Live food : White Worms and Grindal Worms alternative cultures

[dgee]

I'm searching for an alternative way to culture white worms and grindal
worms in plastic shoebox without using any soil / peat moss. I would
like to use some kind of washable non-organic material instead. Does
anyone here has some experience with perhaps a mix of various density
sponge slices and syntetic wool ?

[dgee]

Well, since no-one is replying, I decided to try it myself. Bought a
pair of shoebox sized plastic containers and a spindle of 16oz 100%
acrylic dark blue knitting wool. I've cut the spindle in half so that
I got threads about 1' long and boiled them for 10mins to unleash any
dye or chemicals in the acrylic. I rinced everything with Reverse
Osmosis water and then removed has much water as possible, leaving the
acrylic damp but not dripping. In one box, i've put 50 white worms, in
the other 100 grindal worms right in the center of the boxes. I've
added some damp fish food and put the boxes in a dark corner.

I'm thinking of adding some sliced apple pieces that I could removed at
the first sign of fungus. Also, i'm wondering if dampening the wool
with the discharge water of my RO system would be any better for the
worms (chlorine-free / higher GH / higher buffering capacity). Anyway,
i'll keep you posted with my findings in a month.

[Elaine T]

dgee wrote:
> Well, since no-one is replying, I decided to try it myself. Bought a
> pair of shoebox sized plastic containers and a spindle of 16oz 100%
> acrylic dark blue knitting wool. I've cut the spindle in half so that
> I got threads about 1' long and boiled them for 10mins to unleash any
> dye or chemicals in the acrylic. I rinced everything with Reverse
> Osmosis water and then removed has much water as possible, leaving the
> acrylic damp but not dripping. In one box, i've put 50 white worms, in
> the other 100 grindal worms right in the center of the boxes. I've
> added some damp fish food and put the boxes in a dark corner.
>
> I'm thinking of adding some sliced apple pieces that I could removed at
> the first sign of fungus. Also, i'm wondering if dampening the wool
> with the discharge water of my RO system would be any better for the
> worms (chlorine-free / higher GH / higher buffering capacity). Anyway,
> i'll keep you posted with my findings in a month.
>
Just so you know, someone IS reading this. ;-) I'll keep an eye out
because I'd like to get some grindals going. I'm going to ask the guy
in my aquarium society who has all the interesting cultures whether he
has any.

--
Elaine T __
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