Grindal worms

I got a grindal worm culture from a friend about a week ago. All my
small fish love them. However, I'm reading conflicting info on how to
culture them. I have potting soil and coconut fiber - are either of
these suitable or do I have to buy peat? How moist should I keep the
culture? Also, the guy I got them from recommends rotting peanuts as
food, but I keep seeing oatmeal on the web. Is there a preferred food?

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Altum wrote:
I got a grindal worm culture from a friend about a week ago. All my
small fish love them. However, I'm reading conflicting info on how to
culture them. I have potting soil and coconut fiber - are either of
these suitable or do I have to buy peat? How moist should I keep the
culture? Also, the guy I got them from recommends rotting peanuts as
food, but I keep seeing oatmeal on the web. Is there a preferred food?

Never mind. Thanks, Richard!
http://killi.net/feeding/live/cultured/worms/grindal/

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Altum wrote,
Never mind. Thanks, Richard!
http://killi.net/feeding/live/cultured/worms/grindal/ .........

I found potting compost to work great. 2"s of compost - 1" of water
from your aquarium (dechlorinated), wet *all* compost. To much water
will kill the culture. If the glass is cut within 1/4" of the shoe box
sides, the worms will crawl up onto the glass and can be harvested
daily. I used powdered oatmeat for babys and fed daily a small amount
(under the glass)........ Frank

Frank wrote:
Altum wrote,
Never mind. Thanks, Richard!
http://killi.net/feeding/live/cultured/worms/grindal/ .........

I found potting compost to work great. 2"s of compost - 1" of water
from your aquarium (dechlorinated), wet *all* compost. To much water
will kill the culture. If the glass is cut within 1/4" of the shoe box
sides, the worms will crawl up onto the glass and can be harvested
daily. I used powdered oatmeat for babys and fed daily a small amount
(under the glass)........ Frank

Thanks, Frank. I've got to figure out where to buy the glass. I think
I'm going to go to a craft store and get a cheap picture frame. My fish
love the worms - especially the betta and Pachypanchax.

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Hi..

[Grindal]

Their main enemy is a tiny black *wasp* that sting the worms
and lay its eggs in(to) the worms and its larvae eat the
worms up.

There are a lot of these tiny parasitic wasp species, each
seem to prefer special prey. Some hunt plant lice, some
other little beetles/beetle larvae that destroy wood/trees
some other worms or insects..

Take some extra fine gauze or cotton fabric and an elastic
band, cover the worm pot with that cotton, close it with
the band and open it only for feeding or harvest. A single
wasp is able to kill a worm culture.

My fish love the worms - especially the betta and
Pachypanchax.

Absolutely. I guess they must have a sweet taste. :-)

HTH.
--
cu
Marco

In article ,
Altum wrote:
I got a grindal worm culture from a friend about a week ago. All my
small fish love them. However, I'm reading conflicting info on how to
culture them. I have potting soil and coconut fiber - are either of
these suitable or do I have to buy peat? How moist should I keep the
culture? Also, the guy I got them from recommends rotting peanuts as
food, but I keep seeing oatmeal on the web. Is there a preferred food?

See also http://killi.net/feeding/live/cultured/worms/grindal/

Grindals are much much trickier then white worms which are as
near foolproof as possible.

But, they don't mind room temperature, which will kill white worms
anywhere outside of a British home without central heating.

The best food for grindals I ever found is "Gerbers high protein
baby cereal". I was able to find this in California, but
nowhere else. Regular baby cereal wil work. Allegedly soy flour
works although I found it did nothing more than make a putrid
stinking mess.

Rotting peanuts are to be avoided like the plague for they grow
a mould which has highly toxic and carcinogenic aflotoxins (sp?).

I used a plastic shoe box with about 2" of a mixture of peat moss
and well composted manure bought in a bag at the store. Black earth
works as well as manure.

Too wet and the culture will stink like hell. Too dry and they
dry up and die. It should be fairly moist, but no puddles should
be visible. When new, the peat will absorb a tremendous amount of
water, so keep that in mind. After a few days it settles down.

As soon as one culture is going well, start another. I found I had
to have about 4 cultures going at once to guarentee I always had
enough food for a decent number of fish. At any point in time one
culture was always, um, "not doing well".

The cultures should be covered to prevent evaportive loss.

Inevitably they culture wull attract gnats, tiny flies. Harmless
but damn annoying. Apparanly they can be killed by leaving the
cover off for an hour so the worms all bury themseves, then
taking a propane torch and searing the gnats into insect heaven.

Hide them someplace away from family members. You'll never forget
the stink of a sour grindal culture as the vapours from 10,000
rotting worm corpses decompose.

But, they are worth the trouble. Some larger fish (Blue Gularis)
can take them upon hatching, and they're a practical food for
any fish up to a few inches.

They can also be gut-loaded with things like pureed carrot or
spirulina powder or what have you.

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Richard Sexton wrote:
In article ,
Altum wrote:
I got a grindal worm culture from a friend about a week ago. All my
small fish love them. However, I'm reading conflicting info on how to
culture them. I have potting soil and coconut fiber - are either of
these suitable or do I have to buy peat? How moist should I keep the
culture? Also, the guy I got them from recommends rotting peanuts as
food, but I keep seeing oatmeal on the web. Is there a preferred food?

See also http://killi.net/feeding/live/cultured/worms/grindal/

Found that, 10 minutes after I wrote the post.

Grindals are much much trickier then white worms which are as
near foolproof as possible.

But, they don't mind room temperature, which will kill white worms
anywhere outside of a British home without central heating.

Yeah. And I'm in a warm climate with no air conditioning. White worms
ain't going to happen here.

The best food for grindals I ever found is "Gerbers high protein
baby cereal". I was able to find this in California, but
nowhere else. Regular baby cereal wil work. Allegedly soy flour
works although I found it did nothing more than make a putrid
stinking mess.

Rotting peanuts are to be avoided like the plague for they grow
a mould which has highly toxic and carcinogenic aflotoxins (sp?).

I didn't even think of that. I'll have to tell the guy who gave me the
culture to switch to baby food. It would be a bummer to kill off my
fish with aflatoxins.

snip

But, they are worth the trouble. Some larger fish (Blue Gularis)
can take them upon hatching, and they're a practical food for
any fish up to a few inches.

The only fish that probably need something more substantial are my
angelfish and the M. altispinosa, and even those love the grindals. One
of my bettas hasn't figured out that they're food yet, but I'm sure
he'll come around.

They can also be gut-loaded with things like pureed carrot or
spirulina powder or what have you.

Gut loading! Very cool. I'll have to grab some powdered spirulina.

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