paul b February 4, 2020 Share February 4, 2020 I just fed my tank Clams, mysis, LRS and live whiteworms which I have aprox a million. I honestly have no idea how people stay in this hobby without feeding live worms. I have been using worms since they were invented by probably Ralph Nader a long time ago. Whiteworms stay alive in salt water for almost 5 days, Like Duh...Whats not to like. Everything except pipefish eat them, I almost ate them myself a few times when I was really hungry. You buy a starter culture for like $15.00 and from then on they are free except for a little dry cat food or bread and yogurt. But they grow 10 times faster on cat food but I don't think you can feed the worms to cats. You probably shouldn't feed live worms if you quarantine because if you wanted to quarantine the worms for 72 days they would hate you. But for the other 18,000,000 people in the hobby, live worms are the best thing since Face book (which I feel is the stupidest thing they invented for people with a face, or a book) The worms do not bury themselves in the substrait in salt water, I am not sure why. But they stay there and just kind of do the Macarana dance inciting the fish like they have a death wish. Mandarins, scooter bleenies copperbands and just about everything else goes nuts for them and they are a perfect food, especially if you are trying to get your fish and keep them immune from everything except global warming and maybe Kim Kardashian. Here are some Jewish worms eating a Matzo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinus88 February 5, 2020 Share February 5, 2020 I started my culture in the last week. How long till it takes off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b February 5, 2020 Author Share February 5, 2020 About 3 or 4 weeks depending on what you feed. Keep them very damp. Feed them some whole wheat bread with full fatted non flavored on it and I also use dry cat food that I spray with water to dampen it. When the food is gone, add more. In the beginning they will eat about a quarter of a slice of bread and yogurt. Make sure to bury the bread completely or it will grow a lot of fungus. Use about 5 pellets of cat food. Increase it as they grow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinus88 February 5, 2020 Share February 5, 2020 Thanks for the advice to bury the bread. I already had some spikey hair looking fungus and was wondering what I got myself into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b February 5, 2020 Author Share February 5, 2020 You will grow all sorts of things if you don't completely cover it. But add the cat food or they grow very slow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sethsolomon February 5, 2020 Share February 5, 2020 What do you use as a base? Just dirt? Coconut shell? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinus88 February 6, 2020 Share February 6, 2020 I hope Paul chimes in but I'm just using miracle grow potting soil. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many worms were in there when I buried the bread and added cat food. Almost no action on the surface but many in the soil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bues0022 February 6, 2020 Share February 6, 2020 Is there anyone in the NOVA area (bristow/gainseville/manassas/sterling/herndon) area that does white worms? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sethsolomon February 6, 2020 Share February 6, 2020 13 hours ago, Delphinus88 said: I hope Paul chimes in but I'm just using miracle grow potting soil. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many worms were in there when I buried the bread and added cat food. Almost no action on the surface but many in the soil. are you sure you want to miracle grow? that has added fertilizer which will eventually end up in your tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinus88 February 6, 2020 Share February 6, 2020 Surely that would be preferred but somewhere in my "research" either Paul B or David Ramsey (has some great you tube videos) said it was fine and it was getting hard to find just plain potting soil. I generally wouldn't put bread, yogurt, yeast flakes or cat food in my tank either but here we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b February 6, 2020 Author Share February 6, 2020 Try to get cheap potting soil without fertilizer. I don't think fertilizer will hurt the worms, but you really might not want it in your tank. I amusing this stuff from The makers of "Miricla Grow" called "Natures Care" It doesn't have fertilizer. It is organic and has Alfalfa meal. bone meal, earthworm castings, and kelp meal. I don't think those things will hurt your tank and I have been using it for years. It is also probably cheap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinus88 February 6, 2020 Share February 6, 2020 Will do. Thanks for the recommendation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sethsolomon February 6, 2020 Share February 6, 2020 39 minutes ago, paul b said: I am using this stuff from The makers of "Miricla Grow" called "Natures Care" Ahh ok the organic version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkey18 February 6, 2020 Share February 6, 2020 Anyone have a starter culture to share? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinus88 February 7, 2020 Share February 7, 2020 On 2/6/2020 at 11:45 AM, Sharkey18 said: Anyone have a starter culture to share? I got mine off of eBay. I imagine I am several weeks away from being able to share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b February 7, 2020 Author Share February 7, 2020 If you want to drive to Long Island I will give you all you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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