Blackworm leaches

[bryanisag]

Hi all, every time I have bought live black worms they have had what I think to be leaches in with them. I want to start a black worm breeding tank so I am trying to remove them. Anyone have any tricks!? 

[nabokovfan87]

Yeah, it seems to be a common thing.

@modified lung how do you manage yours?

 

[Comradovich]

All else fails, you can grab some takeaway containers and make your own from that starter. 

Here's a video link of Random Bits explaining how to culture from a single worm:

Culturing Blackworms from a Single Worm - YouTube

It's not fast, but that's one way to ensure that you get a leech free colony going. Once you're sure you have eliminated the planaria/leeches, then you can upscale into what modified lung has going on.

Alternatively, Greg Jones has two YouTube vids describing how he set up an Aquaponics flood table to culture blackworms off his fishroom sump:

Here's one of those.

Greg's setup would be upscaling to either create your own sustainable culture for a fishroom, or trying to breed them for profit.

So, either way: you'd probably first want to separate out a few worms into a few different containers. Get them dividing and ensure that you get all the leeches and planaria out of the containers. You can start combining clean cultures into a super culture, and then decide how you want to keep that culture going. Maybe also keeping a few of those containers going as backups.

[Tlindsey]

On 12/10/2023 at 11:16 PM, Comradovich said:

All else fails, you can grab some takeaway containers and make your own from that starter. 

Here's a video link of Random Bits explaining how to culture from a single worm:

Culturing Blackworms from a Single Worm - YouTube

It's not fast, but that's one way to ensure that you get a leech free colony going. Once you're sure you have eliminated the planaria/leeches, then you can upscale into what modified lung has going on.

Alternatively, Greg Jones has two YouTube vids describing how he set up an Aquaponics flood table to culture blackworms off his fishroom sump:

Here's one of those.

Greg's setup would be upscaling to either create your own sustainable culture for a fishroom, or trying to breed them for profit.

So, either way: you'd probably first want to separate out a few worms into a few different containers. Get them dividing and ensure that you get all the leeches and planaria out of the containers. You can start combining clean cultures into a super culture, and then decide how you want to keep that culture going. Maybe also keeping a few of those containers going as backups.

@Comradovich that is excellent advice.

I personally had planaria and leeches in my copepod colony.

I personally collected from a nearby lake and never thought it contained so many unwanted critters 😆 

There is no more planaria or any signs of leeches after 2 months of observation. 

 

[LTygress]

Almost all blackworms come with those leeches. And yes, they are leeches. What's worse is that those leeches will go down into the substrate of a tank and hide out there for ages, thriving and reproducing. Then you move a plant or piece of decor to another tank and suddenly the leeches have infected THAT tank too! I've had that problem for ages, and finally began to bleach out tanks as the creatures were moved out, and then bleach plants (lightly) and decor in between tanks, too.

There's no easy way to get rid of them with chemicals either. The blackworms themselves will die off long before the leeches do. So you really are better just individually picking the blackworms out of the mix to start a colony with, or using the "single worm" method mentioned above.

[Andy's Fish Den]

Every time that I have gotten blackworms I have had some leeches in with them. I put my blackworms in a shallow plastic container to store in fridge, and I just take a pair of aquascaping tongs nd pick the leeches out of the worms. I then take them and hold them in either my angelfish or discus tank and let one of the fish grab them to have a snack. I have not had any issues of them becoming established in a tank, but I do basically hand feed them to a fish so they don't even have a chance to settle into substrate.