'The Full Monty' Has Left The Building last photos

[James D]

I can see the Discus pics at the bottom but a lot of the top ones are missing for me Steve. From the tantalizing glimpses behind the Discus your tank looks fantastic though!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I have looked at garden worm farms,you name it.

Earthworms are an "easy to culture" live food that most cichlids really like (I've never kept Discus, but I would assume they will eat them). The main problem is that you need the right worm to start with.

The worms you want are either Lumbricus rubellus (may actually be L. castaneus), Dendrobaena "veneta" (now more properly Eisenia hortensis) and Dendrodrilus rubidus. They are all worms you get in compost heaps, and you can just feed them on vegetable peelings etc. I've cultured them continuously for about 10 years.

I have a worm bucket, and I also add a few to the Grindal worm cultures, where they make a good "canary", if the earth-worms are on the culture surface it is time to re-culture the Grindal worms.

If you can't find them anywhere I can send you a mix as a starter. I got mine from our compost heap originally, but you often find Dendrodrilus and L. rubellus/castaneus under patio pots etc. They are both extremely lively muscular worm, dark red with a purple sheen, and the fish really like them.

The fish will eat Dendrobaena, but they aren't as keen on them.

The one you don't want is the Brandling, or Tiger Worm, Eisenia fetida (syn. E. foetida), it is a pale pink, stripy sluggish worm which produces a lot of bad smelling yellow fluid when the worm is broken. A lot of fish won't eat them, but they are the favoured worm for "vermicomposting".

There is some more discussion here: <http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=40827>.

cheers Darrel

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Earthworms are an "easy to culture" live food that most cichlids really like (I've never kept Discus, but I would assume they will eat them). The main problem is that you need the right worm to start with.

Wow Darrel, you sound like you certainly know your worms. I have just been looking these up on Google Images, I think I am going to have nightmares!

I have just started my first worm farm using worms I collected in the woods nearby. These worms were underneath the wet leaves at the surface of the soil. They look pretty much like Lumbricus rubellus although they all look pretty much the same to me, I couldn't say for certain, but they definitely are not the Tiger Worms that I am pretty sure of.

I have put them in a large container following some guides I found on the internet. I am using peat soil mixed with some sand and vermiculite, chopped vegetable matter, composting leaves and porridge oats which have been soaked in water with vitamins and minerals. Trouble is they are all far too big to feed to any of my fish and I hate cutting them up, you get all kinds of brown stuff everywhere. I am hoping that soon there will be some little tiny ones that I can just rinse off and feed straight to the fish.

How do you know when is the right time to look for the baby worms?

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[REDSTEVEO]

I can see the Discus pics at the bottom but a lot of the top ones are missing for me Steve. From the tantalizing glimpses behind the Discus your tank looks fantastic though!

Hi James,

I am not sure why you can't see the pictures at the top, there are more pictures around page 10 I think that you might be able to see.

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I have just started my first worm farm using worms I collected in the woods nearby. These worms were underneath the wet leaves at the surface of the soil. They look pretty much like Lumbricus rubellus although they all look pretty much the same to me, I couldn't say for certain, but they definitely are not the Tiger Worms that I am pretty sure of.

I have put them in a large container following some guides I found on the internet. I am using peat soil mixed with some sand and vermiculite, chopped vegetable matter, composting leaves and porridge oats which have been soaked in water with vitamins and minerals. Trouble is they are all far too big to feed to any of my fish and I hate cutting them up, you get all kinds of brown stuff everywhere. I am hoping that soon there will be some little tiny ones that I can just rinse off and feed straight to the fish.

How do you know when is the right time to look for the baby worms?

The worms sound fine, they will probably be Lumbricus rubellus or Dendrochilus. I feed mine on vegetable peelings, but they will eat virtually any organic matter, in the Grindal Worm cultures they must mainly eat the Oats. I've found that you need to keep them slightly wetter than you think they should need.

It depends on the species when they lay eggs, some do all year around, some just in the winter. I find egg cocoons (below) all year around, but I don't know which species produces them (or whether they all do).

<http://www.herper.com/earthworms/earthworms-breeding-habits.html>

cheers Darrel

 

[Edvet]

Man you realy know stuf Darrel

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Hi Darrel,

I agree with Edvet, the question I want to ask is how on earth do you find these little cocoons amongst all the soil, or do you just wait for them to hatch into the soil and then harvest them?

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[NC10]

Hi mate, how's the discus going? Have you managed to get them eating yet?

I haven't forgot about you, just been away. I need to make a new batch of food up myself tommorow so I'll post the recipe up when I dig it out.

Thought as well, I could send you a few cubes out in the post if you like, just to try them on it and to see how feel about throwing it in your tank before making a full batch up.

Edit: I knew I'd posted it on here before so I've just dug it up

350g Beef Heart
150g Prawns
32g Spinach
20g Flakes
10g Oatmeal
2 Cloves of garlic

 

[Crossocheilus]

350g Beef Heart
150g Prawns
32g Spinach
20g Flakes
10g Oatmeal
2 Cloves of garlic

What is used as a binding agent? And is it frozen? How is it made?

 

[NC10]

What is used as a binding agent? And is it frozen? How is it made?

There is no binding agent, I have seen people use gelatine in their recipes though. I haven't tried it but found that's it's fine without it anyway. The flake and oats thicken it up into a more sticky consistency.

I finely chop the garlic and oats, chop the spinach up quite small and then pass everything except the flake through a grinder. I then mix the flake in. I bought the grinder especially for this, but I just used to finely chop everything with pretty much the same results.

I freeze it into ice cube trays and then chop them into quarters just before they're frozen absolutely solid, they're just thrown into a food bag then. I get one out in a morning and put it into a little dish in the fridge, it's then ready by the time lights are on. I break a new small piece of a bamboo skewer too and use this to feed them.

I have 6 discus and 4 angels and this makes up probably 90% of their diet. Every other day or so I'll substitute one of their meals for regular flake and pellets. I was feeding 5 times a day but recently dropped to 4, but the quarter of a cube is plenty, just to give you an idea. The 2 plecs I have get a few wafers too.

I haven't worked the cost out exactly, but you're probably looking at around £5 max which is a bargain for a few months supply of quality food

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Hi NC10, thanks for taking the time to dig this out for me. Although I have slowly come around to the idea of feeding my discus on some beefheart maybe once or twice a week I have found something which seems to be doing a great job at the moment. Freeze dried Californian Blackworms, it took them a day or two but now they have got a taste for it they are really going for it, fat bellies on all of them. I soak it in Vitazin from Waterlife and add some Kent Garlic Extreme drops, its like 'Discus Crack' 🙂

I have also mixed a paste using a combination of all the food from the discus delights hamper that I got from Plymouth Discus. It is all kinds of flakes, granules, some spinach mixed with Vitazin and they seem to be taking that as well.

I don't know how far you are from me or how long the stuff would take to get here in the post and if it would have defrosted by the time it gets here but it is very kind of you to offer. Hang on for now and I will keep you up to date with how things are going.

Hopefully some pictures to come soon of some 'fat bellied' Discus!!

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

the question I want to ask is how on earth do you find these little cocoons amongst all the soil, or do you just wait for them to hatch into the soil and then harvest them?

I leave the egg cocoons in the container and then just harvest the smaller worms from under the cover where I put the peelings (just like you would with White Worms etc). I use a bit of old carpet, but hessian sacking is the preferred cover medium. <http://www.herper.com/earthworms/earthworms-culture.html>

Every now and then I have a sort through the potting compost, and if it is full of worms I return any really large worms to the compost heap. I also use this process to "rogue out" any Eisenia fetida.

cheers Darrel

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Darrell,

Thanks for the excellent information and the link. Worms are doing nicely in a container with a hessian sack cloth as recommended. I will try and take a photograph if I get any baby worms!!

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Worms are doing nicely in a container with a hessian sack cloth as recommended. I will try and take a photograph if I get any baby worms!!

It will take them a while to bulk up, but you should see them soon. I get some that look a bit like thin white worms, but will definitely grow into Earthworms, and some that look like small adult earthworms even when they are 1/2 the length and thickness of a match stick.

cheers Darrel

 

[Bhu]

Hi Edvet,

I would like to feed the discus on as much live food as I can get my hands on honestly. Trouble is most of the places near where I live only get it in once a week and unless you get it fresh on the day it comes in most of it is dead in the bag a few days later, especially the brine shrimp. The bloodworm and the daphnia are 55 pence a bag and the brineshrimp is £1.10 per bag and you are lucky if there are more than 30 or 40 brine shrimp in the bag!

I have looked at buying a white worm starter culture off eBay and starting my own lot off. I have looked at garden worm farms,you name it.

So if you or anyone else knows somewhere on the internet you can buy cheaply in bulk I am all ears!

Thanks,

Steve.

get a small tank and breed guppies 😉 or red cherries. These both breed like crazy and are easy to keep... My discus love both and watching them hunt is amazing! Probably get ear ache now for cruelty lol!

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Probably get ear ache now for cruelty lol!

Yes I am sure you will from the guppy loving fraternity, not sure about the red cherries though, after all discus do go for small crustaceans in the wild so fair game I suppose.

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Happiness is watching your discus swimming around with fat bellies and nice black poo coming out, nice!! Photos to come honest!

🙂

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Photographs uploading to Photobucket now, I will upload later, brilliant photo of a very full looking Blue Diamond Discus.

Should be up around 10pm hopefully.

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Well Photobucket did not take quite as long as I expected, maybe something to do with the quality of the photographs as I have had to use my Sony Cybershot, my son asked for his camera back

Here are few photographs as promised. I am having some diatom type algae problems at the moment, photos of which are being posted on the Algae site under the thread, Are UV Filters any good for removing diatomous algae, but I will post one or two here so you know what I am on about.



The dreaded Brown stuff is driving me crazy😡





The good news is the Discus are really getting the hang of eating now, together we fought anorexia and won!


A shot of the hillock and more of the brown stuff!!


From a distance the tank doesn't look too bad, it's only when you get close which is where I like to get and it annoys me.







Now I have got the Discus sorted I need to work on the diatoms, but this little fellah is full and still looking!



I'm off for a pint!

Cheers,

Steve.

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Too much media in the filter. Way too much. Flow will suffer.

Cheers,

Hi Clive,

Remember your reply way back on page 4 of this journal? Too much media in the filter!! Flow will suffer!! Well it looks like this might have come back to haunt me, I am beginning to think you were right! The flow from the big Eheim filter is slowing right down.

So next week I am going to reduce the media in both filters by half and will be adding plain old Siporax to the Eheim Professional 2 filter with just a smattering of the original media. I am going to remove all of the plastic medial and replace that with Siporax instead. It will be a quick slick operation all done in less han an hour and shoudl improve the flow significantly,especially the Co2 water.

Will keep you posted, we learn from our own mistakes sometimes and ignore good advice at our peril!

Cheers,

Steve.