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Culturing California Blackworms - Lumbriculus variegatus

sciencefiction

sciencefiction

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I was wondering if any of you has cultured California blackworms and what's your experience.

I have a bunch of finicky new fish that won't eat anything I offer so I decided to buy some live food for them to try out.
The live food ended up doing quite well in the tank and has been hiding under the stones and feasting on fish pellets, lol. They mop a load of fish pellets without a problem and I also suspect they're eating fish poop as well because up until I put the worms in I had to siphon everyday. Now I barely see any poop at all. There is hillstream loaches in there.

There is my new addition..It is not for the light hearted :D

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I've never cultured them before but I have looked into it. I think some people chop the worms in half and then it makes a new one.
 
I have tried a few times, mostly succeeded in keeping them alive for longer times and getting some growth of the culture, but not in great numbers.
Flowing water seems neccesary to getting them to "break" up an grow out 2 new ones. Sexual reproduction should be possible, but i haven't read about reproducing them in greater numbers from it.
I used an overflow system with two plastic containers keeping them in the top one with the overflow going into the second one and pumping it up again into to top one with a small pump. I "fed" them paper as they seem to feed on the bacterial mass when it disintegrates, also gave them sinking tablets on which they gathered too.
I kep't them for months that way but only could feed some small portions to the fish.
Nice thing is, if not eaten they can and will survive in the tank> I will add them in the future to a "live feed tank"
 
So far I am impressed with the black worms. They're mopping up food left overs fairly fast and are keeping the bottom spotless. I've got hillstream loaches in the tank and they haven't touched any food I put in at all...not yet..., besides going for a few black worms :) So it's kind of working out for both until the loaches start eating fish food. I tried them on repashy soilent green, repashy bottom grazer. NLS algae max, NLS cichlid pellets, veggie sticks from ta-aquaculture, zucchini, cucumber, home made gel fish food( with spirulina, frozen bloodworms.frozen krill, garlic, paprika, turmeric, carrots and broccoli), also tried frozen bloodworms alone. Nothing worked until I put the live black worms. They're aren't hunting them down actively, stay mostly munching the stones but I definitely saw them go for the worms from time to time.

I split the load between two tanks so I have some balckworms in another tank but the platy living in there seems about ready to explode. I am guessing too many blackworms at once :confused:

The worms are growing. I don't know if they'll multiply but they're fattening up big time:)
 
The fish are getting at the worms.....I don't think the worms will last that long.... but the stones are protecting at least some of them.

And I seem to have a very happy platy in the other tank. She behaves like a loach, circling constantly near the bottom...I can't see many worms in there either anymore but a bunch came out when I put some of my home made spirulina gel food. Then I could see worms, shrimp and snails piled up in one spot. It looked hilarious, or actually rather creepy :confused:

I may have to order some more, they're better than shrimp at keeping up with the tank bottom :)
If I can't keep them multiplying in a fish tank, I may set up something for them alone. I find them rather entertaining, really funny how they pull pellets towards themselves from under the stones. They seem to be eating pretty much any sort of fish food or fish poop:rolleyes:
 
Let's feed the worms, ha, ha.

You know, it took me a while to get used to seeing them...I rather like these creatures now....The hillstream loaches pooped like if there was a humongous pleco inside the tank. It seems the worms are shredding that to invisible bits....I have not siphoned in two weeks. The worms are also eager to eat fish food....The little round things are NLS pellets.


 
A little update. Worms are doing well and there's always some available for the fish. The fish sift from time to time searching for them but the majority of worms have taken ship under the stones out of reach. From time to time I see one coming out and swimming away to another spot...

A couple of weeks back I lifted a hollow stone decoration in my other tank to siphon under it and several of my kuhli loaches were "resting" there. Its strange how fish and aquatic worms of similar shape have similar behavior....not that anyone chases my kuhlis to eat them....
 
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