Whiteworms?

[pictus]

Hi guys. I'm in Pta and I have looked all over for a whiteworm starter culture? Does anyone know where I could get?

[Vis]

Darryn was going to send some to a few people but he has gone missing for the last month. Do not know
if someone got some though.

[snyper564]

im looking for some to :)

[Dirk Bellstedt]

I have a culture, but it needs rejuvenation after my visit to Madagascar, I need to start new cultures. Give me 3 to 4 weeks and then ask me again and I will most probably be able to help you.

Kind regards,

Dirk

[Stormer]

*bump*

What exactly is whiteworm cultures for?,can i feed them to my young convicts?,can they live in my filter?

[Dirk Bellstedt]

Whiteworms are highly nutritious foods for any tropical fishes, but they must be fed with extreme care. They are rich in proteins and particularly in fats, but they completely lack any roughage which is dangerous to say the least.

A simple comparison to the value of white worms for feeding of tropical fishes is to compare it to the foods that we eat. Let is say that you were a poor undernourished sucker and you would eat a hamburger and chips. Obviously, this would do you a lot of good. However, if you were to go and eat a burger and chips every night, then this would have its negative consequences as you would possibly become overweight, be constipated and would most likely developed artherosclerosis and suffer a heart attack.

This is exactly what applies when feeding white worms to fishes. If you have sensitive fishes such as discus that struggle to get into breeding condition, then feeding white worms makes a lot of sense. However, you would NEVER only feed white worms even to discus and you need to feed some other foods which supply roughage. However, if I am to be quite honest, convict cichlids are of the hardiest tropical fishes that you can find and feeding them white worms would be a waste. They can eat any high quality food and will breed like rabbits and grow like weeds, so for convicts this would not be worth the effort because growing white worms is not all that easy.

Finally, they will very definitely NOT grow in your filter as they are definitely not aquatic worms. They need an aerated medium and cannot survive for more than a few minutes under water.

Kind regards,

Dirk

[Stormer]

Okay,thanks Prof Dirk.

P.S Is a white worm cultre the same thing as an micro worm culture?

Sorry for all the questions but i never had any worm cultures.

[Dirk Bellstedt]

No, a white worm culture is very definitely not the same as a micro worm culture.

There are other worms as well, grindal worms, banana worms and a few more, do some googling. They require very different conditions for culturing them, particularly with regard to temperature and they differ very much in size therefore they are used for fishes of different sizes.

Kind regards,

Dirk

[Stormer]

okay,thank you very much Dirk.

[Zippy320]

What does a white worm look like?

[oscar freak]

I got some in my tank u can have them

[Khalid]

make Google images your friend

[Dirk Bellstedt]

Zippy,

Google on the internet, there are loads of pics!

Oscar freak,

White worms last for about 5 minutes in a tank so I do not think that you have them in your tank.

Kind regards,

Dirk

[oscar freak]

Its a worm and its white lol

[Linxie]

Hi Oscar Freak. Google detritus worms and see if it isn't those. I have them in my pico :(

[oscar freak]

they harmless is what i hear linxie

[Stormer]

I have white worms against my 300L glass and i have tiny black worms swimming in the tank.Parasite perhaps? (the black ones)

[Marco]

no Stormer, dont worry, those are called plantaria. You can google it

[Gareth]

I got rid of the white with some guppies and corries, they munched them off the glass.