Live Blackworms?

[lewk]

I've heard from multiple sources that live blackworms are among the best possible foods you can give Corydoras, especially if you want them to spawn, but I've been unable to find them from a reputable source. Can anyone tell me how to obtain and culture live blackworms?

[Lennie]

I know @Fish Folk has a video feeding them. Maybe he can help.

 

You surely don't "need" blackworms to have your cories spawn tho. I have never used it in my life and my cories spawned so many times. They accept frozen foods well too

[Rube_Goldfish]

White worms might be an easier option. Frozen bloodworms would be easier still, I'd think. The only live food my sterbai cories get is brine shrimp. Otherwise it's mostly pellet and flake with freeze dried tubifex worms and frozen foods sometimes.

[lewk]

On 8/8/2023 at 3:48 PM, Lennie said:

I know @Fish Folk has a video feeding them. Maybe he can help.

 

You surely don't "need" blackworms to have your cories spawn tho. I have never used it in my life and my cories spawned so many times. They accept frozen foods well too

 

On 8/8/2023 at 3:56 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

White worms might be an easier option. Frozen bloodworms would be easier still, I'd think. The only live food my sterbai cories get is brine shrimp. Otherwise it's mostly pellet and flake with freeze dried tubifex worms and frozen foods sometimes.

Yeah, to clarify, I know I don't *need* blackworms. I've been able to spawn multiple varieties of Corys without them. I just think I might enjoy having them as an extra live culture in addition to an extra food source. I should definitely look into other types of worms such as white worms, though!

[Fish Folk]

Black Worms are great if you can get them healthy.

Here’s a couple videos feeding to our tanks. My son feeding them…

Me feeding them…

My source is in the 2nd video’s description.

Here is how to care for them daily…

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Fish Folk

[Andy's Fish Den]

When blackworms were more readily available, I used to get them all the time to feed my fish, but I haven't had a LFS have them for over a year now. I used them a lot to get corydoras to spawn, especially wild ones. I have an accidental culture in one of my tanks, some worms had gotten into the gravel in the tank and have since prorogated themselves in the gravel substrate. The tank has some ancistrus in it and Ameca splendens and I am sure the splendens enjoy a little snack every so often when one pokes it head out of the substrate. 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 8/9/2023 at 6:45 AM, Andy's Fish Den said:

When blackworms were more readily available, I used to get them all the time to feed my fish, but I haven't had a LFS have them for over a year now.

What changed to make them unavailable now? My experience is more or less the same; my LFS last had them about a year to a year and a half ago.

[lewk]

@Fish Folk Thanks for the videos. I'm happy to hear that's a trustworthy source as it was the only one I could find online. I was about to order yesterday but the shipping cost convinced me to try to exhaust all my local options first. 

Am I correct in assuming by the videos that you feed and preserve your blackworms, but don't propagate them yourself? 

On 8/9/2023 at 8:30 AM, Rube_Goldfish said:

What changed to make them unavailable now? My experience is more or less the same; my LFS last had them about a year to a year and a half ago.

One of the videos that I watched said that there used to be multiple blackworm farms in the US but now it's reduced to only one. 

[Biotope Biologist]

Cory had them too when he started ACO. I used to get them often as well.

 

I believe he stated the problem was two-fold. One the cultures would go bad fairly consistently. It was hard to source batches that wouldn’t foul the water something fierce. And 2 the culture never regenerated at a rate fast enough to replace the existing culture. Customer demand was high which drove prices down while making it impossible to sustain cultures which ultimately led to them discontinuing them. Also brine shrimp are just so easy to culture as well as other live food options. 

Edited August 9, 2023 by Biotope Biologist

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 8/9/2023 at 8:48 AM, Biotope Biologist said:

Customer demand was high which drove prices down

Wait a minute.  I'm no economist, but doesn't higher demand typically result in higher prices?  If that's not the standard view, I think I might be onto something here!  🤪

[Biotope Biologist]

On 8/9/2023 at 4:33 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

Wait a minute.  I'm no economist, but doesn't higher demand typically result in higher prices?  If that's not the standard view, I think I might be onto something here!  🤪

All I know is there is an X and something something money… If economy lessons weren’t so boring I might be able to retain some of it 😅

[Andy's Fish Den]

On 8/9/2023 at 9:30 AM, Rube_Goldfish said:

What changed to make them unavailable now? My experience is more or less the same; my LFS last had them about a year to a year and a half ago.

There used to be a few places that farmed the worms in the US, but it has since been reduced to one, and that one farm is not able to keep up with demand. I did hear that possibly one that had shut down is back up and producing again, I have noticed several stores putting on their social media pages that they now have them back in stock.