How to grow blackworms! I've had limited success...

[Smertrios]

A few years ago I bought some blackworms. I used most then left the rest in a rubbermaid near the sink and for years. I all but ignored it only doing water changes once in awhile and tossing in a bit of fish food. There were a few but not many worms and by the time I decided to do something with it again I had managed to get every planaria/leech out of the container leaving me with 2 distinct species of worm.

1 was undoubtly the blackworm although it was red in color. I dont know why but the new segments on my blackworms always grew red instead of black. The other type of worm was most likely tubifex which I nick named snotball worms =/

The tubifex would coil up on one end looking kinda like a pen spring when disturbed the blackworms would just twitch and flip around like... a blackworm. I eventually got rid of my tubifex culture I didn't like how hard it was to remove individuals from the snot ball they create and called home. When compared to the much cleaner and easier to seperate blackworms it was a no brainer to pick one over the other.

In anycase the key to reproduction is keeping the water fresh. I use bare glass tanks with a sponge filter and purina sinking catfish food. Thats about it... keep the water clean by changing it often and feed them => Doesn't take much food for a mass of worms either and its easy to judge if they are getting enough because they will disperse from the worm mass when the food is gone. Shouldn't take more than 2-3 days before your feeding them again AND changing the water. If after 3 days they are still in a mass break them up and get the old food out of there!

I have tried many different possibilities and no matter what if I dont change the water they stop growing and start to die.

 

[dbosman]

Here is a thread from 2009
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?214961-The-California-Blackworm

Here is a clip from[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] South Carolina Biological Supply House[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“California blackworms can be cultured and easily maintained in a small aquarium or deep pan filled with 23 inches of spring water (or aged tap water). At room temperature in the laboratory, populations double in about 34 weeks or less. Using a disposable plastic pipette, transfer a few dozen, undamaged, healthy worms into the aquarium. Never attempt to handle or transfer worms
with forceps or hooks. They are easily injured by these instruments. Next, add enough strips of brown paper towel to just cover the bottom of the container. The towel serves as a fibrous substrate of decomposing material, both for the worms and for numerous microscopic organisms that may cohabit the culture, such as bacteria, protozoans, rotifers, and ostracods.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Add sinking fish-food pellets as the primary food source for this simple aquatic ecosystem. Start by adding one or two pellets. After a few days, add one or two more, but only if the others have been consumed. Do not overfeed, since decomposition of uneaten food may contaminate the aquarium and cause a mass die-off of worms. Worms are not harmed, however, by irregular feeding or long periods of starvation.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Replace water lost to evaporation by adding spring water (or distilled water). I recommend continuous, gentle aeration, and this becomes increasingly important as biological decomposition of the paper occurs and as the worm population increases.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]As the paper towel disintegrates and waste residues accumulate, replace the culture water regularly (about every two weeks) by slowly decanting it down a drain. Be careful not to lose remaining paper and worms at the bottom. After rinsing the paper and worms again with spring water, and decanting, refill the aquarium to the original level and add new pieces of towel. I suggest the occasional "harvesting" of surplus worms; these can be used for classroom experiments, as live food for fish, or for starting duplicate cultures. I strongly advise the maintenance of at least one duplicate culture. If you follow these procedures, the worms reproduce continuously by asexual reproduction (fragmentation), and cultures may be sustained for years.”[/FONT]

 

[Smertrios]

I tried culturing with paper towels and it didn't work for me but maybe I was expecting too much in fact thats probably why I didn't like doing it that way =) Thanks for the link tho I forgot about that but I first saw that information on a different website that had some pictures. Wish I could remember where...

The only thing I am doing differently now is crushing the food pellets and sprinkling the fragments over the surface thats why the worms are not all in 1 clump. I'm hoping this helps them to eat and reproduce