lutz123 August 28, 2014 Share August 28, 2014 Lord that's gross. Still not quite on board with it, though I'm sure my fish friends would enjoy. I am glad you are still having success! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decadence August 28, 2014 Share August 28, 2014 Don't make a big deal out of it or you will lose intrest since they don't reproduce fast enough to feed a lot. This is why i kept it simple and cheap.I don't do hardly any water changes any more, only changed the water for the pictures. I don't regulate temperature. No filtration. We don't even use air conditioning in the house unless it hits upper 80s however I do keep them in the basement (current temp 76) In the winter the basement gets cold and they don't seem to reproduce any faster. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see why there would be any reason that you couldn't start with 10x the black worms so that they would reproduce 10x faster? Live black worms were one of the best foods which I have every fed my tank but I stopped because it was very inconvenient to buy them every week, especially when half of the time they were dead within a day because they were such low quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b August 28, 2014 Share August 28, 2014 Mine never die, Maybe it's the music I play but I never lose a worm. They reproduce but only about half as fast as I need. If they are dying, you are getting half dead worms or you are not keeping them correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decadence August 28, 2014 Share August 28, 2014 (edited) Paul, when they die, it's because the bag has 1/2 of the worms already dead. I'll take out as many of the dead ones as I can but the ammonia has already done its damage and they don't last long as the live worms are swollen and brittle. When I get good worms, they never die. Edited August 28, 2014 by Decadence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 August 29, 2014 Author Share August 29, 2014 (edited) Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see why there would be any reason that you couldn't start with 10x the black worms so that they would reproduce 10x faster? Live black worms were one of the best foods which I have every fed my tank but I stopped because it was very inconvenient to buy them every week, especially when half of the time they were dead within a day because they were such low quality.Great idea! Give it a try and let me know results. I only started with $5 worth and don't have finiky fish so this is a nice treat for them. My LFS sells healthy buggers.Lord that's gross. Still not quite on board with it, though I'm sure my fish friends would enjoy. I am glad you are still having success!Lol harvesting them isn't as bad as cleaning my skimmer. Edited August 29, 2014 by gmerek2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b August 29, 2014 Share August 29, 2014 Decadence, the place where you are buying them are garbage. I don't accept dead worms and they know that. If you get them online, you are at their mercy and nothing you can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime April 11, 2015 Share April 11, 2015 Love to see a picture of how this is looking now. Has your population grown? What would happen if you added a bunch at once, do you think it would help with growth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 April 11, 2015 Author Share April 11, 2015 Good questions. I will post a pic later. I still feed a good sized pinch of worms once per week there is no population growth they just maintain since I'm feeding the growth to the fish. It seems the more I feed the worms the more they reproduce. I would think a large number of worms would work in this setup but keep in mind these buggers have large appetites. So they wouldn't do well in the shallow setups due to ammonia spike or water quality. I don't understand why people put towels in the tanks. Probably because some scientist said to but they don't need it and it just gets in the way. Also the scientists say to use a shallow system. Hobbiest have proven that wrong and I think we see better growth due to the water quality and option to feed larger quantities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elbowdeep88 April 11, 2015 Share April 11, 2015 (edited) Ok I am just throwing this out there. Don't these "reproduce" primarily by fragmentation/regeneration? I think they have segments or something and if broken can grow a new worm. So since your feeding and water regimine is clearly working, what if you took out a scoop of worms and put them in the blender for less than a second and dumped them back in? Or just use a powerhead for water circ to promote fragmentation. I would think that these methods could increase your pop faster, like manual anemone splitting. Edited April 11, 2015 by elbowdeep88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime April 11, 2015 Share April 11, 2015 Ok I am just throwing this out there. Don't these "reproduce" primarily by fragmentation/regeneration? I think they have segments or something and if broken can grow a new worm. So since your feeding and water regimine is clearly working, what if you took out a scoop of worms and put them in the blender for less than a second and dumped them back in? Or just use a powerhead for water circ to promote fragmentation. I would think that these methods could increase your pop faster, like manual anemone splitting. It's a good theory, but when you propagate things like nems, it's probably a good idea to run carbon, do more water changes, make sure you can handle the levels. That sounds like a little more complicated than Gmerek wants to run his setup, and I don't blame him. I wonder if by simply adding a few more table spoons of blackworms, you would see an increase, or you would just merely keep them alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 April 12, 2015 Author Share April 12, 2015 He's right. I designed this system to be as easy, maintenance free and cheap as possible so I don't lose interest in it. I just want to give my fish a free live treat once a week without making trip to LFS. It's been going well over a year on two tablespoons of worms. i will buy a larger lump of worms and will post up in 6 months. Here are recent pics. I lost interest in doing water changes so the water has a continual algae bloom. A reefer thought it was green water for Rotifer lol. It's an eye sore but the worms love the algae. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 April 12, 2015 Author Share April 12, 2015 All black worms do is eat, party and reproduce Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave w April 12, 2015 Share April 12, 2015 So gmerek2, what do you think is an ideal water depth for the worms? Assuming that that they have an acceptable rate of dissolved oxygen, would 24" or 36" of depth still work in your opinion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmerek2 April 12, 2015 Author Share April 12, 2015 They are in 12" of water. Never had them deeper so I have no idea. But 12" works for me and others (never seen a dead worm) I have on a few occasions seen a live one floating with air bubble in stomach? Maybe that's the small loss I suffer with deep water system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM April 12, 2015 Share April 12, 2015 Fresh water, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattiejay6 April 12, 2015 Share April 12, 2015 Yes Fresh Water.. Saltwater kills them almost instantly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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