Grindal worms

[Conort2]

Hi

I hope you’re all good.

I purchased some grindal worms around two weeks ago to start culturing as food for my new darter characins however I seem to be having a few issues. When added initially, they swarmed all over the food I was giving them. The food is presoaked cat biscuits and the colony was going through approximately one piece of kibble a day. Now however consumption has slowed down. The numbers of worms don’t really appear to be decreasing but then they don’t appear to be increasing either. I was under the impression two weeks would be good enough to start seeing results.

They’re kept in a 1.2 litre Tupperware container with a coco coir substrate which is next to my quarantine tank in my cabinet so I have indirect light on them for around 6 hours an evening. Would this affect them? They appear to congregate more to the side of the container which is furthest from the light.

Any pointers to what I could be doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Conor

 

[Wookii]

It's hard to judge @Conort2 - do you have a picture of the worms, say 24 hours after adding the cat biscuit? Have you started harvesting them yet?

How wet is the coconut coir? and do you have floss filled air holes in your container lid?

I tend to feed mine 4 or so cat biscuits every 3-4 days (mainly because I'm too lazy to do it daily), and I don't pre-soak them as there is generally enough moisture in the coir to soften up the biscuits as they absorb it.

 

[John q]

I purchased some grindal worms around two weeks ago

At a similar stage myself and they consume 4 biscuits every 2~3 days, I can definitely see the culture expanding, but don't quite feel its ready to start harvesting yet.
Mine are kept in a dark cupboard, I'd read this is a requirement but not sure how fact based this is.

Watching this thread with interest. 👍

 

[lazybones51]

I started a culture myself a couple of weeks back. I have two of those rectangular plastic takeaway containers you get, containing the cultures. I add a couple of dry cat biscuits every other day (they soak up the moisture from the substrate). I've already been using the worms as food, as the population seem very big already. I'm using a fairly moist coco coir substrate and keep them in my aquarium cabinet. 4 holes in each lid stuffed with a bit of cotton wool.

 

[Conort2]

I’m going to try them in darkness and see how I go, seems telling that they congregate at the side that gets the least light.