Whiteworms for Mandarins etc.

[paul b]

I have been feeding new born brine shrimp, blackworms and white worms to my mandarins for many years and they are all excellent foods.  My mandarins get live foods as do all my fish every day which I believe is a big key to this hobby for a number of reasons, but I just want to discuss whiteworms for now.

About 5 years ago (I have a horrible memory so it could have been during the Nixon years or last Tuesday) I started a whiteworm culture.  It was like $15.00 (remember the thing about my memory) and you get a bunch of worms in a little dirt.

I put them in a plastic shoebox with some bread and kept it wet and after a couple of weeks you have thousands of worms, maybe millions but I am still counting.
The absolute best thing about live white worms is that they stay alive in salt water like at least two days.  When you feed live blackworms, as soon as they hit the water, they do this little macarana dance and croak before they hit the bottom so slow eaters like mandarins eat a couple then go and take a nap while the rest of the worms are eaten by crabs, snails, manatees or whatever you are using as a CUC.

White worms are also "Free".  Well, after you buy a culture anyway.  Every week or two, (6 months if I forget about them as I sometimes do) I put half a slice of frozen multi grain bread in the container with some full fatted yogurt and a little nutritional yeast on it.  I then spray some plain water on, RO/DI if you are a compulsive nervous wreck, and put the thing in the dark.

When I open it it is full of worms just dancing and singing all over the place.  Thousands of babies also.

When you get too many, they clump up on the sides of the container where you can put your girlfriends finger in there to scoop them up.  Most girlfriends love that as my wife would.

But if you don't have enough for that, I take out a clump of worms and dirt and put it in a container.  Run some tap water through it a few times and pour off the fins dirt leaving big particles of dirt and worms.  Leave it along for a few minutes, maybe go and watch Oprah give away Cadillacs, to homeless cats.  The worms clump together so you can suck them out with a stray.  I use a baster thing.
Then take the rest of that dirt and strain it in a net and dump it back in the worm container.

Squirt the worms in your tank, especially where your mandarin is and he can feast for days.  Mandarins can't eat too much at one meal, especially if it's lent.
It's a great and healthy food that lasts for days.  The worms won't dig in your sand and get lost because, well, I don't know exactly, they just don't.

Here is my mandarin eating white worms in his little diner.  I built this to keep the copperband away and he hates me for it.

[Tommy]

Thanks for the info Paul ! awesome video. 

[KingOfAll_Tyrants]

+1!!!!

 

The feeder thing is brilliant. (what was it before?)

 

Anyone have any ideas for how to do this for fish that feed from the water column?

Edited February 6, 2018 by KingOfAll_Tyrants

[paul b]

+1!!!!

 

The feeder thing is brilliant. (what was it before?)

 

Anyone have any ideas for how to do this for fish that feed from the water column?

It was part of our Nuclear arsenal.

The worms don't sink very fast, you can just put a bunch of them in the tank and most of them get eaten before they hit the bottom.  Then the fish hunt for them for hours. 

[paul b]

Eventually the shoebox may get filled with these very tiny white mites, especially if you forgot to take your shoes out of the box.  They are easy to remove because the cool thing about mites is they have this waxy coating so they can't sink.  (Thats why you never see them while SCUBA diving)  The worms sink.   Every few months, if there are too many mites, I flood their container.  The mites all float and I pour off the surface.  Keep doing that maybe 4 or 5 times until you see no more mites, then put the muddy water and worms in a net.  Let it drain for a couple of minutes and put it back in the shoe box.  They like it very wet anyway just be sure there is no puddle in the bottom.
I also stir up the worms every time I use them.  I try not to use the same spoon I will eat breakfast with but if you use your girlfriends spoon she will never know because the worms don't actually taste that bad.
Don't worry, the mites and worms will not climb out of the shoebox, (unless you left your shoes in it) they need to stay wet.  I also tried to feed the mites to my fish, but they don't seem to like them.  I myself never tasted them.
I use a organic potting soil that has some vermiculite in it but no fertilizer.  The vermiculite floats so that comes out with the mites.  You can see some of it here in the container after I poured off the water a few times.

[newbie2014]

Never heard of them before. Now, I really need to find someone local from whom I can buy a culture. I've only been feeding my tank mysis shrimp and occasional pellets. I need to mix things up. 

 

As always, thank you for your insights.

Edited February 7, 2018 by newbie2014

[KingOfAll_Tyrants]

Culturing them doesn’t seem that hard. If i didn’t live in an apartment i might do so.

 

(my wife is prettier than a supermodel, but I’m not anywhere near The Great Man that PaulB is, so making worms here is out of the question for now. if that changes, i would let ppl know that pick up was possible in Arlington)m

 

 

Paul,

Could you at least give a ballpark diameter for the nuclear transparent aluminum space tubes that you use? : D : D

Edited February 7, 2018 by KingOfAll_Tyrants

[paul b]

Great PaulB! I don't think so. Bald maybe, retired maybe, semi senile maybe, OK probably. 

 

The tube is anything bigger than the mandarin and smaller than the copperband or any fish you  want to keep out. 

[paul b]

I have so many whiteworms I don't know what to do with all of them.  They really seem to like grain bread much better than regular whole wheat or rye.  I got 1,675,327 worms and thats just the adults.  I have twice that many youngsters and I have no idea how many babies.  My mandarin thinks he died and went to fish heaven.  And I accidentally dropped some in my container with about 200 asternia stars and they are still alive 4 days later.
I am not sure how long they live in seawater but maybe they live forever.
We had our last open house today and got three great offers so it looks like tomorrow we will pick the highest one and sell the house. :D

[KingOfAll_Tyrants]

Wow. Is it an end of the era for your 40+-year-old tank? :D

[paul b]

Hopefully I will be able to move it to the new place.

That..is..the..plan