Harvesting blackworms from aquarium substrate

[lily]

hi,

i am not a newt or salamander keeper (more out of budget and space constraints) but joined this forum because i am interested in culturing live foods for my fish and inverts.

i recently had some blackworms hitch a ride from some plants i bought at my lfs--they are now living happily (i assume) in my substrate. i don't feed them anything in particular but assume that they will feed off any excess food, plant debris and poop from the other inhabitants.

i have ramshorn snails, wood shrimp, ghost shrimp and 2 dwarf gouramis. it is a 10 gallon heavily planted tank.

my questions are:
1)i want to start harvesting the worms to feed to my 20 gallon tank but don't want to disturb the rest of the 10g tank by vacuuming the gravel. how do i lure them out in a trap? i have made a small trap out of a kinder egg toy container but what bait should i use?
2)what is a good temperature to keep them? i have read that they prefer colder temperatures, like in a fridge, but i have also read anecdotes that they will survive and thrive in an aquarium environment, which i assume is more around the mid-70s range. my 10 gallon is kept around 78F. as far as i know, the worms are doing fine, but i want to make sure that the colony is thriving and making worm babies.

thanks for any info!

lily

 

[jennifer]

Welcome, Lily. My first question is: are you sure that the worms are blackworms? Does the shop where you bought the plants also sell blackworms (in which case, it would be quite likely), or not?

The only thing I have ever seen "attract" blackworms, was a piece of cut-up earthworm. Blackworms seem very indifferent to any other kind of food sitting around.

What size of fish/inverts do you want to feed with the blackworms? If they are small, I would recommend getting a culture of Dero (microfex) worms. They are much more productive in culture.