Re: NANFA-- What do blackworms eat? Also topping off tanks

Scott Davis (unclescott_at_prodigy.net)
Sun, 28 Jan 2001 13:04:06 -0600

----- Original Message -----
From: Lions Lark <lego_92_at_hotmail.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 3:04 AM
Subject: Re: NANFA-- What do blackworms eat? (In aquariums...)
> >Subject: Re: NANFA-- What do blackworms eat? (In aquariums...)
> >Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 15:46:23 -0600 (EST)
> Am I changing water too much? (2x day-morn & dinner time...double
distilled
> water at room temp- ~67 degrees F. No dead worms to date!

You sound like you're doing most everything right.

I wonder though if the distilled water is necessary. I use an RO unit to mix
water for some of my tropicals and do feed the blackworms from a jar of cut
RO water and they do seem to adjust without harm. However they also do fine
in the refrigerator in the liquid rock (well water) our town provides us
with. It may be better for the worms to be in that stuff. Certainly it is
cheaper and less bother.

You change the water twice a day! That's terrific.

A member of the Chicago killie group was raising ramshorn snails on dry dog
food and some black worms inadvertently got dropped in. They did multiply.

There has also been talk about feeding (grindle, white, red) worm cultures
(in potting soil, peat or shredded black and white newspaper) dry cat food.
Evidentially the oils in the catfood do good things for the worms. Probably
don't want that in a tank though.

Rosario LaCorte, several years ago in Aquarium Fish Magazine wrote about the
creation and maintenance of a Daphnia pond in his back yard. He also seeded
it with blackworms. In a year or two he was harvesting little balls of black
worms, which he suggested were feeding upon leaf liter - much like their
earthworm relatives. That would jive with the banana peal suggestions of Al,
Klaus and Sajjad.

Probably the more space (surface or bottom area) you can give them the
better. This is true of a lot of food cultures. It is also easier said than
done.

Most of you are aware of this but that demineralized water (whether
distilled, R.O. - from a reverse osmosis unit, or from some sort of resin
unit) is invaluable for topping off evaporating tanks in the winter. We
identified a couple of "mystery deaths" local aquarists were suffering. It
turned out that they were using tap water to top off their tanks. Some of
these tanks were running two to three times the total mineral hardness they
normally would. When dying guppies were dissected (not by me, but by one who
would know) some of the internal organs associated with osmoregulation and
the blood were a mess. As those organs were overworked, the fish just began
checking out despite other aquarium conditions seeming to be ok.

All the best!

Scott

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