Unbearable black worm smell....

SO I got my live blackworms yesterday. I put them in a net, rinsed them well in dechlorinated water, and hung them in a net on the side of my tank, just to see how they did. I didn't want to put them in right away, in case there was some unanticipated issue. There was. Holy crap snacks do those things stink. I removed them shortly thereafter, since they had effectively stunk up my entire living room. Until then, I hadn't been using any charcoal in my tank, since I had no need for it, but I had to put a bag of it in my filter to help with the stink.

I was really hoping to keep the black worms in the substrate as a food for the darters I'll be collecting next week to graze on, but I don't think I can do it if it's going to make everything smell so bad. There were quite a few dead ones in there (also why I kept them in a net), but I don't see how a few dead worms could stink up 20gal in less than 10 minutes.

Right now they are living in a bucket with charcoal in a filter bag in the water, but I'm surely not going to keep them in my refrigerator, and I can't keep them in the tank with that kind of stink, so I don't see long term survival being very good. Are there other easy to obtain live foods that don't smell soooo horrible? Is it just the dead ones? Is there an easy way to sift through the live and dead ones (I will NOT touch them)?

Once again, I am freaking out a bit. I have put SO much effort and time into this tank, and it's getting down to the last minute now, and things aren't going as planned. I did get some shells out of my substrate, though, and my Ph went down to 7.8, so I feel a bit better about that...

One last thing- I tried that plant in my last post, but it didn't do well. I'm not excessively concerned with the plants, but I would like to get some, for the obvious benefits. I have quite a bit of Java fern and Java moss in one of my other tanks, but I don't want to move any of it if it isn't going to do well. Being tropical, I would worry about the temp. Obviously I would anchor the moss if I used it. Any ideas on plants that will do well with:
1. the cold (temp is staying around 72* F)
2. the high flow
3. relatively large gravel I have in there (I can wrap the roots if need be, though, I'd prefer not to have to)
4. They also have to be either inexpensive, or easy to find in either the Chattanooga area, or the St. Louis area.

Thanks so much

I added one more pic  0421121331.jpg   335.2KB   0 downloads

Remove any dead worms and throw them away. Or flush them down the toilet. That would make them stop smelling. One way to remove the dead ones easily is to take them out of the water with like a fork or something. The live ones will cling to one another. They clump together during transfer. Like this: http://gallery.nanfa...resize.jpg.html

As to plants, my current profile picture is of a female orangethroat darter (etheostoma spectabile) hunting for fry in Ceratophyllum demersum (hornwort/coontail) which is native to your area. It doesn't care about substrate because it doesn't grow roots. I built a long rectangle out of half inch PVC, buried the bottom long side of the rectangle, and wrapped the C. demersum around the exposed bar, which ran parallel to the substrate but about an inch above it. That gave it the look of being rooted but without roots. Example pictures: http://gallery.nanfa...01_001.JPG.html
http://gallery.nanfa...ze_001.jpg.html
C. demersum tends to melt if there isn't enough nitrogen available in the water column to support its rapid growth. It doesn't have roots, so if there isn't enough food in the water column it's out of luck. If that happens thin the C. demersum out and feed more. Don't let nitrate hit 0 parts per million. If it dips down close add some more food to the tank.

You asked if there are any other live foods you can have instead of blackworms. Yes, there are. Here is a link to the grindal worm topic: http://forum.nanfa.o...ips-and-tricks/
Darters also enjoy frozen unbreaded cocktail shrimp that has been shredded finely on a metal grater.

Edited by EricaWieser, 21 April 2012 - 02:01 PM.

Healthy blackworms have no smell. Whether your worms died and rotted because they were stressed before you got them or because of something you did, I dont know, but it's not the worms' fault. When I get a bad batch or screw up and forget to put them back in the fridge quickly, or forget to change water (with cold water) and they start dying, I put them in a large cooler of water with aeration and the remaining healthy ones clump up together. I lift out the good clumps with a fork and pour the rest in the garden (you plants or lawn will love rotten worms).

I suspect some people are very sensitive to blackworm odor. When I kept them, I gave them a 100%+ water change daily. Even with healthy worms, I could not stand the odor. My family members could not even recognize an odor unless they stuck their nose in the container.

I keep living colonies of blackworms in some of my tanks with no odor issues. I have an excellent sense of smell too. Hmmm, maybe it is because of my tanks being heavily planted, but I suspect you got some funky worms. If you get an unhealthy batch they can make a serious mess of your tank. The worms should have a nice dark grey, or redddish brown color to them and be fairly active. If you see pale grey mushiness, you have a batch of dead and dying worms.
Rinsing them repeatedly with cool decholrinated water can help remove the dead ones. The lively ones will wrap themselves together and the dead ones can be poured off. You will lose a few live ones too, but that's better than putting dead ones in the tank.