Worms as food

Air Force here while active. Air National Guard the past 22 years though.

Still dig the pictures though :)
 
Thank you for this thread.
Thank you for reading it. It is kind of a mixed up thread like most of my posts.

Air Force here while active. Air National Guard the past 22 years though.

Still dig the pictures though

Thank you for your service. I appreciate it.
Air Force is cool. The Phantom Jets used to fly over our heads at treetop level, scared the heck out of me. I used to fly in this a few times a week, even managed to crash in it. Lots of fun to fly although I was not a pilot and was not allowed to fly the thing.


I also crashed in this guy, but obviousely both crashes were not that big a deal. These things used to get shot down and crash every day, you just didn't hear about it in the states.

 
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Great thread, worms really seem to be a great food source, easy to breed as well.
A few years back after rain storms, I would go out on our patio and pick out all the largest earth worms I could find, then feed them to my catfish and gars, it was tons of fun to feed them, also the food was free!
 
How do you prepare the white worms for feeding? Its seems it would be hard to seperate them from their grow culture.


There is a good tutorial on growing these on youtube. The guy places plastic mesh for needlepoint on top of the soil. In between he puts 2 pieces of bread and some dogfood/fish pellets and mists it. Every other day he scraps off the worms that migrate to the top of the mesh with a plastic spatula for harvest. Puts more bread in and mists. Seems pretty simple and its been working for me so far with my week old culture. Curious as to how Paul does it as well.
 
I discuss harvesting about 9 posts up. Or if your computer is on it's side, 9 posts left of here (depending on which way your computer is laying)
 
Would the Mama Mia worms from IPSF's be considered a food source? Would my fish pick them out of the sand bed? I'm not really up on worm knowledge. I ordered my white worms weeks ago and have not received them yet. I guess they culture them to order.
 
I don't know what Mama Mia worms are, sounds like some sort of Italian worms.

I have so many worms now that I just place a small piece of plexiglass on top of the food, and the worms cover the plastic and I just scrape them off. No dirt comes with them.

 
Here is there description of them.

Mama Mia Wormsรขโ€žยข The common name of these deposit-feeding annelids from the family Terrebellidae is Spaghetti Worms. But let's face it - how many people can spell "spaghetti" correctly on the first try? We sure couldn't. Hence the name, Mama Mia. These highly active worms have bright red buccal tentacles which extend out over the sand bed to gather suitably sized particulate materials, which they "lasso" by tentacular contraction. It's fascinating to watch, and it sure beats vacuuming your sand bed. Here's a bonus: you can count on Mama Mia worms to reproduce in your tank because they have direct development (no planktonic stage). Specimens average approx. 1/2 "-1" in length with tentacles extended. 100% captive-bred by IPSF.

On another note, I actually received the white worms today. So my fish are happy little swimmers and they send you many thanks Paul. :celeb1: I gotta say, the place I ordered from did a bang up job. The worms were not a starter culture at all. I was able to feed right away and the packing job was great. Shredded newspaper with a cold pack, wrapped in the foil backed bubble wrap. Looking at your pics Paul, I'd bet I was shipped the same amount or more. The pic they have is accurate to what you get. I ordered from skeeter bites dot com.
 
Here is there description of them.

Mama Mia Wormsรขโ€žยข The common name of these deposit-feeding annelids from the family Terrebellidae is Spaghetti Worms. But let's face it - how many people can spell "spaghetti" correctly on the first try? We sure couldn't. Hence the name, Mama Mia. These highly active worms have bright red buccal tentacles which extend out over the sand bed to gather suitably sized particulate materials, which they "lasso" by tentacular contraction. It's fascinating to watch, and it sure beats vacuuming your sand bed. Here's a bonus: you can count on Mama Mia worms to reproduce in your tank because they have direct development (no planktonic stage). Specimens average approx. 1/2 "-1" in length with tentacles extended. 100% captive-bred by IPSF.

On another note, I actually received the white worms today. So my fish are happy little swimmers and they send you many thanks Paul. :celeb1: I gotta say, the place I ordered from did a bang up job. The worms were not a starter culture at all. I was able to feed right away and the packing job was great. Shredded newspaper with a cold pack, wrapped in the foil backed bubble wrap. Looking at your pics Paul, I'd bet I was shipped the same amount or more. The pic they have is accurate to what you get. I ordered from skeeter bites dot com.

Could you share where you ordered them?
 
Could you share where you ordered them?

I put it in my last post, though I separated it out. I wasn't sure the link would be ok or not. The white worms are from... http://www.skeeterbytes.com/wworms.htm

The Mama Mia worms I asked about are from IPSF.
Indo
Pacific
Sea
Frams
http://www.ipsf.com/

Pictures?

This is pretty much how I got them. I added the Cheerios and the needle point mesh last night about 6 pm or so. It would seem they haven't found my Cheerios just yet.

This is the 32 oz (4 cup) container they came in.


The bottom


One of the sides


The inside



Edit; I wiped the lid down and the top portion of the inside last night to feed with. I couldn't feed them all. I have 6 fish (small) fish in my display, and 1 in QT. I'm also taking Paul's word of caution not to feed them too heavy, so my fish don't get picky. Though I fed them a bunch last night.
 
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I put them in my basement where it is cooler than 70. If you can't keep them cool, you can't keep them
 
To start with, I'd like to say thank you all for serving our country.

Would the Mama Mia worms from IPSF's be considered a food source? Would my fish pick them out of the sand bed?

I do not believe that fish really eat spaghetti worms. I've had them in a tank before (hitch hikers), and I never saw them pick at them. They just make the sand look gross.

Paul, I'd be interested in seeing how you raise the black worms. Also, are the white worms in dirt? Do you ever change out the dirt?

I think i might try raising worms. Is there any creature that isn't hard to raise that lives in saltwater?
 
I also have spaghetti worms all over the tank and my fish never eat them.
I keep the black worms in here. They do reproduce but not fast enough. They like shallow, moving water and if it is cool, that is better. I feed them paper towels as they eat the decomposition products of it. The white worms you do have to change the soil eventually so I have been feeding them on one side and most of the worms are on that side. I will remove the soil onthe other side and discard it. I will lose a lot of worms doing that but they multiply very fast.
There is no creatures that I know of that are easy to raise in saltwater that would re produce fact enough to be of benefit. I hatch brine shrimp but I don't raise them because they are only nutritious when they are first born.
There is another worm thread here http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1907090
 
I do not believe that fish really eat spaghetti worms. I've had them in a tank before (hitch hikers), and I never saw them pick at them. They just make the sand look gross.

Thank you.

how do you keep these alive in the summer...

I bought a small refrigerator to store them in. Its on its highest setting and its running at 45*F. I know that's on the cool side for them. I'm hopping they do fine in there and that the reproduction rate is a little slow due to the cold temps. It seems anyone I've read about raising these worms, very quickly has more then they can feed.
 
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