philosophile
Active Member
I've been trying to gut load white worms for a while. In particular, I want to load them up with spirulina, since its nutrient packed. I've tried sprinkling it on to the worm culture in the past, and they really just hate it, and it kind of makes a mess, that often just starts to rot quickly.
Then I came across an article that said that there was a university research project trying to culture white worms on agar media. That caught my attention! I could incorporate the spirulina into the agar, and use that as a gut loading food. I grabbed a few white worms from my culture, and low and behold, it totally worked.
So here's how I did it:
First make an spirluina infused agar gel. 1/4 cup of water, 1/8 tsp of agar powder, and a good amount of spirulina (however much you want. I usually use about 1/16th - 1/8 of a tsp. take a small amount of water and mix the spirulina so that it is all suspended in the water. Try to minimize the amount of water here, but don't make it so thick that you can't pour it without a lot of spirulina sticking to the mixing container.
Then nuke the water and agar for about one minute, or whatever amount of time you need to make it boil. Mix to ensure the agar is all dissolved. Add the spirulina to the agar and water, and mix well. Try to do this quickly. Pour your mixture into a tray and chill in the fridge for about an hour. Once the gel sets, you're ready to start gut loading.
Harvest the amount of white worms that you're going to be feeding to you tank, maybe a day in advance. Clean off the white worms of any bedding (I just rinse with RO water and use an eye dropper/baster to separate out pieces of coconut coir out. It takes patience.) Take a small piece of your agar gel and put it in a small container with the white worms. Let them eat for a day, and then feed like normal. If there is still agar left, you can feed that directly to the tank. Some fish will go for the left over agar gel just as is, sometimes they need a little prodding, others will ignore it entirely. Anything that is left over will end up getting skimmed out or eaten by bristle worms.
Then I came across an article that said that there was a university research project trying to culture white worms on agar media. That caught my attention! I could incorporate the spirulina into the agar, and use that as a gut loading food. I grabbed a few white worms from my culture, and low and behold, it totally worked.
So here's how I did it:
First make an spirluina infused agar gel. 1/4 cup of water, 1/8 tsp of agar powder, and a good amount of spirulina (however much you want. I usually use about 1/16th - 1/8 of a tsp. take a small amount of water and mix the spirulina so that it is all suspended in the water. Try to minimize the amount of water here, but don't make it so thick that you can't pour it without a lot of spirulina sticking to the mixing container.
Then nuke the water and agar for about one minute, or whatever amount of time you need to make it boil. Mix to ensure the agar is all dissolved. Add the spirulina to the agar and water, and mix well. Try to do this quickly. Pour your mixture into a tray and chill in the fridge for about an hour. Once the gel sets, you're ready to start gut loading.
Harvest the amount of white worms that you're going to be feeding to you tank, maybe a day in advance. Clean off the white worms of any bedding (I just rinse with RO water and use an eye dropper/baster to separate out pieces of coconut coir out. It takes patience.) Take a small piece of your agar gel and put it in a small container with the white worms. Let them eat for a day, and then feed like normal. If there is still agar left, you can feed that directly to the tank. Some fish will go for the left over agar gel just as is, sometimes they need a little prodding, others will ignore it entirely. Anything that is left over will end up getting skimmed out or eaten by bristle worms.
