anyone ever culture black worms or bloodworms?

[Leo2o915]

if so how did you do it ?

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

I defer to the experts but I probably qualify as a slightly experienced with the blackworms at this point. Only because I have failed at blackworms plenty over the past 4 lbs of orders.

One thing to keep in mind is, I believe, it would be difficult to raise them in a large quantity like the commercial sellers can in an aquarium.

My fish would eat way more than i could produce if allowed. I have purchased plenty from easternaquatics after hearing of them on the forum.

I do raise blackworms a bit by seeding my tanks with a few squirts of clean worms into a tank with a substrate they can get into.  I believe the non substrate turning fish feed off of them but break them up causing worms to regenerate in the gravel etc.

I am attempting a polyculture now 26x18x12 tank blackworms with a pair of dwarf brazos crayfish, and snails. The substrate is black diamond media. The shells are for future shell dweller project but the crawfish use them a bit in the mean time. I would guess this isnt even   1/16th lb of blackworms.

l

This tank is unheated and sits between 60 and 67 depending on the season and how often the furnace in the same room fires off

I feed primarily spirulina flake, spirulina tablets, nano banquet blocks, and repashy both soilent green and super green. The blackworms pretty much eat everything for me and will eat fry food from the water column

The crawfish i theory eat some worms and the food i put in. 

When i killed the  blackworms off i believe I put too many in the tank the oxygen content of the water column was not enough for them, they suffocated, my cycle crashed, and I had to reset. I started this attempt maybe 2 months ago by purchasing a pound, cleaning them per instructions and added probably a tablespoon to this tank and all my other tanks.The worms stabilised then grew in numbers minus any tank with a corydoras, loach, krib, or geo type cichlid.

I hope you get a few more responses to this one i ha e no idea what i am doing but so far its working this time :) 

[Leo2o915]

On 1/4/2022 at 7:28 PM, mountaintoppufferkeeper said:

I defer to the experts but I probably qualify as a slightly experienced with the blackworms at this point. Only because I have failed at blackworms plenty over the past 4 lbs of orders.

One thing to keep in mind is, I believe, it would be difficult to raise them in a large quantity like the commercial sellers can in an aquarium.

My fish would eat way more than i could produce if allowed. I have purchased plenty from easternaquatics after hearing of them on the forum.

I do raise blackworms a bit by seeding my tanks with a few squirts of clean worms into a tank with a substrate they can get into.  I believe the non substrate turning fish feed off of them but break them up causing worms to regenerate in the gravel etc.

I am attempting a polyculture now 26x18x12 tank blackworms with a pair of dwarf brazos crayfish, and snails. The substrate is black diamond media. The shells are for future shell dweller project but the crawfish use them a bit in the mean time. I would guess this isnt even   1/16th lb of blackworms.

l

This tank is unheated and sits between 60 and 67 depending on the season and how often the furnace in the same room fires off

I feed primarily spirulina flake, spirulina tablets, nano banquet blocks, and repashy both soilent green and super green. The blackworms pretty much eat everything for me and will eat fry food from the water column

The crawfish i theory eat some worms and the food i put in. 

When i killed the  blackworms off i believe I put too many in the tank the oxygen content of the water column was not enough for them, they suffocated, my cycle crashed, and I had to reset. I started this attempt maybe 2 months ago by purchasing a pound, cleaning them per instructions and added probably a tablespoon to this tank and all my other tanks.The worms stabilised then grew in numbers minus any tank with a corydoras, loach, krib, or geo type cichlid.

I hope you get a few more responses to this one i ha e no idea what i am doing but so far its working this time :) 

awesome 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

 I view myself as finding out how to not keep them more than an expert in keeping them at this point. 

[PedroPete]

really helpful info @mountaintoppufferkeeper! thanks!

[Crabby]

So to my knowledge there isn’t a sure fire way to ‘culture’ bloodworms, but depending on where you live you can get them to naturally culture in your backyard. Bloodworms are the larvae of a type of midge, specifically those from the family chironomidae. They’re generally found in the Southern Hemisphere, but there may be some in the Northern Hemisphere too, I’m not sure. I live in Australia, but I assume you’re probably American.

I’ve harvested them in buckets, tubs, and from my pond before (and even had them in my canister filter!)

If they do live in your area, the trick is to fill a bucket or tub with nice aged water from your aquarium, then add a whole bunch of leaves to the bucket. Heaps. Cover the bottom with a couple layers. I’ve heard you can add banana peels too. Then just sit and wait.

In a couple weeks you should have mosquito larvae up in the water column, and bloodworms in the leaves. Harvesting them is a little complicated but if you’re up for it then it’s definitely doable. Just move the leaves to one side and have a go at them with a pipette or a net. The fish LOVE them. You get them at a good size too. But it’s pretty dependent on where you live, because they need to complete their life cycle to breed and produce larvae.

Hope that helps 🙂

[Crabby]

If I knew how to send one of those gifs like @mountaintoppufferkeeper does, I’d show you the little bloodworms squiggling around in the pools of my pond’s water feature.

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

@Crabby if i take a video with my phone and then review the video I have a GIF button option top right. Circled it in the screen shot. 

Not sure how to do it without that button. 

[KittenFishMom]

I saw a youtube video about bloodworms awhile back. It said once you got the bloodworms going (and I assume the mosquito larva out) to put a net over the tub to keep the breeding bloodworm adults in and the mosquito adults out. I'm going to look into it for this spring. I remember seeing red larva when I was catching mosquito larva last spring. As I remember, the adult bloodworms do not eat, just breed and lay eggs. The larva do all the eating. I plan to do more research.

[Torrey]

No experience with bloodworms, plenty of experience with blackworms. 

I have found it much easier to solidly stock a dirt substrate *after* the tank has seasoned a bit, and *before* I add fish. I believe that I documented the journey in my Walstad journal, if not I can catch the journal up.

The blackworms have a bioload, and as @mountaintoppufferkeeper explained, it is possible to put too many in the tank at once.

For my 10 gallon tank, I only added a TBS of blackworms at a time, *after* I had gotten enough beneficial bacteria seeded to eliminate ammonia & nitrites.

Then test water for a spike, and wait 72 hours for the beneficial bacteria to catch up with the bioload.

This method leaves a **lot** of blackworms with nowhere to go, and not as nutritionally dense as we want for our fish.

I have not had any luck using a dechlorinator with blackworms, so I buy bottled water and stick a bottle in the fridge. I use a ceramic dish with a breathable lid to store the extra blackworms. 

I use an unbleached coffee filter inside a mesh 'colander' to pour the blackworms into, and rinse the worms with the *cold* bottled water. Once all discolored worms have been properly disposed of (into my plants😅 to keep them out of the landfill and waterways), I pour the blackworms into the ceramic bowl (glass can also work as long as you keep them in a brown paper bag in the fridge. They need cold & dark). I **barely** cover them in cold bottled water, and add a slice of vegetable (carrot, or zucchini, or squash, etc) that was blanched and cooled.

I put the container of the worms in the fridge, and ensure the steam release on the lid is open so that the worms can breathe. 

Repeat every 48 to 72 hours.

When you are ready to feed your tanks or add another TBS of worms to your newly established tank,  take out the worms you need, rinse them in cold water, and then allow them to slowly reach room temperature in a safe container, and be sure they are covered in water. 

Once at room temperature, they can be added to the tank. A sudden temperature change can kill them, so allow them to gradually heat up. 

If you need your culture to replicate faster, you can cut the worms in half, and each half becomes its own worm.

[BETTA999]

i am doing blood worms and there are pretty simple put like a bucket and ut leaves with water let them desintegrate then pass it to a tank with mesh and put some live blooodworms