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JoKeR

Pocket Full Of Fish
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BLACKWORMS

Culturing

Blackworms are very easy to culture and feed. It takes them about 3-4 weeks to double in number. A good way and my favorite method to use this keeping them in a container with atleast 2 inches of water. After u got the appropiate palce for ur worms. Put them somewere cold I preffer the firdge since it stays at one temprature ar there easy to find. If u cant get a fridge some people leave them out-side but they die sooner.

Ok now u have everything ready get ur dish were ur gonna place the worms and fill it up with Spring water or water from a near lake or river. Some people like myself just get plain water make sure its cold. Get some brown paper or construction paper wet it in the sink. Take all the moisture out then place it in the dish with the water. After the the steps above dump ur starter culture in the dish let them sit down. like 70% of times they will huddle up into little balls. Now that u got evrything in there place them in the fridge u might wanna put a top some worms like to climb up but if its a deep dish dont. After a few days u will otice them getting redish-black. Now u could feed them I feed mine once a week half a shrimp pellet. Im not sure if they eat it or not but mines are growing chunkier and a little longer. The worms can live long periods of time with-out food but the brown paper will let them feed over and over. If u want ur blackworms to reproduce in fast numbers. This is what I suggest change there water every day this avoids many parasites that could harm fish like I say better to be safe then sorry. Also if u want the blackworms to get into more grab a pair of scissors and cut them up. it doesnt matter were u cut them each pieace that u cut will regenarate into a full worm in weeks. This worms can survive in very low oxyginated water alos remember replace water when it evaporates.

Feeding Them To Fish

Feeding them to fish is not hard garb some worms with ur fingers put them in a cup or cofee filter rinse some water so no bacteria gets to ur fish. And then just watch them gobble them up. Another method I use is frozen blackworms Home-made Style. I grab a little worms put them in a Ice-Cub holder(Makesure its well clean) I preffer buying a new one. Put the worms in the Ice-Cub maker then placed them in ur fridge. Wait till the next day or till ur gonna feed ur fish then u will find ur worms in ice-cub. Knowing the worms they will make a little ball so its easier for ur fish to get. The water I use if fresh spring water or clean filtered water. My bettas love this little treat for them even though they do preffer live who wouldnt.

This is recomended for Medium-To All fish


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MICROWORMS

Culturing

Like blackworms microworms are very easy to culture u will have a active culture in days. There are many ways to culture microworms with bread,oatmeal and ect. The way I have had more succes is with oatmeal but the down-draw is that it smells awful when it goes bad. The materials I use for this are a tall cup a starter culture some oatmeal and yeast. What I do first is put the oatmeal in the microwave. I preffer the 1-3 mintue instant oatmeal, after thats done I let it sit somewere to get cooled. WARNING DO NOT DUMP CULTURE WHILE OATMEAL IS HOT IT MIGHT KILL THEM! After its cool I placed the oatmeal in the cup I mixed it around it should be sticky. After that I add my culture careful it might stink really bad. So after the microworms are in the cup I add a little yeast for flavor, when I mean a little I mean a Pinch. After that place it somewere were theres not much light and its a steady temparature. After a few days u will see little thing crawling up. If u dont what ur looking for shine it up in a light look closely and u will see little white wormish things crawling up. If u done the procedure above u will see them by the thousands. Microworms are a very good fry food to have around especially wiht betta breeders since this are the perfect size for betta babies and other fry. After almost 2-3 weeks ur culture will start to smell alot this is a sign that u should replace the culture.

How do u replace the culture?

Replacing is very easy get a spoon and take atleast 25% of the old culture sometimes more. Get ur new oatmeal after its cooled and mix it in with the other culture and repaet the steps above.

If u need microworms fast I suggest u get ur culture put it somewere hot. What I do is put them on top of my tank light leave it there for a few days. The heat makes the microworms reproduce faster. Another down-draw is that when u use that procedure the oatmeal goes bad more fsater so ur gonna replace it in 1 to 1.5 weeks.

Harvest Microworms by the Millions HERE!

Feeding Them To Fish

Feeding them to fish is very easy all u gotta do is get a Q-tip or ur good ol finger and swipe the worms from the sides. Careful dont try to get oatmeal in ur finger might make the tank cloudy. Then just drop them to ur fry.

This is reccomended for Fry-Small fish
Heres some pics of my Microworm Culture
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GRINDALWORMS

Culturing

Grindals are starting to get more popular every day. I recently got my starter culture a few weeks ago. So ur ready to culture huh? First of all u need a tub or a plastic deep dish. Wash it good and make sure ur not gonna use it again. Next u need soil what I do is get some Peat Soil and some regular soil from my yard and mix it togethere. Then grab a mist bottle and slowly spray on the dirt make sure not to put much water since ur worms could die. Then get ur starter culture and gently put it on top of ur soil. Grab a fork and mix the culture around with the soil once its nice and mixed. U gotta feed them little buggers, I personally feed them every day or every two days. What I use for food its really what I got in my hands, but my personal favorite is instant oatmeal. I know some people use cereal and some use baby food. I have tried a few but have more luck on oatmeal. What I do is get some warm water and mix it with the oatmeal. Until its nice a wettish, remeber a starter culture doesnt doesnt have many worms so feed much. I feed them half-a-teaspoon every other day, after I got my food ready I gently put the food on top. Remeber to spread it out were u want ur hot spot to be, after u have fed ur worms put them in some place dark. In a few days u should see hundreds of worms crawling all over the food. After this repeat the steps and u will have a nice culture. U should leave ur culture alone and when u start noticing less worms that means its time for a change.

Feeding To Fish

This part is very tricky to me, what I use is a either clear plastic square about 3-4 icnhes long or a glass square. Put some food on the culture after u got the food in the top of the culture. Place ur square on top in a few days(sometimes hours) the worms will attach themself to the glass or plastic square. After that with ur Spray mister or with ur finger drop the worms into a cup. U could use a turkey baster or an eye-dropper and suck up the worms and feed them to ur fish. I know many people use diffrent techniques, like our own wuv. She uses a plastic canvas grid to collect her worms, might try that in the near future.

This is recommended for Small-Medium fish

The Grindals are visible cause there the white little string looking things
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VINEGAR EELS

Culturing

Well first u start by getting some Apple Cider Vinegar try getting the cheapest one. I personally go to the dollar store to buy some. Next u gotta find a lonf neck bottle. I use the longneck beers there perfect for this job. So after u got all ur supplies get ur vinegar and put it all the way were the neck starts. Then carefully drop ur vinegar eel culture and forget about it for a few month. Get apple core and drop in the bottle. Then get a rubberband and place it on top of the bottle get a napkin and cover make a hole since vinegar eels breathe air. After that wait a few weeks to months.

Feeding To Fish

Well after u start noticing small wormish looking things swimming on top and ur ready to feed to ur fish. Linda taught me this method and I personally like her idea beter than my original. This is what she does she gets a piece of cotton ties it with a string and places it in were the vinegar has stopped. Then she gets some water and fills it all the way to the neck waut a few days and on top were the clean water is u will see some little worms swimming around. after u got the ones that u want to collect. Get a eye dropper and suck the worms out after that feed them to ur fry.

This is recommended fo Newborn Fry

Vinegar Eels are not very visible in this picture
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Baby Brine Shrimp

Here's what you would need:

- 2L coke bottle (7up botttle works just as well... )
- Some airline tubing
- Air pump
- Air valve
- Some stones
- Desktop lamp
- Brine shrimp eggs (you can get this from eBay or aquabid.com)
- Baking soda
- Aquarium salt
- Coffee filter
- Plastic cup
- Syringe (without needles!)

Steps to build:
-----------------

1. Remove the advertising material off the bottle so that it is completely clear. Wash them thoroughly.
2. Cut off the bottle at around 1/3 way from the top. Make sure you keep the cap!
3. Punch a hole through the cap using philips screw driver. The size should be slightly narrower than the thickness of the tube.
4. Insert the tube into the cap - make sure the tube shows about 1/4 inch from the inside of the cap. Screw the cap into the bottle.
5. Connect the other end of the tube to a valve, then continue to the air pump. You must be able to adjust the amount of air fed into this setup!
6. Put the stones into the bottom part of the bottle. This is to make sure that the whole bottle doesn't get tipped over easily.
7. Insert the top 1/3 with the tubing upside down.

That's it for the setup! Nice and cheap...

How to use it:
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1. Add some water into the top 1/3, until it fills up up to about 1 inch below the top line.
2. Turn on the air pump and control the valve until you get about 5 bubbles per second. It does not need to be vigorous.
3. Add 1/3 - 1/2 teaspoon full of baking soda and aquarium salt. Brine shrimps can only be hatched in a salty water, so you must do this.
4. Add about 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoon full of brine shrimp eggs. 1/3 seems to be enough for 2 days worth. If you have more than 2 tanks of fries to feed, I suggest at least 1/2 if not more.
5. Leave them on for 1 to 2 days. If your room temp is 70F or better, it usually starts to hatch in 24 hours. Hotter means faster hatch, cooler means slower hatch. Once hatched, you can leave it for two days and during these two days, you can extract them as often as you like.

How to extract:
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1. Stop the air pump. Note that you will see bright orange specks moving randomly and quickly. You can't mistake this for anything else...
2. Face the table lamp near where the cap is. Baby brine shrimps get attracted to lights, so if you place the light near the bottom, they will all move towards the bottom. This step can take few minutes.
3. Place a coffee filter on top of a cup or another bottom portion of 2L bottle. Make sure the center is slightly sunk to accomodate some water without spiling over.
4. Insert the syringe into the water, near the bottom and extract shrimps into it. This needs a bit of practice as if you do it too quickly, you will suck in quite a lot of egg shells as well. Egg shells do float, so it isn't impossible to separate them later on.
5. Pour shrimps (and water) on top of the filter. Wait until all water have been filtered off.
6. Now you have a choice - you can either "wash" this filter directly into the tank where you want to feed the shrimps, or you can reverse the filter, place it on another cup, and shoot water using the syringe so that most of the shrimps will drop into the new cup.

There! Baby brine shrimps are one of the best food you can provide for pretty much all fries. In fact, most adult fishes also thrive on this food as well. Once setup, it will be one of the cheapest source of food as well if you buy a decent size can. I've been feeding my fries for the past year, and I've only used up 1/3 of the can I purchased while back. The can only costed me $15 or so.

BBSHatchery1.jpg

Hatchery

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Hatchery After Eggs Have Hatched

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BBS When Collected

Thanks To yhbae For The Information!
I just thought I should put it here! :nod:

OTHER SITES:
Waynes!
Pictures With Detail!

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If u got any more info u would like me to write in here PM me

Also I think the Admin/Mods should pin this topic for future help.

Also if u wish to purchase Microworms U could PM the following people
Emparathesis
Wuvmybetta
JoKeR

If u wish to purchase Blackworms U could PM me JoKeR

If U wish to purchase Grindal Worms check Aquabid or PM me

If U wish to purchase Vinegar Eels PM me
 
Hmm.. doesn't seem necessary, I've never heard that. -_- I just add a bit of warm water to mine and mix it up with the yeast, add the culture on top, and it's ready to go. :thumbs:
 
juliethegr8t said:
Hmm.. doesn't seem necessary, I've never heard that. -_- I just add a bit of warm water to mine and mix it up with the yeast, add the culture on top, and it's ready to go. :thumbs:
Should try that..

Inchworm said its best to cook it... :thumbs:

Thanks emparathesis.....
 
Hi juliethegr8t :)

Yes, I always cook the oatmeal. In fact I never heard about doing it any other way until now. :unsure:

Are we using the same kind of oatmeal? I always use the Old Fashioned, cook for 5 minutes kind. :D
 
I usually cook mine too.But I started using bread and I think it's much better,less smell.

Is this intended to be pinned?
 
I hope it does......

Ive been getting almost 5 emails asking me how to culture them.....

Ive got to send 2 boxes this week.... :look:
 
Has anyone ever tried using a cornmeal culture? :unsure: I'd like to give it a try and would defiantly do it if I knew how to prepare it.
 
I use baby oatmeal and mix it with cold non fat milk. Works great, my microworm cultures thrive! No cooking, no warm water, just pour a tad of milk into the oatmeal, mix and add to MW's container, sprinkle a bit of yeast on top and add some of the original culture onto of the oatmeal. Within 3 days the tub is covered in MW's. I guess there's a bit of smell but nothing horrible, I don't stick my nose into it, haha.

Linda
 
I use instant oatmeal. Perhaps that's the difference?? But I don't think so... -_- Hmm maybe I invented an easier way... :p
 
I think CuteCotton is gonna try on with cornmeal..

Im gonna do experiments this weekend
 
I've heard that they can be cultured on bread too, but never saw any specifics. How do you do it, wuv? Does it last very long, or go moldy? :unsure:
 
I just take a 1/2 loaf of sliced bread and break it into pieces,then get it moist with water and mix in the yeast. So far I've never had it mold and it lasts forever. When it starts to slow down after about 2 or 3 weeks, I just mix in a fresh bread/water/yeast combo and it picks right back up :thumbs: I restart one or two cultures now and then just to have a new one,like every month or so.
 

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