I would not try keeping a Mandarin in anything but an established aquarium that has lots of old live rock filled with tiny food organisms. The smaller the Mandarin, the more essential this is. I have a large Mandarin that grew up in an overgrown summer collecting tank. It eagerly hunts down every blackworm that reaches the bottom alive, but this is only a supplement, a treat. Mandarins graze constantly, and need a lot of food small enough to fit their tiny mouths. Blackworms alone will not suffice, especially since their lifespan in SW is measured in seconds. Mandarins are also somewhat diffident eaters, and do not compete well with less well-mannered fishes.
Live BlackWorms: Best Fish and LPS Food Ever?
- Thread starter Ycore
- Start date
well lets hear the long answer
Actually it is totally off topic to this thread. Sorry.
While off topic, there is your answer.
Rogger Castells
New member
Wow, Finally got caught up with this thread, as usual I have enjoyed reading it and I have learned a few things.
IMO Black worms are an excellent source of food for marine fish, I have use them extensively in the past, but not anymore, mainly because I have been trying to simplify the hobby and most importantly the steady lost of "My Space" in the house due to my growing family (4 daughters)
I still use it every so often as an emergency food when a new fish refuses to eat my home made food, but generally I have had better luck with live brine shrimp which I prefer only because I can enriched prior to feeding, I think we all know how important it is to get new fish to eat fairly quick.
In any case I think everyone has brought up good points to the thread and I have enjoyed reading it, my favorite statement was Paul B,
IMO Black worms are an excellent source of food for marine fish, I have use them extensively in the past, but not anymore, mainly because I have been trying to simplify the hobby and most importantly the steady lost of "My Space" in the house due to my growing family (4 daughters)
I still use it every so often as an emergency food when a new fish refuses to eat my home made food, but generally I have had better luck with live brine shrimp which I prefer only because I can enriched prior to feeding, I think we all know how important it is to get new fish to eat fairly quick.
In any case I think everyone has brought up good points to the thread and I have enjoyed reading it, my favorite statement was Paul B,
I kept a mandarin WAYYYY back in the day (well, not WAYYYY back relative to you, Paul
). I agree, I don't remember it being fond of BW. I do, however, remember it eating huge amounts of hair algae to get the pods, and pooping big balls of HA :lol:
Matt_Wandell
New member
13.87%? That's still a REALLY high fat content! It's about on par with ground beef as a percentage of the total weight. To compare, PE mysis has a fat content of 8.35% (from their website), and PE mysis can easily make fish obese if it's fed too often.
I don't have the nutritional breakdowns in front of me, but I'd be willing to bet that the portion of fat in blackworms that's polyunsaturated is lower than PE mysis too.
While off topic, all of my mandarins eat PE mysis. I don't have my blackworm production going yet . . .
Sao870
New member
ok not to be argumentative but not sure how its off topic....................
Live BlackWorms: Best Fish and LPS Food Ever?
thats title of thread and since a mandarin is a fish i assume this applies to said fish.
and also through out the tread others have asked VERY similar Questions regarding copperbands. So if i am mistaken sorry for being a jerk but i kinda feel as if my question was in the correct context to be relevant to the topic of the thread.
btw i lived in Barrington Hills a while ago almost another life time long story which is off topic
Live BlackWorms: Best Fish and LPS Food Ever?
thats title of thread and since a mandarin is a fish i assume this applies to said fish.
and also through out the tread others have asked VERY similar Questions regarding copperbands. So if i am mistaken sorry for being a jerk but i kinda feel as if my question was in the correct context to be relevant to the topic of the thread.
btw i lived in Barrington Hills a while ago almost another life time long story which is off topic
Whether a particular fish will eat blackworms is definitely on topic. Nutritional value, terrific. Sao870 asked if feeding blackworms would be sufficient to maintain a mandarin. Whether a particular fish can be sustained that way is a whole different issue because it is about the fishes ability to hunt in the environment you have and whether it can compete with tank mates for food of any kind. There are many threads on sustaining mandarins, and there is some controversy often attached to that discussion. Blackworms used to get a difficult fish to eat in the beginning is relevant, for example, but feeding any fish exclusively blackworms is not desirable. So, Sao870, simply start a thread about mandarins, and you can include blackworms as part of your question. I was simply trying to keep this thread on topic, butSao870, I strongly encourage you to start threads of your own.
And of course, Barrington Hills is just around the corner from me.
And of course, Barrington Hills is just around the corner from me.
LukFox
Active member
My blackworm culture seems to be doing great. The worms are getting much fatter now, and there have been no deaths. I don't know if they've actually multiplied, though. They seem to be doing very well even so. Now, I didn't set them up just like the link said, though. I was very lazy about it. They're just in a glass container with brown paper and an inch of water. I change the water out every other day. There's no flow, and they're kept at room temperature. I'm happy to see that they have fattened up and seem to be doing well in a set up as simple as this.
Unfortunately I will be taking it down now. The only fish that was really going crazy for the blackworms, the butterfly I had in QT, died of velvet today. No point keeping the culture up after that, but the worms were very fun while it lasted. If I get a fish who likes the worms in the future it is nice to know they are so easy to maintain. Best of all they didn't have to be kept in the refrigerator, either, for those of you who had problems with that.
Unfortunately I will be taking it down now. The only fish that was really going crazy for the blackworms, the butterfly I had in QT, died of velvet today. No point keeping the culture up after that, but the worms were very fun while it lasted. If I get a fish who likes the worms in the future it is nice to know they are so easy to maintain. Best of all they didn't have to be kept in the refrigerator, either, for those of you who had problems with that.
LukFox
Active member
Oh no, the dusky!?
Yeah
. I am totally bummed. It came on very suddenly, and the medication didn't seem to help in time. She was doing so well prior to that. Velvet is absolutely terrible.So I ordered a pound of blackworms from aquatic foods on Thursday, it got here on Friday, they are all dead Saturday! Half went in the fridge and half went into an aquarium to try and culture them. Neither option worked, and I was a little concerned when I was rinsing them on Friday after I got them because they water would not clear up. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed them, and they were alive on Friday, but maybe they were on their way out of something because the water would not clear up and after a while I said screw it and left them in the lab. Checked them on Saturday.. one of the worst smells ever!
Hopefully they will work with me to fix this, but it doesn't sound like it.
Hopefully they will work with me to fix this, but it doesn't sound like it.
We used to get a few pounds in at the LFS I used to work at, and we would rinse them and put them in the fridge with no problems. They just said they'd send a new batch. Should get here Wednesday. I'll keep ya posted.
If this doesn't work I guess its back to small portions from the store.
They didn't like the fact that all of them weren't put in the fridge, but both batches died....
Also not much air or water was in the bag they were shipped in. We will see.
When the last batch arrived, I had my roommate but the box in the fridge as I was at class. I got home 2.5 hours later and rinsed them, maybe that was the problem, but I doubt it. Hard to say.
Paul what temp are yours at?
If this doesn't work I guess its back to small portions from the store.
They didn't like the fact that all of them weren't put in the fridge, but both batches died....
Also not much air or water was in the bag they were shipped in. We will see.
When the last batch arrived, I had my roommate but the box in the fridge as I was at class. I got home 2.5 hours later and rinsed them, maybe that was the problem, but I doubt it. Hard to say.
Paul what temp are yours at?
