As
a starter, for those who may be concerned, white worms look like
human pinworms, but cannot successfully infect a human due to the
low temperature requirements of this worm, and to the best of my
knowledge, they do not carry any pathogens as can be gotten with
tubifex worms.
First, you need a place that can hold a temperature below 70 degrees
F. Second you need a starter culture. (The culture comes second
since at above 70 degrees your worms won’t do well at all).
A temperature between 55 and 65 is best if you expect them to reproduce.
I prefer to use a Styrofoam box, like a fish box (with lid), since
the box will help stabilize the temperature, and the lid maintains
darkness which they demand or (otherwise they will hide). An unheated
integral
garage, an old basement refrigerator set to as high as you can without
turning it off, or some other “cold” spot in the house
works well. I have heard schemes for raising white worms at above
70 degrees using sponges and water evaporation to keep them cool,
but never tried it.
 For
a medium, I find that Magic Worm Bedding, available at Wal-Mart
in the hunting and fishing supplies department is great. They even
have a small worm box with bedding for under $10 if you do not need
a large culture. I prefer to use a fish-shipping box usually available
at your local fish shop, sometimes free, sometimes for a dollar.
When you obtain a starter culture, you will find it is not a lot
of worms. A one pound starter
culture from a commercial supplier (priced usually around $15) is
a pound of dirt, not a pound of worms. It will take several weeks
if not months to raise enough worms to feed unless your fish room
has a single male guppy and planted tanks only. Once established,
the supply is reasonable and can be raided for food once or twice
a week for a treat for your fish. Many say that the white worms
are a high starch food and should be fed sparingly and certainly
not as a mainstay; however I have never seen a problem with fish
fed exclusively on white worms, although I would not recommend it.
The worm bedding is very dry (weight minimized for shipping) and
must be soaked in dechlorinated tap water prior to use. You can
put some water right in the box (which has a yellow bag inside that
holds the bedding). The bedding looks like it may have a little
sand and some peat moss or other mulm, but is much better for raising
the worms than a sack of topsoil or other readily available medium.
Unless you plan to supply the eastern seaboard with worms, the cost
of the Magic Worm Bedding is minimal.
Squeeze all the water you can from the bedding to make it just moist.
Fill your box with about 3 to 5 inches deep with the bedding and
“fluff” it up a little. Excess water will eventually
go to the bottom so if it is a little wet it will not hurt.
 Place
your starter culture right on top of the bedding. There are many
foods that can be used for the worms. Some prefer Pabulum or mashed
potatoes placed in small furrows in the medium, but I prefer to
use a piece of bread soaked in non fat dry milk. Some bread is less
prone to mold; I like the “Italiano” brand sliced bread,
since it will hold for several days soaked in milk prior to any
mold development. For a starter culture, half a slice is plenty.
When the remaining bread shows signs of mold, remove and replace
it with a fresh slice. Once established, a good culture will consume
a slice of bread in about 36 to 48 hours. Now here is the nice part
about using bread as a food for the worms. Once established, the
worms will consume, and actually replace the bread slice. This means
you do not have any “separation” task: just scoop up
a clump of worms, and place them in water to rinse away any bread
remnants, replace the cloudy water with fresh water, and baste them
into the tanks. The photo shows a good culture 12 hours after placing
a new slice of bread into the box.
Unlike black worms, white worms cannot survive under water indefinitely,
so you will need to remove uneaten worms the next day if you used
more than the fish could consume.
After a few months, the worm bedding may become fouled. You can
tell this by seeing if the worms are trying to exit the box by climbing
up the sides. When this happens, start a second box culture by splitting
the culture into a second box and adding a fresh batch of worm bedding
to each box. |
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