[Killietalk] Grindal worms

[Michael Gray <emjaygray at gmail_com>]

There has been some talk of white worms and grindal worms recently.
I have trouble getting my grindal cultures to grow and produce reliably. I
think they are an excellent food just based on the fact that my killies love
them, they are the right size to be viable food for fish of (almost) all
ages. But I seem unable to work out what are the success factors for
culturing these worms. Some of my cultures thrive, some fail to take off,
and others thrive but then decline sharply after only a matter of weeks. I
cannot find any meaningful commonality between those cultures that succeed.

I am culturing at the moment in seed raising mix, in chinese food containers
approx 1L in volume. The container is filled to about 3-4 cm deep, the mix
is wet down well, and worms are added. Some containers have twice this depth
as an experiment, thereby reducing the airspace as well. Some have airholes,
some don't. The worms are fed kitten biscuits. Cultures are at room
temperature, which means probably about 18C to 25C, depending on the time of
day.

As I say, some cultures thrive, but others start well, only to slow
production drastically after a few weeks. This is evidenced initially by the
worms not finishing their usual amount of food, while containers either side
show no change. I have tried stirring the cultures up, and adding bicarb or
shellgrit when this happens, but this has only produced marginal improvement
so far. My understanding from archives and numerous FAQs is that a culture
'crashing' usually happens alot further down the road than the 2-3 weeks I'm
seeing. Do other people leave their cultures undisturbed, or periodically
churn up the medium?

Does anyone else have anything like this early die-back happen with their
grindals?

I am also curious as to other people's experience with how fast their
grindals have multiplied in general. Mine seem to reproduce slowly compared
to what has been written in FAQs, and certainly compared to recent white
worm posts that talk about ounces of worms a day! It's hard to get a handle
on how many worms are in a culture or starter, I've never counted myself,
but one way to compare might be how much they eat in a day. I have trouble
getting cultures to grow bigger than what will eat about 4-5 kitten biscuits
a day. From a culture eating 2 biscuits a day initially, it usually takes
about 2 weeks to get to this size, not feeding -from- the culture at all
during this time.

Also, it has been said that white worms are fattier than grindals, hence
grindals are preferable healthwise. Does anyone have any concrete info on
comparative nutritional profiles of these worms?

Thanks killifans!

- Mike
Sydney, Australia
Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/aka/modules/content/index.php?id=9.
Archives are at http://sable.actwin.com/pipermail/killietalk/
Modify your subscription at http://mailman.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo/killietalk