blackworm culture dying?

pik01 said:
If you have municipal water the chlorine may gas off but if your city adds chloramine to your water, it is more stable and will not gas off.
Click to expand...

Good point. I had forgotten about chloramine. I am on town water, so I'm not so sure any more about using aged water (sans Prime).

Does anyone have other ideas about what I could be doing wrong?
 
I'm not sure how relevant this is, but most people who keep or culture blackworms keep them in a very low water level. I'm not sure if this is because oxygen needs, or access to dry air, or what..

Or perhaps the burlap is causing trouble?
 
Alrighty. Water level is down to about 3 inches. I sure hope the burlap isn't the problem, because I have no idea how I could possibly get them all out of it. I used burlap because that's what one of the culturing write-ups said to use.

I just found another write-up saying they use liquid fry food at first until the substrate starts breaking down and grows a nice bacteria population. I don't have fry food, but maybe I should pulverize some flakes and mix it with water? I've just been crumbling the flakes as I drop them in. I figured they would break down fast enough, but maybe they don't.
 
I have read that if the water is too deep, they will drown, but I would think 3 inches is ok. I don't use water conditioner when I keep them to feed, I just fill up a 1 gallon jug with city water and put it in the frig to chill and use it the next day to replace their water, I have never had any problem keeping them alive for 3 or 4 weeks in the frig.
 
pam916 said:
I have read that if the water is too deep, they will drown, but I would think 3 inches is ok. I don't use water conditioner when I keep them to feed, I just fill up a 1 gallon jug with city water and put it in the frig to chill and use it the next day to replace their water, I have never had any problem keeping them alive for 3 or 4 weeks in the frig.
Click to expand...
Yes, I've read that chilled water is the way to go if you are just storing them. However, I'm trying to culture (breed) them so that I don't have to keep purchasing them and it is my understanding that they won't do that in frig temperatures.
 
Yes, that's by far the most helpful write-up I've found and is the reason I used burlap. The only difference between my setup and the setup they describe is that I used dechlorinated tap water, not bottled spring water. Seems crazy that the worms would be fussier about their water than anything else I keep, but I'll grab a bottle and give that a try.
 
I painstakingly removed the blackworms from the burlap and they seem to be doing better. Man, was that a pain. I'm sure I missed a bunch, but after a while my back was aching and there was water all over the floor and I just didn't care anymore.

I'm stumped as to how the burlap was causing a problem, but I'll just leave them without substrate for a while and hope for the population to rebound.

Thanks, everyone, for trying to help me unravel this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom