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Feeding a California Blackworm culture - Lumbriculus variegatus

Hi all,
Nearly all the culture methods use paper towels or cardboard. It is the standard culture method used for ecotoxicology studies.

Mine had always done well in a tank with a substrate and plants, but the only other reference I could find for this culture method was <"How to ....Method 2.">.

There are also a lot of threads about the cultures going bad and smelling when you use paper as a medium.

I suspect it is a bit like the <"Daphnia cultures">, these last longer and are more stable if you add dead leaves, or hay, to them, but you get quicker colony growth using feeding yeast.

cheers Darrel
 
I'm sorry for resurrecting this old thread. I just wanted to share a photo showing that my California blackworm population is now booming. :smug: Happy days.
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They are in a 10 litre tub. The tub fits in my Juwel Vision 180 cabinet. There is a thin layer of old aquarium gravel and a sponge filter. Every couple of months I change the water with used aquarium water. They get fed solely on boiled broccoli each day. The temperature of the room is about 18 degrees Celsius, rising to 25 on a warm day. The more broccoli you feed them the more worms you get. I would say that I harvest 500 worms per week, and the population is still booming. There must be several thousand in this one small tub. They are harvested using a pipette when they have come out of the gravel completely and are feeding together forming a ball. I do not try to crush them or to disturb the gravel, but suction from the pipette may do this a bit.

Out of all of the cultures I have: they are the cleanest, they are fully aquatic and remain as live food in the tank, when left out they do not go foul or die, they do not mind if you forget to feed them, they tolerate any temperature, they eat almost anything, they never seem to crash, feeding is simple, and if you do get a bit of broccoli in the tank - it's fine. I would strongly recommend that everyone starts to culture them. The smell of broccoli being eaten is a bit like old farts, but at least my cat now has an excuse. :)
 
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