Live black worms

[Brandon M]

How many people feed live black worms on a regular basis? How nutritious are they for my fish?

I went and picked some up from a LFS the other day and my fish go NUTS for these things. :eek1: They will eat them non-stop, as many as I put in the tank!

I have kept these worms in my fridge for over almost 2 weeks now and they seem to be doing okay still. How long will they live? I add a small amount of cold water to their cup every day or so.

Thanks :bum:

 

[Brandon M]

Am I the only one who feeds live black worms?

 

[kstallbe]

LOL - definitely not the only one. PaulB (I think) feeds 'em too.

I have been feeding mostly black worms for about a year now. Reason is I got a Copper Banded Butterfly and that's just about it eats.

As far as nutrition goes, all I can say is that all my fish are still alive. I do supplement with mysis, cyclopeeze, and other things. My CBB has grown and seems healthy overall.

As far as how long the worms will live... Mine are always consumed by my fish before any type of die off! I heard that the worms will shorten in length before dying.

This is a sweet and useful container: http://aquaticfoods.com/accessories.html

good luck.

 

[Brandon M]

bump!

 

[Paul B]

Don't feed just blackworms unless it is a copperband. Your other fish will like them so much that they will refuse all other foods.

 

[Juruense]

I used to get live black worms and feed them to my tank full of tetras. I never see them in pet stores any more, they are an excellent food but watch out for leeches in with them if adding to fresh water...

 

[Elysia]

Brandon,

You could check out this book: http://www.tfhpublications.com/fish/culturing-live-foods.htm

I rarely have good luck keeping black worms alive in the fridge (usually because I forget to change out their water) but I have very good luck keeping them alive in larger volumes of water (even 1/2 gallon would do) at room temperature. I have some freshwater plants in with them, as well. I have certain fish that love them (freshwater bettas and danios, my citron goby, wrasses, falco hawk) and others who ignore them.

 

[Paul B]

Hwere is my blackworm keeper.
Thre is an airline on the left side so the water goes up the left tube and down the right. The worms live a very long time if you keep them in a current like this. I have some rolled up window screen in there where they hang out on. When I need someI i swirl the screen in some fresh water and enough fall off for me to use.
I give them a couple of flakes a day, they don't eat the flakes but the infusiria that the flaked produce. You can also use paper towels but it is hard to get the worms out of the mushy towels

 

[Freed]

I used to feed them several times a week. One pound of them goes a long way. My rabbit fish would eat them nonstop right out of the syringe. I originally bought them for my CBB but he died a couple of years ago. I had mostly good luck keeping them for a few months at a time in the fridge. A couple of batches didn't keep for but a couple of weeks at the most. Bad batch? They replaced them though.

 

[64Ivy]

I used black worms as part of my Copperbands' QT regimen: First, I got it started on local clams, oysters, and mussels, all minced, on the half shell. After about a week or so, I introduced it to the black worms and it positively went nuts over them. Then, when I transfered it over to the reef tank, I would feed the black worms mixed with fare for the other fish at the same time. Such a frenzy would result that all the fish including the CB would just attack anything that would blow by and it has been eating this way ever since.

Initially, I'd ordered a pound of worms, which lasted over a month. Not much die-off though because I changed their water every couple days. Any future orders will probably be a half pound though as I'm using them just as a supplement now. Like many, I thank Paul B. to turning me on to this food source. Great find for me.

 

[Paul B]

You can of course keep them in the refrigerator and if you need to order them in large quantities like that that is what you have to do.
I can buy them by the ounce and I use that up in a week so I can keep them in my worm keeper.
I would imagine that any LFS can order them and they are profitable. I buy them for about $2.00 for about half an ounce.
Like 64Ivi I don't just feed worms. They are too rich and other foods should be offered to especially to omnivores and vegans.
I use this to feed the worms and everything else. I use this for everything from feeding, cleaning, to sucking out fry and eggs.
I would never just put food im my tank to let it float around
I target feed everything

 

[jlinzmaier]

I've never fed black worms but they sound intersting.

Has anyone every tried keeping them in a refugium and letting them reproduce and continually feed the tank.

May be a dumb question as I don't know much about black worms (I guess they could merely be a larvae of a fly of some sort thus the idea of allowing them to reproduce in a fuge is not possible).

If anyone knows of any links to info on black worms let me know. The reason I ask is becuase I once had a CBB and he wouldn't eat anything I offered. If I had known about black worms it sounds like I might have had a bit more success.

Jeremy

 

[jlinzmaier]

Done some research. Looks like blackworms live in freshwater and wouldn't be appropriate to live and reproduce in a fuge. Dang.

Jeremy

 

[Paul B]

That is true, they live for about 15 seconds in saltwater but the fish eat them before that.

http://www.max-discus-dream.de/mddnew/Blackworm.htm

 

[Lotus99]

I feed them occasionally, when I get them from the LFS. I keep them in the refrigerator and do a daily water change with refrigerated RO water. My banggai cardinals and gobies go nuts for them.