[Prev][Next][Index]
Re: black worms
I'm forever trying to establish new and interesting ways to do things that
don't work -- to that end, I tried the black-worm-in-the-substrate approach
last year in a 10gal test-tank. The substrate was a mix of potting soil,
peat, and laterite covered with a thin (too thin, as it happened) layer of
gravel. One would think this would be a worm-paradise. Anyway, I let
them go and some, if not most, made it past the festivum fry that lived in
the tank. I never saw 'em again - not even when I tore the tank down
a few months later.
It could be an isolated observation, but my experience is that if you put
live black worms in your substrate all you'll get is dead black worms
in your substrate.
My advice is that you ought to see if the little buggers can even live in
a tank before loosing them in your bigger tanks -- set up a 10gal job
similar to your main tank's substrate conditions, a couple plants and
maybe one mid or top-water fish to keep things honest. See how things
go for a few weeks or months & then tear down the tank and see if you
find more worms than you put in.
- Steve
------
Steve Benz (steveb at realtime_net) | Pragma Systems, Inc.
Author of ZipPiz, a Windows utility for unpacking downloaded archives.
http://www.ccsi.com/~pragma/zippiz.html | ftp://ftp.ccsi.com/pub/pragma