How many worms to "fill up" up a CBB?.... hoping PaulB will chime in

[JCareyETexas]

I just finished reading all 22 pages of the CBB primer and appreciate everyone's input on keeping this fish.
This fish is high on my list of "wants" so I am desperately attempting to prepare my tank for one.
I am prepared to feed live worms for an extended period of time if need be. In my mind I'm thinking of an earthworm variety that I've seen available in the neighborhood of 1x30mm in size. Does this seem like an acceptable size or is there another size/type more preferable?
Would it be ok to dip/soak said worm in garlic or selcon before feeding? Would there be any benefit to this practice?
How long do you think this thing would wriggle in saltwater before expiring?
If culturing one's own worms is there anything that could be added to the media as "worm food" that would benefit the fish?
I appreciate your time.

 

[JCareyETexas]

.....forgot the title question.....

How many worms should a CBB be fed in any one feeding? As many as they'll eat?

 

[djkms]

I have a CBB in QT right now. For 3 days it didn't eat anything. It started to eat live brine and live black worms. I would put in about 7-8 brine and a pinch full of worms. I would say the pinch was about 8-10 worms. I fed this 2-3 times a day. I would say feed as much as your bio filtration can handle. I have weened my CBB off of he live foods and now it is eating PE Mysis and eats a couple NLS pellets here and there.

CBB's are pretty skittish and I would highly suggest keeping them in a QT tank by themselves so there is no competition for food. Not sure how well garlic or selcon would work for live foods, I would imagine it would kill them pretty fast. The worms will stay alive in saltwater for about 10-15 seconds it seems

 

[lilalove]

My CBB only eats live black worms, aiptasia, and clam on a half shell right now. As a result, I feed A LOT of worms twice a day. It has filled out nicely, but the rest of my fish are downright obese. It looks excited when I feed something else, but has yet to taste a pellet or mysis shrimp. I'm still working on that. I've had it about a month in the DT.

If I read that primer series correctly, one of the guys uses paper towel or brown bags as nutrition for their worms when culturing. I just buy mine, luckily my closest LFS sells them. The ones in my fridge right now are about 3 weeks old.

 

[JCareyETexas]

My CBB only eats live black worms, aiptasia, and clam on a half shell right now. As a result, I feed A LOT of worms twice a day. It has filled out nicely, but the rest of my fish are downright obese. It looks excited when I feed something else, but has yet to taste a pellet or mysis shrimp. I'm still working on that. I've had it about a month in the DT.

If I read that primer series correctly, one of the guys uses paper towel or brown bags as nutrition for their worms when culturing. I just buy mine, luckily my closest LFS sells them. The ones in my fridge right now are about 3 weeks old.

So your store bought worms hold up pretty well? What size would you say works best?

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

Buy live blackworms from a lfs. $2 worth lasts 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator, just change their ro/di water every other day. I feed 15-25 worms per feeding. They are about 1/2" long and much less than half the thickness of pencil lead. They don't really come in different sizes.

There is a thread on live blackworms as being possibly the best food for fish. You might want to read it.

Regarding earth or other worms, make sure they aren't contaminated. E.g., don't dig worms from a lawn where chemicals are applied.

If you only have one fish eating the worms, buy just a half order.

You don't need to soak the live blackworms in garlic or Selcon.

 

[64Ivy]

If you can't find blackworms locally, try here:

http://www.aquaticfoods.com/Blackworms.html

Not sure native earthworms fill the bill nutritionally. I DO know they're extremely dirty.