Live White worms

[hans4811]

Two months isn't terrible. Also, if you feed them massively the culture just crashes faster, so getting to "just enough" is where you want to be.

When you are ready to redo the cultures, don't wait until they start going downhill. Grab a big pile of worms from a healthy booming culture. You can start your new one with many more worms than you received in the mail. This will skip you over the "moldy" stage, and your new culture will be ready to start feeding off in just a couple of weeks...

It's better to err by starting a new culture too early as they can crash quickly. I like to keep two running at the same time that are started two months apart. Then every two months start a new one, and toss or give away the worms from the oldest culture...

Good info @SDK ...thanks. And that's exactly my problem, was that the starter culture I got in the mail wasn't a very big culture at all. But I tried to spread them over 3 containers, one a tad smaller than a shoe box, the other 2 a bit smaller than that. I've been cutting up one slice of wheat bread into 6 slices, and putting in 2 per box is all. The large one seems to be doing the best, only because I think it got the 'majority' of the worms when I tried to split them up. The last time I changed it, I skipped a day ...went 3 days instead of 2..and they were moldy with the white hair type...yuck. I try to be careful scraping off the dirt too, cuz I do see some worms in the dirt attached to the bread slices.
So it seems that I may be on the right track atm....getting some growth like I said. I'll try and post a pic if I can....

 

[hans4811]

Here's my mini-fridge and the boxes I'm using. The worm pic didn't turn out so hot, they scrambled away before I could take a good shot...but still....

 

[SDK]

Looks good so far. I will say that keeping smaller containers in a wine fridge like Dave did tends to be the one of the harder ways to do it. I put it down to a combination of the smaller containers fouling faster and less air circulation in the fridge. You obviously have no other option in Florida.

Once you get them going you need to be very meticulous about rotating in fresh cultures as explained in his video. When I used to do it this way I had cultures go from thriving to rotting in just a few days. They hit a fulcrum point and just self destruct....

 

[hans4811]

Looks good so far. I will say that keeping smaller containers in a wine fridge like Dave did tends to be the one of the harder ways to do it. I put it down to a combination of the smaller containers fouling faster and less air circulation in the fridge. You obviously have no other option in Florida.

Once you get them going you need to be very meticulous about rotating in fresh cultures as explained in his video. When I used to do it this way I had cultures go from thriving to rotting in just a few days. They hit a fulcrum point and just self destruct....

Interesting...you say the fridge/cooler is one of the harder ways...so how do you do it ? I'm guessing you probably just have a cool basement or something. Envious of guys having that setup...and yes youre right, no other option in Fla. garage bakes anything left out there in summer !

 

[SDK]

Interesting...you say the fridge/cooler is one of the harder ways...so how do you do it ? I'm guessing you probably just have a cool basement or something. Envious of guys having that setup...and yes youre right, no other option in Fla. garage bakes anything left out there in summer !

I lived in Clearwater for a few years and barely survived the heat. There is no way anything there stays cool without electricity being involved lol...

Yes, I have a cool basement and use much larger containers that get more air and substrate....

You should be OK. Just as I mentioned earlier, you need to be on top of rotation and getting some air into them regularly.

If they don't work out for you or become too much of a PITA you can always try Grindal Worms. They are similar to white worms, just smaller and they love the heat. You can culture them year round in Florida in your normal room temps. If you do a search here, I posted a fairly comprehensive write up on keeping them...

 

[ca1ore]

Wait a few weeks and you should start seeing improved weight, color and overall health in your fish...

Well, we shall see ….. fish pretty well fed already. I was mostly just looking for something to tinker with.

 

[hans4811]

I lived in Clearwater for a few years and barely survived the heat. There is no way anything there stays cool without electricity being involved lol...

Yes, I have a cool basement and use much larger containers that get more air and substrate....

You should be OK. Just as I mentioned earlier, you need to be on top of rotation and getting some air into them regularly.

If they don't work out for you or become too much of a PITA you can always try Grindal Worms. They are similar to white worms, just smaller and they love the heat. You can culture them year round in Florida in your normal room temps. If you do a search here, I posted a fairly comprehensive write up on keeping them...

Thanks for the info...I'll do that. I can see these becoming a PITA, but for now, I'll keep going at it...

 

[DudeBoy]

eBay sells them:

White worm Starter culture Organic fish/frog/newt food FREE SHIPPING! | eBay

WHITE WORM Starter colony. white worms are easy to raise, and your fish will love you for doing so! White worms are smaller cousins to earthworms that are part of natures janitorial crew.

rover.ebay.com

Was looking into getting them. I’m in Los Angeles, warm summers. Do you have to keep them in a chiller or would they do ok just in a dark cool place?

i just placed my order!

 

[DudeBoy]

i just placed my order!

my worms were DOA.....not the sellers fault becasue shipping was delayed a couple days while the temperature was pretty high. The seller offered to sell me more with expedited shipping, but I'm not feeling dropping $20 more on this, lol.

Anyone in north alabama have a very small amount theyd be willing to give me?

 

[hans4811]

Bummer....try finding a dealer near you. I live on the east coast and a lot of them were from west coast, but i finally found a guy in NY. Why i didnt order one from Oregon or Washington just for that reason...

my worms were DOA.....not the sellers fault becasue shipping was delayed a couple days while the temperature was pretty high. The seller offered to sell me more with expedited shipping, but I'm not feeling dropping $20 more on this, lol.

Anyone in north alabama have a very small amount theyd be willing to give me?

 

[CoralClasher]

I’m about a month on my white worm culture and I’m seeing some really small bugs on top of the dirt. I’m not sure what they are. Anyone using a pest strip next to the culture?

 

[Paul B]

Flood the entire culture. Those bugs float. Then pour it off and put the culture in a net to drain. You can't drown those worms.
I do it monthly

 

[hans4811]

started mine 5/11...getting a lot of worms growing, but still not at the point where they're easy to gather yet. They're all over when I poke around in the dirt, tons of babies....

 

[lagatbezan]

Two months isn't terrible. Also, if you feed them massively the culture just crashes faster, so getting to "just enough" is where you want to be.

When you are ready to redo the cultures, don't wait until they start going downhill. Grab a big pile of worms from a healthy booming culture. You can start your new one with many more worms than you received in the mail. This will skip you over the "moldy" stage, and your new culture will be ready to start feeding off in just a couple of weeks...

It's better to err by starting a new culture too early as they can crash quickly. I like to keep two running at the same time that are started two months apart. Then every two months start a new one, and toss or give away the worms from the oldest culture...

What are some signs that the culture is about to crash? and what do you do after? do you remove as much worms as possible and disregard all the soil and rest of the worms in the culture and start fresh?

 

[G Santana]

That's the funniest endorsement ever lol

 

[Paul B]

I never had a culture crash and I have had it for years.

 

[Larry L]

I never had a culture crash and I have had it for years.

Probably because of the rinsing.

 

[mborn]

Everyone loves pancakes!!

 

[Tathamet]

I’ve had the same culture of white worms for about 4 years for my freshwater fish. They’re pretty hardy little guys and the perfect size.

At one point I fell off the wagon on maintaining them (they were in a wine fridge in the basement and my tanks are two floors up). Got to be a pain lol.

I think I left them in their same substrate for close to a year and a half with no feeding and maybe rehydrating once before getting back into them for my saltwater tank. Oddly enough they were still alive! Not thriving but still kickin.

 

[Aqua Man]

@mborn what substrate are you using? Looks like the worms love it! Is it peat?

I’m using ground up coconut husk. moist but not super wet. They are alive still. Growing slow though.