Cultures

[Vallisneria]

I"m not sure if this is the best place to post this but i wasn't sure.

I dont' technically have awhite worm culture going but i do a have a red worm composting container that has tosn of white worms in it. I was wondering what the bets way to get the white worms out of the dirt(compost) to use them.

I asked before someone befor eand he said to place a piece of bread on the surface and that ina day or 2 the bread would be covered in worms and then jsut take out the bread. I tried this but it didn't work.

Any other tips?

[Oxquo]

Yeah, just as when i harvest my white worms for feeding i use a piece of glass or plastic, lay it on top of the soil and sprinkle fish food on top of the glass. leave it in the dark for a few hours say around 4 and return to pull the glass out this works even better if you mist your soil first before attempting to collect. Clean off any left over food and repeat. the minute you put light on the surface your reds will go away but many of the whites will be stuck on the slippery glass surface and to the bottom of the glass. Remember with cultures, a little goes a long way so even if you only get a dozen white worms, in 3 weeks of good feeding you should be able to not only feed to your fish but also start some good new back up cultures. Good to start two separate ones anyways. What i like to do is get two going really strong and then only feed out of one until it is hardly producing, then keep feeding it as you begin to feed your fish from the second one. when the first one is back up to full strength, start a new culture with half fresh soil or coconut husks and leave it in a cool dark place but feed it often. I find changing all of the soil creates very slow growth. skimmng off the top and using the bottom dirt to start your next culture helps keep mites away or atleast down. i float some cultures in water in a plastic garbage can an find thos seldomly get mites. If you do get mites. use the same collection glass and place food on top. as soon as the mites collect there, lower the glass into yur killi bowls or livebearer tanks. They love the things and I have never seen harm come from feeding mites to older fish though I never have try them with fry.

[Vallisneria]

Thanks, I didn't really expect to have white worms they sort of came in with some of my red wigglers. I seem to have tons right now so i thought i would try to harvest them. I"ll try again but i dont' have any glass. What sort of plastic do yo use?

[Oxquo]

A piece of plexi works good, cut open fish bag, just cut a 1' to 2" square or the lid from a casset tape even works not too bad.

[Vallisneria]

OK so let me get this straight. If i were to use a cassette tape case i would lay it on the top of the soil and just place some dry flake food on top? And then close the lid(make it dark) and leave it for a few hours? It hard to beleive taht the worms would want to crawl out of the dirt to get flake food They didn't want to for the bread

[Oxquo]

Grindals will often go for bread, I think mostly because they can curl up in the holes of it, This is just a typical worm collection process for worms. I guess I should add, not the whole case just take the top part off the one with the flat side. any piece of plastic or plexi will do though and it doesn't need to be clear to work. One more thing, while trying to collect the worms discontinue feeding the compost, that will make the food on top more interesting. Dont forget about the wigglers for your fish either, for big fish whole is fine, medium fish the worms can be chopped and for small fish I put a bunch in a garlic press, squeeze and scrape off with a knife into the tank. Then put the garlic press back in the kitchen and lol JK.....

[Vallisneria]

I"ll try to slow down feeding aroudn teh time i harvest but since it is a red wiggler bin tehre is already lots of food in there and it will take a while for the food to be lessened.

I"ll try it anyways and see how it goes

And this is just gross

small fish I put a bunch in a garlic press, squeeze and scrape off with a knife into the tank

[Oxquo]

Hahaha, gross? yes, effective? extremely, I have seen populations in my feeders guppies increase dramatically. I use to sit there with a razor blade and slice and dice for almost an hour to feed my cories, killi's and feeder fish a good worm feeding. now I just load it up, squeeze and scrape in seconds. I had one female guppy produce over 120 fry and it took 2 days to deliver them all. That is alot of good wholesome feeders caused from feeding earthworm 1 time per day. I feed guppy fry to my discus, geophagus, rams, angelfish and pike cichlids almost everyday for a month now since using worms as a steady feeder diet. I have even fed guppy fry to my angels and geophagus while they were protecting their fry and the parents have never mistaken their own for a feeder. Fry are probably the best food around for livening up sluggish fish. Even when all the fry are eaten they continue to hunt for more. My feeders are fed vitaboost flake on top of that so what a great conditioning food as well. My africans on the otherhand, seem disinterested in fry and the guppies grow quite large in their tank, the earthworms also go un-noticed except for when I had frontosa but white worms they love. Good luck with the harvest, make sure to use good organic substrate and start a few cultures incase one crashes, don't be suprised to pick the odd red wiggler out of your whiteworm cultures either, alot of the time what appears to be whiteworms are actually very young wigglers with no color yet.