My Attempt at Culturing Blackworms

[Miami Reef]

The importance of culturing live worms is very important to me. I am a firm believer in nutrition. Not only can it encourage coloration and healthy appearance in fish, but it’s a requirement to get fish to spawn in captivity. It must mean that our prepared foods are lacking in something that fish need.

I choose worms as my live food choice because aquarists (mainly freshwater) use them. Worms are generally easy to culture, easy to find, and most saltwater fish get a very strong feeding response. Another benefit is for copperband butterfly fish owners. These fish live off worms in the wild, and most don’t survive long term if they don’t transition to prepared foods in time.

Aquarists can choose between blackworms or whiteworms to culture - some even culture both! The decision to choose one over the other is a personal one.

As you can tell by the title, I selected blackworms because they can be cultured in water. I think they are much easier to harvest on an as needed basis. The worms can stay in their freshwater tank indefinitely. One of the main reasons why I chose the blackworms is that I won’t have the dreaded mites in my house. Plus, I can easily ask non reefers to feed my fish from my culture with a clean turkey baster while I’m away. Digging around and rinsing dirt from whiteworms is something most people would not want to do.

 

[PeterC99]

Do you have any pics of your black worm setup?

 

[Miami Reef]

So here was my culture from last month:

I followed most/all of the “rules” online, but it was not sustainable. Many websites stated that you shouldn’t have more than 2”-3” of water. This not only makes dilution nearly impossible, but it also didn’t allow any sponge filter.

I did daily water changes and I still couldn’t keep up with the waste produced. Multiple 90% water changes didn’t even remove the yellow tint.

 

[Miami Reef]

Today I do things a little differently. I will say - this is a new experiment. The purpose of this thread is for you guys to follow the progression of my culture. My goal is to have a sustainable culture and will produce at about the equal rate that I feed.

 

[PeterC99]

Very impressive!

 

[Miami Reef]

So: I am using a 10 gallon tank filled halfway with water (7” of water. Usually NOT recommended).

So far the worms look happy and I’m able to use much more water and even install a sponge filter!

I currently have an air stone that is powering the sponge filter, but I’m going to upgrade to the maxijet- because airstones have a very weak pull.

About the culture - I keep it at room temperature (70F) I don’t use any heater nor chiller. It naturally gets this temp because it’s indoors.

I used a thin substrate of gravel and cut up some strips of brown paper bags as a food source. I also tried feeding tropical fish flakes.

Since I just bought this culture today, it’s normal that the water looks a little dirty. With time it should clear up because the LFS kept them in the fridge (which usually requires frequent rinsing).

 

[littlefishy]

I raised them for 2 ys before breaking down a planted 75g tank. Angels and rams got them once/week and spawned endlessly. Clownfish and tsb didn't care much for them, maybe eating 1 apiece before they stop wiggling and die (about 30 sec), then the cleanup crew had to do their thing.
They were kept in a desktop paper file cab with 3 pullout plastic drawers. 1" of water, 2 pebbles deep sts, and fed algae wafers once a week. Water changes were weekly with treated tapwater. Don't try to go more than 1.5 weeks between. No water movement was used. I broke up their bodies for asexual reproduction by vigorously stirring the gravel at water change. Enough grew to replace my weekly feedings.

 

[Karen00]

The importance of culturing live worms is very important to me. I am a firm believer in nutrition. Not only can it encourage coloration and healthy appearance in fish, but it’s a requirement to get fish to spawn in captivity. It must mean that our prepared foods are lacking in something that fish need.

I choose worms as my live food choice because aquarists (mainly freshwater) use them. Worms are generally easy to culture, easy to find, and most saltwater fish get a very strong feeding response. Another benefit is for copperband butterfly fish owners. These fish live off worms in the wild, and most don’t survive long term if they don’t transition to prepared foods in time.

Aquarists can choose between blackworms or whiteworms to culture - some even culture both! The decision to choose one over the other is a personal one.

As you can tell by the title, I selected blackworms because they can be cultured in water. I think they are much easier to harvest on an as needed basis. The worms can stay in their freshwater tank indefinitely. One of the main reasons why I chose the blackworms is that I won’t have the dreaded mites in my house. Plus, I can easily ask non reefers to feed my fish from my culture with a clean turkey baster while I’m away. Digging around and rinsing dirt from whiteworms is something most people would not want to do.

Culturing white worms is the worst and I know exactly what you mean about mites! I didn't even know that could happen until I opened up my container one day to find it crawling with them. It freaked me out! I don't even know how it happened because I don't leave the lid off. I will be interested in reading this thread with black worms. I might try that. I agree with you about live foods! Thanks for posting this!

 

[Miami Reef]

Culturing white worms is the worst and I know exactly what you mean about mites! I didn't even know that could happen until I opened up my container one day to find it crawling with them. It freaked me out! I don't even know how it happened because I don't leave the lid off. I will be interested in reading this thread with black worms. I might try that. I agree with you about live foods! Thanks for posting this!

Mites are basically guaranteed with whiteworms.

You MUST sterilize the soil prior to adding the worms. But the hardest part is getting mite free worms. Since mites are sometimes microscopic they can hitchhike.

Whiteworms can survive underwater for some time while mites float. It’s possible that this can work to get a sterile culture, but I don’t know how effective it is since I’ve never done it.

I will say that I have white worms coming later this week. I ordered them in the past but they arrived dead.

If I see the white worms are mite free and actually arrive alive, I might post about them here as well.

 

[Karen00]

Mites are basically guaranteed with whiteworms.

You MUST sterilize the soil prior to adding the worms. But the hardest part is getting mite free worms. Since mites are sometimes microscopic they can hitchhike.

Whiteworms can survive underwater for some time while mites float. It’s possible that this can work to get a sterile culture, but I don’t know how effective it is since I’ve never done it.

I will say that I have white worms coming later this week. I ordered them in the past but they arrived dead.

If I see the white worms are mite free and actually arrive alive, I might post about them here as well.

Thanks for this bit of info about sterile soil and white worm culture. I wouldn't have even thought to ask about that. I had only ever purchased microworms and daphnia from the place I got the white worms from. I'll ask in future about whether the cultures are sterile (if I attempt to do them again). They might not even know about that problem. I know worms were new for them. I still get the shivers thinking about seeing them! Haha

 

[SDK]

Good luck. I cultured blackworms in a similar fashion, but found it too time consuming for something that did not produce enough to keep up with my needs. To be fair, I had about 20 killifish tanks going at the time.

If this becomes too much of a PITA, you are aware that blackworms can easily be kept in the fridge, fresh and ready to drop in for "months", yes?

If you want to simplify your life, buy in bulk. Put them in a shallow, wide tupperware in the fridge, and every few days rinse them. Feeding then becomes just pulling the container out and dropping some in with forceps or a fork. I've kept batches for 3 or 4 months without any issues...

 

[Miami Reef]

Good luck. I cultured blackworms in a similar fashion, but found it too time consuming for something that did not produce enough to keep up with my needs. To be fair, I had about 20 killifish tanks going at the time.

If this becomes too much of a PITA, you are aware that blackworms can easily be kept in the fridge, fresh and ready to drop in for "months", yes?

If you want to simplify your life, buy in bulk. Put them in a shallow, wide tupperware in the fridge, and every few days rinse them. Feeding then becomes just pulling the container out and dropping some in with forceps or a fork. I've kept batches for 3 or 4 months without any issues...

Yes. I know we can easily keep blackworms in the fridge.

However, my main goal is to keep a culture so that I don’t have to depend on my LFS. Only one LFS in Miami (that I know of) has blackworms for sale. And I remember the shortage of blackworms during the California drought (where they originate from).

That’s my main reason for wanting to reproduce them in house.

 

[SDK]

Understood, and I have been through the food culture learning curve for 40 years now. Very difficult to raise those guys in volume in a warmer climate...

You can get a pound of worms delivered to your door for $58 direct from Eastern Aquatics if the culturing thing does not pan out as intended. I feed a fair amount of fish and only need to buy twice per year.

 

[Miami Reef]

Understood, and I have been through the food culture learning curve for 40 years now. Very difficult to raise those guys in volume in a warmer climate...

You can get a pound of worms delivered to your door for $58 direct from Eastern Aquatics if the culturing thing does not pan out as intended. I feed a fair amount of fish and only need to buy twice per year.

Thank you very much! I will keep this in mind if the blackworm culture is not successful.

 

[Miami Reef]

So I think my white worms are coming tomorrow. I hope they don’t arrive dead this time (new vendor).

I started prepping. I got my wine cooler cleaned out. I got my organic miracle grow all sterilized. I poured boiling water and am covering it until it completely cools off.

The ONLY way I will get mites is if this culture comes with them…that’s why I’m going to put the culture in water and keep doing 50% water changes until I’m left with only worms.

Then…I’m going to microscope the worms to make sure nothing is on them!

It’s not that much work, and if this proves successful then I can keep culturing these worms and never deal with mites ever!

 

[Miami Reef]

 

[Morbius66]

Understood, and I have been through the food culture learning curve for 40 years now. Very difficult to raise those guys in volume in a warmer climate...

You can get a pound of worms delivered to your door for $58 direct from Eastern Aquatics if the culturing thing does not pan out as intended. I feed a fair amount of fish and only need to buy twice per year.

Where will you keep a pound of black worm? What size container? And what temperature. Thank you

 

[SDK]

Where will you keep a pound of black worm? What size container? And what temperature. Thank you

I use two Tupperware containers to hold a pound. Low and wide ones are best. when you first get them you need to rinse with fresh water daily to keep them clean. As the density lowers you can switch to every few days.

Temp is just the normal refrigerator setting. Just make sure its not cold enough to ice them over….

 

[Miami Reef]

I use two Tupperware containers to hold a pound. Low and wide ones are best. when you first get them you need to rinse with fresh water daily to keep them clean. As the density lowers you can switch to every few days.

Temp is just the normal refrigerator setting. Just make sure its not cold enough to ice them over….

I recommend this from now on. Blackworms aren’t producing at a rate I need.

 

[SDK]

I recommend this from now on. Blackworms aren’t producing at a rate I need.

It’s good you are experimenting though!

My LFS charges almost $10 per portion, and conservatively, a pound is about 40 LFS portions. So $58 vs $400 to buy by the pound. Even if you have some initial worm losses when they are densely packed, you come out way ahead of the game. Plus you can feed the crap out of the CBB and Moorish Idol and fatten them up