carolina blackworms...

i understand the idea about the stryro stuffing. i just dont like the idea of the worms above dying because they are too slow. but, im still going to try it when i get a chance.

i tested out another idea today. i simply poured some carbonated water on a algae/plant mat. the worms started crawling out in seconds!
i might combine this with what i have already tried. or, with the styro idea. basically, let them bunch up at the bottom, then scare them out of the mat with a dose of carbonated water. several hours later, they are still alive, so it doesnt kill them. but they sure dont like it.

anyway, in other news, i went and ran a fine mesh net through the water column in the pond today. i got a whole hell of a lot of daphnia and huge copepods.

and strangely enough, i got an ostracod that moves with jerky movements. i have never seen that before.

"i understand the idea about the stryro stuffing. i just dont like the idea of the worms above dying because they are too slow. but, im still going to try it when i get a chance."

Why would the worms above die? I am missing something.

"i understand the idea about the stryro stuffing. i just dont like the idea of the worms above dying because they are too slow. but, im still going to try it when i get a chance."

Why would the worms above die? I am missing something.

they dry out. they cant travel very far when they are not under water.

im thinking about making a tray to set the mat on and slowly raise it. that way, they have time to crawl to a lower level where the water is.

so, after talking to my next door neighbor, the pond used to have fish.
his parents never put fish in it, but one of his nephews used to put fish in it every once in a while. he said you used to be able to see them.

there are no fish in there today though. my neighbor tells me that the last owner didnt maintain anything... she let the pond get terribly over grown, and then just added an herbicide to kill the duckweed off.

well, it didnt kill all the duckweed, but it did turn the pond all stinky. and i think that is what killed the fish.

so, there are lots and lots of worms in the mud at the bottom.  no surprise there.  

 

whats interesting is that there are hundreds of tiny worms in the mud.  the same species.  i have also seen a few tubifex worms, but not many.  but, there are far more young worms in the mud than there are in the floating mats of stuff.  

 

so far as harvesting methods go, i have only managed to test out a couple more.  one that seems to work pretty well is putting the worm laden media into a container and inverting it inside a fish tank.  as the oxygen levels plummet inside the container, the worms migrate to the bottom and start to crawl out.  most of them stay in the substrate at the bottom of the inverted container, but a lot of them do crawl out.  

 

there are a LOT of worms in the mud as well.  its much faster(in the long run) to just pour out a bunch of detritus in a tank and siphon the worms up individually, but i dont normally have time for that.  leaving the container inverted inside a fish tank works well enough.  i dont have to mess with it and by the end of the day, i have a few teaspoons of worms.  and then i just pour the tank out through a mesh and feed it to my fish.  the container goes right back into the tank, tank gets refilled, and the worms start crawling out again.  its not really a production method, but it works well enough to feed my fish without much hassle.  or time.  which is something i am going to be running short on until i get out of the army in five years.  

 

i already have about half a pound of worms set aside in a tank of their own to see how long it takes them to reproduce.  i have them in a small tank with a sponge filter and sand for substrate.  they seem to be doing well.  

Edited by Auban, 01 February 2015 - 10:03 AM.

I wonder if you laid a piece of coarse open-cell foam or HVAC filter material (the stiff fiber kind) on the pond bed, weighted with a few bricks, if the worms will crawl up into it and you could then maneuver it into a cat litter pan or something (held underwater) to get it out of the pond without too many worms dropping out.  ???

i was thinking something along those lines too.

 

it wouldnt take too much time if i set it up right.  

ah...  so much to try, so little time.  

 

im away on business and wont be able to try any new ideas until march.  

ok, i added a handful of the worms to a two and a half gallon tank with five guppies in it.  yea, i know, not enough room.  and no, i have not done a single water change since i set it up a month ago(or even fed them for that matter...).   i have been employing my own unique style of keeping fish.  

 

 

anyway, a month into it and the fish are doing fantastic, and so are the worms.  they seem to be multiplying...  i dont know if i got some at the right time and they laid eggs, but there are a whole bunch of new smaller worms in the sand at the bottom.  their numbers dont seem to have gone down at all...  just the opposite.  

i dont know if they are breaking apart or breeding, but since they are all the same size, and smaller than the worms i put in to begin with, i think they are reproducing.  they seem to be eating the cyanobacterial mats that have started growing in the tank.

 

 

so, im going to set up a tank to breed them, under the same conditions my guppy tank is kept.  i guess it only makes sense...  if my methods work so well for fish, why wouldnt they work for worms?

Edited by Auban, 28 February 2015 - 06:12 PM.

I guess the natural next question is: when do you become a distributor?

 

Very cool that you're having success with them.

i probably wont get around to selling much of anything until i get out of the army.  and thats five years down the road.  

the thing i love the most about these worms is that they dont die in mass when when water quality degrades.  the water can be absolutely putrid and they will still just wriggle along.  when the water gets really bad, they just crawl up to the surface.  but they dont die.  

 

 

that alone is a big improvement over california blackworms.  

i found a harvest method that works for my needs.  its quick, it instantly draws out the worms, and takes practically no time to set up.

i had forgotten about a method of drawing earthworms out of the ground, and figured i would try it, since my worms are related.

 

so, the answer to the problem of getting the worms to disentangle themselves from their substrate:

apply voltage.  

 

nine volts at about 200 milliamps has them scrambling to leave whatever substrate they are in, whether it be sand, algae, mesh, anything.  no need to dry them out, add CO2, spend time waiting, etc.  i just pull a clump of algae/plants out of the pond, pull a piece off and stick it in a bowl.  apply voltage and a few seconds later i have enough worms to feed all of my fish. 

 

i should have figured this out sooner...  

Edited by Auban, 07 March 2015 - 06:59 PM.

my worm culture suffered some nasty water conditions.  the water smelled absolutely horrid.  

 

all the worms survived.  the daphnia all died off.  but the worms are fine. i changed their water and everything is kosher with them.  

im really liking these worms.  

i just collected some kind of salamander eggs from my pond.  several of them have already hatched.  

 

i love this pond....

Edited by Auban, 25 March 2015 - 05:34 PM.

You should send out a few small cultures for others to work with.

im not opposed to that.  if people want some, ill send some.  

 

but it will have to be soon.  im in a special operations unit, and we have a fast deployment tempo.  six months on, six months off.  so, if anyone wants some of the worms to work with, let me know.  SOON. 

 

its not like i can do much with them when im gone anyway...

Have you tried cutting them in half to replicate them?  I might like some. I have a crazy busy time right now. How long before your next possible deployment?

next tentative deployment is the end of this summer.  i dont have a clue where im going though.  ill find out right before i get on the plane...  but anyway, its a few months away.  in the mean time, im going to be in training a LOT.  so, not much time to fill orders...  

 

 

while i havent specifically tried to propagate them by cutting them in half, i have seen fragments of worms grow into whole worms, so im sure it would work.  

Once my schedule frees up a bit I will contact you. If you have time to ship some to me that would be great if not, maybe later.  What do you reckon is the temp tolerance range?

its wide...  i know they survive the refrigerator and they survive being under 24/7 lights, around 90 degrees.  so, they seem pretty tolerable of a wide range of temps.