The encyclopedia of Culturing White worms, and Grindal worms
These worms are excellent live food for fish (60% protein, 15% fats); nothing beats live food for feeding your fish. They are easily produced and are particularly good for inducing fish to spawn. They do not carry parasites or pathogenic bacteria like tubifex worms and are non-pathogenic to humans and animals. All freshwater and marine fish as well as some crustaceans, amphibians, reptiles, and birds love them so it is important to not overfeed with them as the fish will literally gorge themselves with the worms and get fat. They can be “Gut loaded” with any nutritional food you want to feed your fish. They can also be chopped and used to feed your fry. Egg capsules make an excellent food for baby fish. They also save money as they are very cheap to produce compared to quality fish food.
There are three species used by aquarists:
1)
White
worms (Enchytraeus albidus): They
grow to 2-4 cm in length. They are suitable for feeding adult fish. They do best in temperatures lower than the other 2 species.
2)
Grindal
worms (Enchytraeus buchholzi): are
much smaller (1 cm) and are used to feed fry when they are big enough and also small
fish species like Barbs, Tetras, Danios, Killifish, Apistogrammas, and
Corydoras. They can tolerate higher temperatures than white worms.
3)
Tropical
white worms also called Warm White Worms or Room Temperature White Worms (Enchytraeus
doerjesi): These were discovered recently. They are
intermediate in size between the other two so can be used to feed adult fish. They
can tolerate high temperatures like Grindal worms.
Life cycle:
White worms have a lifespan of up to 9 months. Adult
worms produce cocoons that contain 9-35 eggs. Each worm can produce over 1000
eggs in its life span. Each egg takes about 12 days to hatch out into tiny
white worms that by day 20 are ready to start reproducing.
The medium:
1. Potting soil: gives the highest productivity but is prone to fouling and attracting pests if too wet. Try to use soil without artificial fertilizers or chemicals. White worms cannot dig tunnels and are therefore need loose soil, so add some peatmoss or coco peat to loosen the soil if the soil is not very loose.
2. Cocopeat: the PH is neutral so doesn’t need to be neutralized. It is imported from India or Srilanka. It usually comes in dried compact bricks, so you are required to soften the brick by soaking it in water for 24 hours to make it ready for use. Also gives excellent results and cleaner than potting soil. Coco fibers/coir, and coco chips are not suitable and give bad results. worms prefer media with some organic matter, so I advise you to mix it with some soil.
3. Peat moss: is too acidic (PH 4) so you have to neutralize it by adding lime, ground up oyster shells, or eggshells before using. The pH of the substrate has to be close to 7. And tends to get too moist for the worms so it is advised to mix it with some soil.
4. Soilless: by using media like kitchen scrubber pads or Polyester fiber filter floss material. This is the easiest and cleanest method but only works for Grindal worms and not white worms. Use 2 layers of these so that you can transfer a layer to a new culture later. They can be washed and used indefinitely.
5. Rotted manure or garden compost: Some people get very good results using these. But the worms feed on the media and they then pass it to the fish. Another problem is that it rots quickly, and it is going to be difficult to collect the worms as they might ignore any food you add.
Non-sterile media like topsoil can be used but should be sterilized first by steaming it before using it to kill any insect eggs like mites and flies that can infect the soil. You can sterilize it by wetting it then either put it in a microwave for 3 minutes for every kilogram of soil or in an oven by adding the soil to a baking pan (3 to 4 inches deep), cover with foil, and bake at 93°C (200F) for 30 minutes. Anything higher than that can produce toxins. Or you can use your stove, put the soil after wetting it in glass jars and top them with foil to seal the steam inside. Put the jars in a pot or pressure cooker with boiling water under them for 30 minutes. Or you can simply boil the soil in water in a large, closed pot for half an hour. Let the soil cool completely. Keep covered to remain sterile.
White worms cannot dig tunnels and are therefore need loose soil, so add some peatmoss or coco peat to loosen the soil if the soil is not very loose.
Tip: Garden shops do sell soil that is free
of these pests in closed bags. But keep the bag sealed after you open it!
If you've used non-sterile soil, and the
culture gets infected by other creatures (spider mites, fleas, etc.) after a
few months you'll find that these unwanted creatures have multiplied greatly.
You can't use chemicals to kill them as that will kill the white worms. The
only thing you can do is to carefully remove some worms and rinse them in
water, place them into fresh damp soil and start a new culture. Or you can
flood the entire culture with water. Some of the mites will float on top of the
water. Others will slowly come to the top. If this method is used, be sure to
dry out the culture afterward. White worms can only survive in water
temporarily.
Waste from the worms accumulates with time so swapping out the existing bedding with fresh media after 3-4 months is crucial to prevent culture crash. If you see the worms starting to escape the media by crawling on the walls of the container and the culture starts to smell bad and the soil starts to darken, this usually means the soil is getting bad and you need to restart the culture by transferring as many worms as you can to a new culture. To collect most of the worms, place the bin (with the cover on) on top of a heating pad set on high or a pan with hot water. It takes about an hour or so, but the worms will rise to the surface and up the sides to escape the heat, making for a clean harvest. Do not throw away this soil. It is called Vermicompost. It is an excellent fertilizer so add it to your plants.
Due to the fact that the culture can crash
very quickly after a few months, it is recommended to always have at least two
crops working. This, apart from having a reserve crop, can be used by rotations
and will always give time for the other crop to gain strength.
Starting a new culture takes a long time to
get going strong. So what some people do is slowly start only feeding worms on
one half of the container. This will move all the worms to that half of the
container because that’s where the food is. Then they use a spoon or whatever
they have and remove all of the soil from the other half of the container. This
goes to the houseplants. They then place new media into that half making sure
that it has enough moisture in it to keep the worms happy. Then start moving
the food first at the dividing line and then moving it so that the worms over
the course of the next few weeks or month will be moved over to this new area.
Then you can remove the other half of the soil which by now has also gone bad.
Replacing back and forth that way, you can keep a single worm container going
for years on end without ever actually starting it over.
Another good way to process some of the
soil as it slowly gets old is by making small cultures to give to other people.
Since the only way you can have a worm culture is to get a starter from someone, people are always looking for starters. The little section of the worm culture
with worms that you scoop out then becomes an empty spot that you put fresh medium,
and this keeps your culture with fresh soil and going strong.
Another way of slowing down the accumulation of waste is by always harvesting the worms to help keep their population and waste production down.
The container:
You can use a plastic box or better a wooden one because wooden boxes regulate humidity. The box can be of any size but start with a small one then shift to a shoe box size or larger as the worms increase in number. The substrate should be 3-10 cm deep. In the case of Grindal worms it should be 3-4 cm. A feature that we must take into account is the height of the box. It should be 10-15 cm. Bigger containers are better as they are more stable and last longer. The lid has to be tight because these worms have a tendency to crawl out of their container.
Worms need air to breathe, so the box cannot be kept completely closed, but neither can it be left open because it can be infected with fruit flies or, mites and the worms might escape. If the container lid is airtight, it would be best to make openings in the lid of the container and cover them with a fabric or fine mesh or other breathable material to allow the aeration of the crop.
Culture Temperature:
Grindals
and tropical white worms prefer temperatures around those we find comfortable,
so it’s not difficult to find a place they’ll thrive. They reproduce best at
temperature of 21-
Unlike the other two species, white worms cannot survive very hot weather.
So, if you are raising white worms in summer, if you live in a coastal region, you can just keep them in the coolest room in your house. If it gets very hot in summer in your area, you can keep them in a wine cooler or a water cooler (dispenser) machine if you own one. Both have a temperature of around 16°C (61F) which is optimum for the worms. Or keep them in the warmest part of your kitchen refrigerator which is usually the lowest drawer (If your family agrees). The temperature in the upper parts of your fridge is usually 2-5°C (35-41F) so it is too cold for them.
Alternatively, if none of these options are available you can place the culture in an old fish shipping Styrofoam box with a bottle of frozen water. By rotating the bottle with a fresh frozen one each morning, you can keep the temperature inside the insulated and covered box cool enough for the worms even in the hottest of days.
White worms can survive in temperatures up to 30°C (86F)
As long as the temperature doesn’t reach 25°C (77F)
you will always get a good harvest of white worms.
Light:
An
opaque container is preferable (or keep it in the dark) as the white worms will try
to hide from any light and therefore may be driven away from the food if it is
on the surface. Grindal worms can withstand some light.
Humidity:
We need to know that humidity is very important in the behavior of white worms; with little humidity they bury themselves in the substrate. With a lot of humidity, they climb the walls of the box; in either case they will not be near the food and will die of hunger. we can appreciate the humidity by taking the substrate with one hand and squeezing it, if two or three drops of water come out that it is good, if no drops of water come out it lacks moisture, and if more than two or three drops of water come out, it has more moisture than is needed. To remove excess moisture just place a paper towel or dry cloth on top of the soil or under the lid and replace as necessary. For Grindals the substrate should be less soaked.
Feeding the worms:
White worms just don’t have teeth so they can’t eat hard or dry foods. Their food source must be wet and mushy. They can virtually eat any energy and protein rich food if you wet it first. In the wild, they feed on bacteria, fungi, dead organic matter, and enriched mineral soil. They are saprophytic; Rotten plant remains are ingested together with the microflora (bacteria, protozoa, fungi) via the mouth pores. The microflora helps digest the food for the worms. However, it is advised against the use of feeds containing animal products (e.g., fish meal or other rendered animal proteins) as they tend to attract pests (i.e., flying insects, mites)
The foods that are most productive are:
i. Stale bread or breadcrumbs dipped in water
ii. Heavily cooked rice. Grinding the rice makes it easier for the smaller worms to feed on and increases the harvest. Other milled grain products (i.e., oatmeal, wheat and rye flour, groats, chicken starter feed, soybeans) give excellent results too. These tend to rot slower than bread.
iii. Dry cat or dog or fish food. Worms feed better when you crush the kibble and spread it on the surface. Wet it first. Dry Dog food is best for Grindals as the bread and rice rot faster in the hotter temperature needed for Grindals
If you want to double your production soak the bread or rice after cooking in mil. Or even better yoghurt, Kefir, or Rayeb milk, instead of water. The worms feed on the microorganisms in these, which help digest the food for the worms. Add brewer's yeast to increase nutritional value.
New cultures will eat only yoghurt, Kefir, or Rayeb milk but when the culture gets older the worms will eat the bread and rice too.
Add some salt if the food lacks it. They like it the same saltiness that we do.
You can do “Gut loading”. Gut loading is the process by which an animal's prey is raised and fed nutritious foods with the intention of passing those nutrients to the animal for which the prey is intended. So, to add vitamins, you can add a spoon of Rayeb milk, or Kefir, or yogurt that has active live culture, and a teaspoon of nutritional yeast. All these have the added benefit that the microbes in them help digest the rice and bread which makes it easier for the worms to feed on and increases production. It is important to realize that worms ‘process’ organic matter but derive their nutrition from bacteria and protozoa in the worm gullet. To add color to your fish, mix your worm feed with boiled carrots to increase the orange color in fish, dill parsley or celery for green and blue colors, and red bell peppers for red color.
Make the food always available to increase your yield. Only feed them the amount of food they can eat in 2-3 days as food tends to rot after that. The trick here is to feed the worms enough so that they reproduce quickly, but not so much that the food goes uneaten long enough to become moldy. If you do get some mold, just spoon it out and add fresh food (but not so much this time!). Initially with only a few worms, you'll not need much. But as the days pass, you'll need to add more at each interval.
Always add the food only on the surface so that you can remove any leftover feed before it spoils and ruins your culture. If the food is left to rot the worms will start abandoning the culture.
New cultures take almost a month to get established and produce a lot of worms in which the worms get adapted to the new environment. During this time, they will eat very little. So, you have to be patient in the beginning and feed them very little.
You’re probably thinking, “What if I go on holidays?” I’ve left my cultures without food for 7 to 9 days without a crash. Just make sure you feed them a day or two before you leave & make sure the medium they live in is moist enough. And keep them in a cold place (above 2°C (36F)) which will make any amount of food you add last longer and not rot.
An easy method of harvesting the worms is to feed them in a glass covered pit. The worms will come to the food, and form dense masses around the edges, and sometimes completely cover the food source. So, the day after feeding simply pick off clumps of worms with a pair of forceps (or your fingers) and drop them into a cup of water. Rinse them a couple times in order to remove any residual dirt or food from the mass of worms before feeding them to the fish. The worms can then be directly added to the aquarium with an eyedropper or turkey baster.
Alternatively place a glass sheet or a Plastic mesh above or below the food. To harvest your worms just take out the plastic or glass sheet or mesh; worms tend to stick to the sheet as it is very close to the food. Shake it to dislodge the worms from the underside of the glass/plastic sheet into a jar of clean water. Rinse them then feed them to the fish.
However, the
easiest way to harvest them is by placing 2 sheets of mesh on the soil and add
the food in between them. To harvest just take the top sheet and shake it
directly in the aquarium. It’s probably going to be clean, as it is away from
the dirt, so you don't have to rinse it first.
You can stock the worms in a cone feeder in your aquarium, which essentially is a sieve that limits the number of worms in the water column and thus extends the feeding time for aquatic organisms.
You can also use them to feed your fry. Just
chop them first with anything sharp then rinse them since the chopping releases
the internal fluids and that will cloud your water. After the first week the fry are big enough to be fed Grindal worms without chopping them. They are great for the fry.
White worms can survive underwater for
several hours and even days if the water is well oxygenated, but will eventually drown, so the amounts fed should be adjusted
accordingly. If not eaten and fall to the bottom they will bury into the
substrate and die there. As a result, they will decompose in the
substrate and release ammonia later.
When feeding and harvesting if you find the
medium is getting dry spray some water. Also, ‘fluff’ the bedding every day or
two prior to feeding to help aerate it.
Expect them to multiply 10 folds in a
month, if not check what you are doing wrong.
Sources:
Dealing With Mite Issues In White Worm Cultures
Is coco peat and coco coir the same? - Quora
So easy Grindal worm culture - YouTube
culturing Grindal worms - YouTube
culturing white worms - YouTube
A Quick Guide to Culturing White Worms (Enchytraeus albidus) -
YouTube
https://youtu.be/AW8cP1zNDjY?si=pe9sG47AjPsat8nV
culture white worms - Google Search
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