

Jennewt

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Michael, that's interesting. Any chance you could post some photos? Is there any substrate in the tub?
 

twistedfisher

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nope no substrate and ive looked and looked for a photo of it and can't find one.

This set up i had a few years ago when i was breeding Badis Badis which only eat live foods.

I know that everything you read says dirt or stones o some kind of substrate for them to dig in, i didn't want the mess of washing the substrate from them and liked the idea of grabbing a ball of them with forceps and tossing them into waiting little mouths
 

Jennewt

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nope no substrate and ive looked and looked for a photo of it and can't find one.

This set up i had a few years ago when i was breeding Badis Badis which only eat live foods.

I know that everything you read says dirt or stones o some kind of substrate for them to dig in, i didn't want the mess of washing the substrate from them and liked the idea of grabbing a ball of them with forceps and tossing them into waiting little mouths

Are you sure the blackworms were reproducing? As opposed to just living well until used?
 

twistedfisher

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Yes ma'am I had the same culture going for over 5 years and never bought any more worms.

I collected about a teaspoon full daily for the different fish i had at the time.
 
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