RE: White worm culture

["Tranquility Base" <TranquilityBase at NetZero_Net>]

Hi Barry,

There is no confusion, white worms do better at warmer temps in synthetic
cultures. There is a big difference between synthetic cultures and dirt
cultures. In dirt cultures White worms grow larger than grindle worms, in
synthetic the reverse is true. Of course in synthetic cultures you are
harvesting every day or two so they really do not have time to get very
large.

I believe that the difference is primarily the source of water. In a dirt
culture, high temps cause evaporation that reduces the water available to
the worms in a synthetic culture the evaporation/humidity is the water that
the worms actually live on.

White worms do much better than grindel worms in synthetic cultures.
Grindels seem to undergo a boom and bust cycle. Just when they start
producing well, poof everything is dead. White worm cultures can be
maintained for years. I maintain seven shoe box white worm cultures that
feed my entire setup. I get one to two golf balls of worms every day in the
summer, less in winter. I keep 4 grindel worm cultures that produce very
little in comparison.

Peace,

~RJ~

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-killietalk at aka_org [mailto:owner-killietalk at aka_org]On
Behalf Of Barry Cooper
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 2:29 PM
To: killietalk at aka_org
Subject: Re: White worm culture


At 11:10 AM 11/1/2002 -0800, you wrote:


>Tish KB wrote:
>
>regarding brown mites:


You may want to try placing a mothball in the culture. Just stick in one
corner of the container. I have friends in the UK who swear that this will
control mites. I can tell you that I have used mothballs to try to control
little flies that get in my grindal worm cultures.  The mothballs do not
harm the grindal worms, so I doubt that they would harm the white worms.

I have seen some comments about white worms doing well at high
temperatures, like in the 70s and 80s. To my knowledge that goes against
all conventional wisdom. White worms do best in the mid-50s to low 60s, and
cultures will at best hang on in the 70s. That has been consistent with my
experience.

Grindal worms, in contrast, do well in the mid- to high 70s. I wonder if
there has been some confusion in the identity of the worms being discussed.
White worms are considerably bigger than grindal worms. On the other hand,
I find grindal worms easier to culture under my conditions and I can
produce enough to feed my whole fishroom regularly. They are also a great
size for fish larger than about 15 mm, and they're useful for even full
grown nothos.

I don't do white worms any more as I have ready access to black worms.

Barry


Barry J. Cooper, Prof. Emeritus, Dept. Biomedical Sciences, Cornell
University
Adjunct faculty, College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University
Home address: 27505 Riggs Hill Rd., Sweet Home, OR 97386 (bjc3 at cornell_edu)


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