Re: [Killietalk] How wet to keep the 'scrubby pad' grindal worms

[Barry Cooper <bjc3 at centurytel_net>]

Matt,

I suspect that by scrubbies you mean the white poly pads like I use? 
Anyway, to answer your questions:

I recommend keeping them just damp, with just enough water such that 
when you tip the culture just a little free water will run into a 
corner. When I start cultures, I put a 1" thick pad of the poly material 
in after rinsing it and squeezing it out, then I add about 50 ml of 
water. See my article in the Library section of aka.org.

I start new cultures by adding a very hefty squirt of worms collected 
from another culture, right on top of a single pellet of kitten food. It 
takes 2-3 weeks to get a culture going strong, gradually adding more 
food, but once they do you should have large quantities of worms 
available. Each of my current cultures consumes about 15 or more cat 
food pellets a day. I like to collect the worms while there is still 
some cat food in the container, so that I can be sure the worms are gut 
loaded with the stuff. I pick off any free lumps of cat food to avoid 
putting it in the tanks.

My cultures on poly pad can last up to a couple of years! I rarely 
change water and I don't mist them. The only way I add water is that I 
rinse off the worms from the glass or plexi that covers the culture, 
then put that back while still wet.

Definitely do NOT have a pool of water around the worms, at least if you 
follow my method, using about 1" thick pad. With a thicker pad you might 
need more water, but the biggest reason for failure, in my opinion, is 
to "drown" the worms by using too much water. I'm not sure if they 
really drown, but the cultures don't survive if too wet.

Barry

Barry J. Cooper
Sweet Home, OR 97386



matt kaufman wrote:
> Mark Pearlscott, may his name be praised, gave me a started scrubby-pad grindal worm culture on Saturday, and it's been 4 days, and it's still alive! And the worms appear to be thriving! THis is by far the longest success
> I've had with a non-dirt culture. Dirt cultures have worked for me, but all get mited and infested with those @#$ at #$@# gnats eventually. My dirt cultures I kept pretty damp. They lasted longer if I had some red wigglers in with them.
>  
>  
> Questions for the list: How wet to keep it -> mist it down each day? Once in a while? Keep a pool of water around the pad? 
> Feeding: Feed when the food disappears? I have some kitten chow that appears to be a big hit.
> Subculture: Advice I got was, just soak another pad in water, and put it atop the existing culture, and wait for it to be colonized. I'd like to start another culture and get it going before feeding too heavily from the one I have.
>  
> I have the culture in a large rubbermaid container with a tight lid. I drilled a couple holes in the lid and stuck in those plugs you use for the fruit fly cultures (open cell foam I guess.) So far, so good. Hopefully those wretched gnats don't show up.
>  
> Oh, and the fish adore the live food. 
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