School me on microworms please

[Guppysnail]

Went to a fish club auction today. No one bid on a ready to harvest micro worm culture so I did. Total impulse for my corydora and CPD. 

I know literally NOTHING about these guys. Not how to keep. Not how to harvest and feed. NOTHING. 🤣

All input welcome. 
 

@Odd Duck  @Torrey 

@ANYBODY🤣🤣🤣

Edited June 4, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Ogpulchra]

 

[Guppysnail]

So 2 of these were climbing the side. Definitely not micro worms. Looks like miniature maggot. Concern or fish food?

Edited June 4, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Brian]

Tons of ways to go about it.  Any container you have like the one they came in will work.  
Get yourself some yeast.

Get two maybe three containers

some people use a slice of bread

some people use oats

some people use baby cereal.  
I used the oats.  Put about 1/2 inch in the cup.  Add some water and stir.   Make a thick Paste.  Add a little yeast and stir.  Then add a little on the top.  Then add some of the culture you bought today.  When I was feeding a lot of fry I would make sure I started  one of these every three or four days.   

now put the lid on it.   
baby cereal is about the same.   Bread just dampen it add yeast to top.  Then add some culture.   If you notice them drying out add a tiny bit of water….  Too wet, add more medium and yeast… when starting to smell or turn dark….  Get the next one started.    
Good Luck 

[Guppysnail]

@Brian I’m probably overthinking this because I bake my own bread and have used several yeast types. Ex instant long wait etc. am I looking for a specific yeast or will any do?  
I watched the video @Ogpulchra posted. Cory said it was not needed with instant potatoes and said they smell less so that may be the way to go for me. 
Thank you for the time frames on mixing new cultures. 

[Brian]

Tons of ways to go about it.  I forgot about the instant potatoes.    
i always just used fleischmann regular dry yeast.   

[MrWestCoast]

I've been keeping white worms for about 5 years now. I just toss a piece of bread in the containers every 3-5 days and they go to town on it. They seem to love white bread the most. They go nuts for hotdog buns. I do sometimes use yeast flakes and yogurt, but most of the time it's just plain ole bread. Collecting them is easy as they pile up on top of the bread in masses. They also populate the lid and I'll sometimes dip the lid in the aquarium and the fish have a feeding frenzy. 

[Guppysnail]

On 6/4/2022 at 10:33 PM, MrWestCoast said:

I've been keeping white worms for about 5 years now. I just toss a piece of bread in the containers every 3-5 days and they go to town on it. They seem to love white bread the most. They go nuts for hotdog buns. I do sometimes use yeast flakes and yogurt, but most of the time it's just plain ole bread. Collecting them is easy as they pile up on top of the bread in masses. They also populate the lid and I'll sometimes dip the lid in the aquarium and the fish have a feeding frenzy. 

Thanks. Do you moisten the bread? Or do I just scoop a dollop of the instant potato worm culture on top of the bread?

[MrWestCoast]

yea i'll usually spray the bread with dechlorinated water. other times there is enough moisture in the containers to soften the bread.

[Brian]

Oh and btw, some people don’t like touching them.  I have seen a lot of people use those cheap/dollar store paint brushes (kind kids might use for water colors) run along the side of the container or lid.  Try to avoid getting any of the medium.  

[Odd Duck]

On 6/4/2022 at 5:42 PM, Guppysnail said:

So 2 of these were climbing the side. Definitely not micro worms. Looks like miniature maggot. Concern or fish food?

Others beat me to the how-to, but that looks like a fruit fly larva.  Destroy it.  You’ll need to use a container that will keep out fruit flies.  I use the fabric covered vented lids from Josh’s Frogs and the smaller deli containers (16 oz, I think).

[Guppysnail]

On 6/5/2022 at 7:04 AM, Odd Duck said:

Others beat me to the how-to, but that looks like a fruit fly larva.  Destroy it.  You’ll need to use a container that will keep out fruit flies.  I use the fabric covered vented lids from Josh’s Frogs and the smaller deli containers (16 oz, I think).

Thanks. I know what lids you are talking about. I’m getting deli containers. I have in the past used them with pin holes and a mesh fabric to cover the holes for my dragon and frog insect feeders. I swiped the container and fed today. CPD and their fry, Pygmy and pandas went crazy. Girl baby guppies liked the boy a little slow. They seen my finger hit the water and skimmed the surface for 5 minutes looking for floating food 🤪. By the time they realized there was none I think most of the worms fell to the substrate or were sucked into the filter. 
 

I destroyed the larvae and found 3 more in the culture this morning.  So I’m going to have to check all cultures I make several times a day until all larvae are eradicated and make sure none hatch. I hate fruit flies. 😝

I remember a thread you talked about which media yielded you the best results but now I can’t find it. Which do you prefer and which lasts the longest before fouling?  

On 6/5/2022 at 6:22 AM, Brian said:

Oh and btw, some people don’t like touching them.  I have seen a lot of people use those cheap/dollar store paint brushes (kind kids might use for water colors) run along the side of the container or lid.  Try to avoid getting any of the medium.  

Between reptiles and amphibians I’m kind of immune to the heebie jeebies of insect cultures 🤣

Edited June 5, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Odd Duck]

On 6/5/2022 at 6:43 AM, Guppysnail said:

I remember a thread you talked about which media yielded you the best results but now I can’t find it. Which do you prefer and which lasts the longest before fouling?  

I was trying to use up some of the Josh’s frogs fruit fly culture media.  I had bought some wingless FF thinking my pea puffers and Betta would like them.  They all acted like I was insane for spoiling their water with them.  Nothing like that utterly disdainful look from all your fish for a clearly subpar food offering.  🙄

So the fruit fly media worked for a while, but eventually the cultures slowed way down on growth rate.  I switched to potato flakes and they immediately started growing like mad.  I’ve also used oatmeal and bread.  They all work.  The oatmeal was a bit of a hassle because I was cooking it to mush, then cooling it before adding the portion of old media/worms.  Potato flakes are the easiest media I’ve tried so far.  On the potatoe flakes, they are productive enough that if I were to actually get around to it, I could start new cultures every 2 weeks trading off between 2 pairs of deli cups, (4 total cups), and I could supply enough for a very good sized clutch of fry.  Most fry grow through the stage quickly where they need microworms.  You can feed microworms to adult nanos, too.  My nanofish tank goes crazy when I feed microworms or vinegar eels (which can be grown exactly like microworms except use 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water when you make your culture media and top off with vinegar if they get too dry).  My ember tetras, Kubotai and chili rasboras, and CPD’s will all eat microworms and vinegar eels with gusto.

Almost forgot, when I was using bread, I would moisten it, either with water or milk.

[Torrey]

Everyone else already answered, lol!

I prefer the less smelly potato flake option, plus it gives me something to do with potato flakes since we make mashed potatoes out of sweet potatoes.

Great haul from the fish club auction!