Blackworm escapees!

[richard]

if a several blackworms escape into my aquarium, will they thrive there? is this water too warm to allow survival? can they reproduce and fill my tank?i bought approx 500 blackworms. should i just dump them into my aquarium and let them start a colony? i have no clue. i am keeping them in a cellar with substrate.

 

[jennifer]

They will live in the tank forever. They will not breed much, if at all. Their number may appear to increase, due to additional escapees. The thing to watch out for is that they will produce waste, like any animal. They increase the bio-load on the tank, just as if you had additional newts. The tank will eventually be "overcrowded" although most of the "crowd" is hidden in the substrate. So I would not recommend allowing a lot of them to live in the tank with the newts. A few are fine, but don't let them build up.

 

[sharon]

I did this to my aquarium - because I hyper filter my tanks things were ok. I also shoved the gravel vac deep into the vac to extract a lot of worms. I dumped $2 worth into my tank (um no one told me not to) I'm pretty sure I got my moneys' worth out of that $2 too! Over the years I fed ALL my tanks off that one tank.

LOL later I was convinced it was a bad infestation, despite nothing going wrong with my fish, and eliminated them from my tanks.

If you have escapees - be sure to keep an eye on things. Don't want waste overcoming the newts!

Sharon

 

[richard]

lol. thanks for all of your advice. i have about 50 blackworms roaming my tank. they tend to hide in my floating plastic plants. do you think the newt will be able to shake them out or will i have to? i have a 5 gal tank

 

[karen]

50 blackworms for a 5 gallon tank seems like alot. I have a few "escapees" in my 10 gallon tank but it's hard for the newts to get at them, especially since the worms burrow quickly in the gravel. You may want to use a hand vac or turkey baster to fish out extra worms, for the reasons that Jen and Sharon mentioned.

 

[richard]

ok, i have one but how will my parents react in a situation where they learn that a cooking instrument has been in my aquarium...

 

[sharon]

lol they cost like three bucks - (don't buy the ones from the dollar store - bad seal) and save yourself an azz chewing!

 

[richard]

sounds like a plan
thanks sharon

 

[jazz]

HAHA... my mom's turkey baster was recently donated to the newt cause. It was old, she said she needed a new one anyway. lol.