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Best way to keep black worms

mchambers

Former CCA member
I've never tried black worms, but I was thinking of getting some from Batfish this month. How should I keep them?

I've read about keeping them in the refrigerator, which may work for a day, since my wife will be out of town, but after that?

I was thinking about putting them in a 10 gallon with an.airstone, in a room in our basement. I think I know I should not use freshly dechlorinated water, but any other things I should know? How much water?
 

Becca

Members
I keep mine attached to an unheated tank in a marina breeder box and add an airstone. They last months that way. Just make sure you put some mesh across the overflow. Alternately, a 2.5 gallon tank with an airstone and tiny sponge filter might work just fine. They need well oxygenated water.

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Localzoo

Board of Directors
10 gallon half filled clean water. Bare bottom with an air stone with lots of air pumping through it. I kept some for almost a month with sparse feeding an air stone and small sponge....they eventually colonized the sponge but they got eaten when I moved the sponge.

No heater required
place tank on the concrete floor in the basement


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JLW

CCA Members
This time of year, I keep them out in the garage or on the back porch. I use a dish tub (a small cat litter pan works, too). You can get them at the dollar store. You keep the worms just covered with water, and aerate it. Rinse them every day or every other day with cool, dechlorinated water (do not put chlorinated water and dechlor on worms, they hate it. Dechlor it ahead of time).

In summer, I keep them in the fish fridge.
 
I think it depends on the amount you are getting at a time.

When I am buying a 1/4 lb from the local store I actually just keep them in the bag they were sold to me in with enough water to cover them and throw in the crisper drawer of my fridge. I usually buy on Saturday or Sunday and feed Tuesday and Thursday nights. All I do is rinse them out under cold water before feeding and they are fine that way.

When I am ordering in quantities for club members or for a breeding project (8-10 lbs at a time), I keep them in plastic shoe boxes (3 lbs to a box) in the fridge and have to rinse them at least daily (if not twice a day at first) to keep them aerated and healthy. This is because the density of the worms is so much greater that the worms on the bottom suffocate unless rinsed and turned over frequently.

Andy
 

clearsky5

CCA Members
David Snell, wrote a really good article on maintaining black worms without refrigeration, using a sump system.... while most people may not want to set up a system exactly like his, the principal would work for any size
I personally have a small dorm size refrig in the basement for "fish stuff"
keeping most things out of the people fridge.
I keep my black worms in a kitty litter pan that fits the fridge,with just enough water to over the worms.
***I wash them daily, or at least every other day, just rinsing them in a fine net under coldwater. I do not know if chlorine in the tap water has an effect, but I do know if you don't wash them regular, you have more problems than not.
following this principal, I haven't had any problems keeping them.

the washing is very important.... if you let them go and the water they are in gets bloody, they will start to die off, and hard to bring them back.
 

JLW

CCA Members
It's kind of a myth that blackworms need to be kept cold. They need to be kept oxygenated. It's easier to oxygenate cold water than warm water, and it holds much more oxygen. But, if you keep them clean, and not crowded, you can keep them at 78 degrees with no issue.

THat being said, I keep mine cold. :)
 

dogofwar

CCA Members
Two words - red wigglers :)

Live in a bin in the garage...and eat our veggie and fruit scraps. Free, reproduce like gangbusters, as palatable (to fish, that is), safer than and as nutritious as blackworms... and none of the rigmarole of rinsing and dorking with them...

I grab handful of them from my bin, drop them in a basin of water and feed the big ones (whole) to bigger fish and the little ones (or torn up bigger ones) to little fish.

Matt

PS I wouldn't get away with worms in the fridge for 10 minutes. A bin next to the garbage cans in the garage...no grief at all :)
 

halak

Members
You could keep them in the water reservoir of a toilet. When I was a kid in Europe, fish stores sold plastic containers for worms that could be hung into a toilet reservoir. I never tried it, but it seems like a good idea; just don't tell your family members.
 

JLW

CCA Members
Viktor, do they absorb any of the blue dye from the toilet bowl cleaner things? And, do you suppose that effects their flavour for the fish?


Seriously -- wouldn't the chlorine do them in?
 

Becca

Members
Viktor, do they absorb any of the blue dye from the toilet bowl cleaner things? And, do you suppose that effects their flavour for the fish?


Seriously -- wouldn't the chlorine do them in?

We used to rinse and store them in chlorinated water at the hatchery with no ill effects.

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mchambers

Former CCA member
Viktor, what about the Tidy Bowl Man? Aren't you worried he would steal some of them?
ty-d-bol.jpg
 

Termato

Board of Directors
Now if only I had a garage. I may be able to convince my mom to start a tub of red wigglers in her garage for me hahah. I have a spare fridge so I could get away with doing it that way but I could also do the black worms in a tub next to my newly set up daphnia tub. I put them in a 30ish gallon plastic bin with an air stone in there. I have spare from ones from storing art work.

That is so convenient that your name is spelt with a K and not a C like mine hahah.
 

halak

Members
This may be a dumb question, but why would you put a cleaner in the toilet reservoir?

I guess if you put astaxanthin powder there, the fish that eat the worms may get more intense coloring. Seriously. Or not so seriously. I think Josh should try that.

In terms of the chlorine, I have not seen any ill effect when using tap water on black worms or Tubifex.
 

lkelly

Members
Two words - red wigglers :)

Live in a bin in the garage...and eat our veggie and fruit scraps. Free, reproduce like gangbusters, as palatable (to fish, that is), safer than and as nutritious as blackworms... and none of the rigmarole of rinsing and dorking with them...

I grab handful of them from my bin, drop them in a basin of water and feed the big ones (whole) to bigger fish and the little ones (or torn up bigger ones) to little fish.

Matt

PS I wouldn't get away with worms in the fridge for 10 minutes. A bin next to the garbage cans in the garage...no grief at all :)



It's settled then.





red-wigglers-300x224.png


10133


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dogofwar

CCA Members
Lots of folks have inside composting bins (in their kitchens and such)... I had mine in the fishroom for awhile...much handier for feeding the fish but one more thing to trip over...but amazingly not stinky :)

Matt

Now if only I had a garage. I may be able to convince my mom to start a tub of red wigglers in her garage for me hahah. I have a spare fridge so I could get away with doing it that way but I could also do the black worms in a tub next to my newly set up daphnia tub. I put them in a 30ish gallon plastic bin with an air stone in there. I have spare from ones from storing art work.

That is so convenient that your name is spelt with a K and not a C like mine hahah.
 

chriscoli

Administrator
I love my red wiggler bin (I just harvested a bunch the other night for my piggy new world cichlids) but I still like the blackworms too. I find that they don't fill the same feeding niche.
 
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