Here is a youtube clip I made of a developing Epiplatys rathkei egg: My epy clip
You can even see the blood pumping through the heart. Wish I still had that fish in my fishroom.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
My Microscope is Back
This shot was from nearly eight years ago when my Motic Microscope was still working. The Motic plugged right into a USB port, and the scope picture came up on the screen. You could take still pictures or videos, add a measuring stick, and add commentary. Then the computer became infected with a virus that stopped just about everything, and since the computer was old and SLOW, I bought a new one. The new computer had a new operating system that Motic did not support, so that was the end of the microscope fun.
Between yesterday and this morning I spent maybe three hours on the Web reading about getting rid of the old virus. Using rkill and Malwarebytes, I was successful in getting the old computer to run. It works the old Motic software and microscope just fine. Slow as molasses on the internet, but it will now be used only to drive the microscope. Hope to have new pictures soon and often.
Here are the rest of the pictures from 2006 and one from 2008:
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| Moina 3-31-06 |
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| Bosmina, 50 power |
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Electric Blue Crawfish
My first experience with the Electric Blue Crayfish, Procambarus alleni, was to purchase a bag of three adults at the Keystone Killie Club picnic held at my house on August 18, 2012. I got babies from that trio and raised them to adulthood, and got more babies again. All of this activity was with the crays all together in a 15 gallon tank. In that batch there was a berried female that I isolated to a 2 gallon tank, where she released all of her babies about a month later. Shortly after that I separated babies into various tanks and counted them during the process. 178 babies! I should be swimming in crawfish.
Over time, the general wisdom about the babies being cannibalistic proved to be true. Out of the brood of 178 babies, I managed to save only five to about the two inch size, less five that I was smart enough to sell as babies. So it was time to try to breed them, as no new berried females were noticed. I had separated my one large and five smaller adults to save them all. Figured out how to sex them, and discovered my problem. All males. Last month I visited with the buyer of my five babies. Alas, he had only one survivor, which also was a male. The seller of my original trio apparently has lost his crays, so I was in a pickle with six males. Having found no luck tracking down any crays at all in local stores, I started following Aquabid, where I had never had the courage to make a purchase. Well, now I had no choice.
http://onestopaquatics.com/ had several listings of blue crays, and after several email exchanges with Jerry, I arranged to buy five females at 8 dollars each, plus 17 dollars shipping. They arrived yesterday packed in separate little bags, and I left them overnight in small containers. One had actually shed during her trip in the mailing box. This was my first transaction with Aquabid, and I think it and One Stop to be good for more business.
Here is a good site for info on blue crays: Aqua-terra Crayfish care. There is useful info on how to breed the crays, so I put a female in with a male, and he tried to mate with her immediately. He was aggressive, and pulled off a claw, so I removed the female to a separate tank to recover. A second female went in with a Form II male, and no mating occurred within twenty minutes. The female was a bit small anyway, so she went to a grow out tank. A third pairing resulted in breeding behavior immediately, and the female was within the male's embrace for about 15 minutes. Upon separation, she was moved to an isolation tank where she hopefully will berry after receiving a sperm packet from the mating. The female that had molted in the bag is in an isolation tank to harden off before I try to breed her. A fourth female was put in with a different male that turned out to be very aggressive, so she was taken out. Upon further reflection, I concluded that the females would benefit from resting and feeding after their shipping experience. So after day one:
Female #1: Claw ripped off, put to recovery
Female #2: In with Form II male, put to grow out tank
Female #3: Apparently successful mating, put to separate tank to berry
Female #4: Smallish, put to grow out tank
Female #5: Smallish, put to grow out tank
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| My largest male, December 20th, 2014 |
http://onestopaquatics.com/ had several listings of blue crays, and after several email exchanges with Jerry, I arranged to buy five females at 8 dollars each, plus 17 dollars shipping. They arrived yesterday packed in separate little bags, and I left them overnight in small containers. One had actually shed during her trip in the mailing box. This was my first transaction with Aquabid, and I think it and One Stop to be good for more business.
Here is a good site for info on blue crays: Aqua-terra Crayfish care. There is useful info on how to breed the crays, so I put a female in with a male, and he tried to mate with her immediately. He was aggressive, and pulled off a claw, so I removed the female to a separate tank to recover. A second female went in with a Form II male, and no mating occurred within twenty minutes. The female was a bit small anyway, so she went to a grow out tank. A third pairing resulted in breeding behavior immediately, and the female was within the male's embrace for about 15 minutes. Upon separation, she was moved to an isolation tank where she hopefully will berry after receiving a sperm packet from the mating. The female that had molted in the bag is in an isolation tank to harden off before I try to breed her. A fourth female was put in with a different male that turned out to be very aggressive, so she was taken out. Upon further reflection, I concluded that the females would benefit from resting and feeding after their shipping experience. So after day one:
Female #1: Claw ripped off, put to recovery
Female #2: In with Form II male, put to grow out tank
Female #3: Apparently successful mating, put to separate tank to berry
Female #4: Smallish, put to grow out tank
Female #5: Smallish, put to grow out tank
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| Same cray from above |
Friday, October 31, 2014
My Fishroom Notes
3/27/17 Started feeding some scuds to bochtleri, sheeli, misage, and splendopluere. All of those chased down the scuds.
1/30/17 Moved plants and Funge pair from Box B. Never found any eggs in the plants in the box. The Funge had not been eating the glassworms, so I sucked out as many as I could catch.
1/16/2017 I bought Hypsolebias sertanejo Itacarambi and Hypsolebias alternatus Brasilandia BR 2014-07 eggs at the Keystone meeting on Saturday 1/14/2017. Both bags of eggs were collected on October 1, 2016, so I put half of the peat from the bags into separate containers with a little water added on at about 3:00 PM on 1/15/17.
11/2/16 Added dry oak leaves to several breeding set ups.
5/30/16 Found two tiny dageti fry in empty Box D! Neither survived as of 11/2/16.
5/16/16 Female dageti dead in Box D. Moved male to a 2 1/2 gallon tank.
5/11/16 Cleaned some algae out of Box D that has had a pair of Epyplatys dageti for at least six months with no babies. Added several sprigs of horn wort, Ceratophyllum demersum.
4/20/16 Checked breeder box C for sheeli eggs. Removed two eggs!! Maybe it is a start.
4/12/16 Pair of Aph sheeli moved from 5 1/2 gallon tank to breeder box C with some java moss to make a push for collecting eggs. Never had a natural spawn from the pair.
1/17/16 The two large Aph sheeli males were taken to the January meeting for Gary Haas. Unfortunately, the large male killed the largest of the female juvies in just the short time he was paired with her. Took one of the two pair from a 5 gallon in the front room and moved that pair to the sheeli tank that was vacated in the back. Any babies that might hatch from the deceased female would be the same strain.
Clay Crawford emailed me to see if I still had the sheeli, as Mike T no longer has them. I asked Clay if he would like a pair in March. Then I could pull a pair of the parents to see if babies would hatch in the vacated tank.
12/24/15 Moving Aph sheeli around: The seven red dot juvies of 2/23 and 2/24 survived to be 3 males and two females. In addition there were an earlier three juvies in back that are now all good sized females. The largest female was paired with a large male on the south wall 5 gallon tank. Hope she survives the pretty aggressive male. A small male was discovered in the breeding tank out front that had only a large male left. Two of the front three tanks now have young pairs, and the third tank has 2 pair. The odd large male is being kept for Gary Haas for the January meeting.
12/19/15 The two smaller shrimp in the ten gallon tank are starting to color and appear to have saddles forming. The largest of the three is definitely a saddled female. I caught one of two shrimp from the 2 1/2 gallon that appear to be non colored males. Moved him to the ten gallon tank, so that is now a quartet. The 2 1/2 now has a suspected male, two berried females, a saddled female, and a suspected female.
12/15/15 Moved young pair of Red Dot Sheeli to 5 gallon tank in front room, middle shelf.
12/9/15 Caught about 18 scuds from tank in back with Red Cherry Shrimp using a piece of cucumber in a weighed down peanut butter jar. Moved about 9 to the 2 1/2 gallon tank on the bottom rack in the front room, and moved the others to a 2 1/2 gallon plastic tank in back. Maybe I will at least get fish food from those unused tanks.
12/5/15 One of the female shrimp in the 2 1/2 gallon tank is berried. Judging by her size, she may be the original mother shrimp. Saw two differently colored shrimp in the 10 gallon tank, so I assume I now have a trio there.
12/3/15 Was going to use flat grow out box from 11/11/15 Dageti, but it has at least two tiny babies. Starting them on some mini worms that popped up in a grindal culture. The two cherry shrimp from 11/21/15 now appear to be two females. Added a supposed male from the 2 1/2 gallon tank. Also added a pair of P. annulatus to the 10 gallon tank with the three shrimp.
11/21/15 Caught what appear to be a pair of cherry shrimp (coloration of one more intense and curved underbelly) from the 2 1/2 gallon tank that has five or six babies and the mother shrimp. The two were moved to a 10 gallon tank on the front stand. There seem to be three small males and two larger female juvies still in the 2 1/2 gallon tank.
11/11/15 Moved trio of Dageti from flat grow out box to 2 1/2 tank on back rack.
4/21/15 Harvested first mosquito larvae today, before they went to the bullet stage. I am getting rid of the big containers with water, that is anything above 5 gallons because it is too tedious to harvest them frequently to prevent the flying buggers. But after seeing again today how much the fish love them, I will maintain a number of smaller containers.
1/20/15 Saw first baby in the vacated Misaje tank! Proves the pair is fertile. Three weeks for a baby to appear, I was getting doubtful. The pair has been spawning actively in the new tank, so hopefully I can rebuild the Misaje population.
1/4/15 Moved floating bunch of java moss in 5 gallon tank that had the dageti and found two tiny fry at the surface. Also noted a larger fry with nice belly.
Checked the 15 gallon tank with one male and three female Epiplatys infrafasciatus infrafasciatus and thought there was a fry at the surface in some grass. Indeed there was! This is the first fry in over a year.
12/31/14 Moved trio of Dageti from 5 gallon out front to 2 1/2 gallon in back. The one baby found in breeding tank from 11/30/14 did not survive, probably starved.
Moved pair of spoorenbergi to adjacent tank and added a plump female for a breeding trio. Tank left to age to check for future babies. Never got any babies from tank vacated 10/25/14, which is now again the breeding tank.
Adult male and female Aph. sheeli red dot that have been kept separately were paired today in a five gallon tank. Breeding behavior noticed immediately.
12/30/14 Noticed a single baby three days ago in the Aph sheeli red dot tank with parents bought 10/11/14 from Mike T. Should have tried to catch the baby then, as I have not seen it since. Drained two thirds of the tank this morning, and caught four babies! Put two each into separate grow out containers. Left the parents in the tank.
Moved the two remaining Aph calliurum juveniles to the tank with the other two. Have not seen any other babies in the tank with the parents.
Removed pair of Fd misaje from breeding tank with water lettuce set up 12/3/14. Put back into breeding tank that has been vacant since 12/3 with no babies found.
12/30/14 Two of the goldfish have died, but I am getting green water so the daphnia are doing well. The goldfish did not knock the duckweed down, so I have been removing it from the tank. Maybe the last fish will clean up duckweed stragglers.
12/2/14 Bought three goldfish for $.32 each at Petsmart to try to get a 10 gallon tank to go to green water for daphnia food. Also a way to use duckweed.
11/30/14 Found and moved one baby dageti from the parents off tank. Proves that trio to be fertile.
11/14/14 Moved four of the five cherry shrimp to a 10 gallon with newly installed sponge filter. Put in the java moss that had been in their holding tank in case it has baby shrimp. The one female that apparently is berried was moved into the five gallon tank with four albino incistrus.
11/13/14 Caught two more Aph calliurum babies and moved to separate grow out container. Now makes a total of four babies, with the first two much larger than the two caught today.
11/8/14 The monthly meeting was hosted by Jack Lafayette at his home in Reading. He has a lot of bigger tanks, many with rift lake cichlids. Bought a bag of unsexed juvenile Aplocheilus linneatus F3 from Lee Harper for $5 and a bag of 5 cherry shrimp from Gary Haas for $5. Several of the shrimp are berried.
Bought a pound block of frozen brine shrimp. All fish took to it immediately.
Got two male Aph bit ijebu ode males from Lee Harper. Paired them with my two lonely females in separate 2 1/2 breeder tanks.
10/31/14 Single small baby Aph calliurum spotted in tank with trio from Tony Kline from purchase at September 2014 meeting. This was the first baby spotted.
Pair of Epy dageti moved from 2 1/2 gallon to five gallon with single male, forming a reverse trio to try to breed. The 2 1/2 left set up to check for babies.
Scriptaphyosemion schmitti juarzon male moved to singles tank. Was dead by evening. Solved that lonely heart problem.
Male and female Fd gardneri misaje raised separately were paired in 5 gallon tank vacated by schmitti. Still have a single female that should be put in rotation.
The larger female in the spoorenbergi trio has been a little beaten. Moved her over a tank to recover.
10/25/14 Removed breeding trio of spoorenbergi from their tank. Put male in with the other two females, and moved the females from his trio to another tank to fatten up. Some of the floating plants from their breeding tank were moved to a 2 1/2 gallon holding tank to see if some babies might hatch.
10/1/14 Same old story. One male spoorenbergi died.
9/20/14 Got 2 pair of Fd spoorenbergi from Gary Greenwood. I really like this species and want to establish it in my fishroom. The last time I bought two pair, one male jumped and the other died a short time after purchase. Still had two females surviving, so now have two trios.
Also bought pair of Scriptaphyosemion schmitti juarzon from Gary. Female did not look happy and died a few days later.
1/30/17 Moved plants and Funge pair from Box B. Never found any eggs in the plants in the box. The Funge had not been eating the glassworms, so I sucked out as many as I could catch.
1/16/2017 I bought Hypsolebias sertanejo Itacarambi and Hypsolebias alternatus Brasilandia BR 2014-07 eggs at the Keystone meeting on Saturday 1/14/2017. Both bags of eggs were collected on October 1, 2016, so I put half of the peat from the bags into separate containers with a little water added on at about 3:00 PM on 1/15/17.
By 9:00 AM 1/16/17 I have two baby sertanejo that I have moved to a separate container with infusuria and cyclops. Unhatched eggs can still be seen in the peat at the bottom of the hatching container, so I will give it more time.
None of the alternatus have hatched by 10:00 AM, but an inspection of the peat in the hatching container revealed at least 1/2 a dozen eggs, with some appearing to be eyed up. They will stay in the container for awhile longer.
But yahoo, I have babies from purchased eggs! That's a new one for me as I have not tried very often to hatch eggs.
11/2/16 Added dry oak leaves to several breeding set ups.
5/30/16 Found two tiny dageti fry in empty Box D! Neither survived as of 11/2/16.
5/16/16 Female dageti dead in Box D. Moved male to a 2 1/2 gallon tank.
5/11/16 Cleaned some algae out of Box D that has had a pair of Epyplatys dageti for at least six months with no babies. Added several sprigs of horn wort, Ceratophyllum demersum.
4/20/16 Checked breeder box C for sheeli eggs. Removed two eggs!! Maybe it is a start.
4/12/16 Pair of Aph sheeli moved from 5 1/2 gallon tank to breeder box C with some java moss to make a push for collecting eggs. Never had a natural spawn from the pair.
1/17/16 The two large Aph sheeli males were taken to the January meeting for Gary Haas. Unfortunately, the large male killed the largest of the female juvies in just the short time he was paired with her. Took one of the two pair from a 5 gallon in the front room and moved that pair to the sheeli tank that was vacated in the back. Any babies that might hatch from the deceased female would be the same strain.
Clay Crawford emailed me to see if I still had the sheeli, as Mike T no longer has them. I asked Clay if he would like a pair in March. Then I could pull a pair of the parents to see if babies would hatch in the vacated tank.
12/24/15 Moving Aph sheeli around: The seven red dot juvies of 2/23 and 2/24 survived to be 3 males and two females. In addition there were an earlier three juvies in back that are now all good sized females. The largest female was paired with a large male on the south wall 5 gallon tank. Hope she survives the pretty aggressive male. A small male was discovered in the breeding tank out front that had only a large male left. Two of the front three tanks now have young pairs, and the third tank has 2 pair. The odd large male is being kept for Gary Haas for the January meeting.
12/19/15 The two smaller shrimp in the ten gallon tank are starting to color and appear to have saddles forming. The largest of the three is definitely a saddled female. I caught one of two shrimp from the 2 1/2 gallon that appear to be non colored males. Moved him to the ten gallon tank, so that is now a quartet. The 2 1/2 now has a suspected male, two berried females, a saddled female, and a suspected female.
12/15/15 Moved young pair of Red Dot Sheeli to 5 gallon tank in front room, middle shelf.
12/9/15 Caught about 18 scuds from tank in back with Red Cherry Shrimp using a piece of cucumber in a weighed down peanut butter jar. Moved about 9 to the 2 1/2 gallon tank on the bottom rack in the front room, and moved the others to a 2 1/2 gallon plastic tank in back. Maybe I will at least get fish food from those unused tanks.
12/5/15 One of the female shrimp in the 2 1/2 gallon tank is berried. Judging by her size, she may be the original mother shrimp. Saw two differently colored shrimp in the 10 gallon tank, so I assume I now have a trio there.
12/3/15 Was going to use flat grow out box from 11/11/15 Dageti, but it has at least two tiny babies. Starting them on some mini worms that popped up in a grindal culture. The two cherry shrimp from 11/21/15 now appear to be two females. Added a supposed male from the 2 1/2 gallon tank. Also added a pair of P. annulatus to the 10 gallon tank with the three shrimp.
11/21/15 Caught what appear to be a pair of cherry shrimp (coloration of one more intense and curved underbelly) from the 2 1/2 gallon tank that has five or six babies and the mother shrimp. The two were moved to a 10 gallon tank on the front stand. There seem to be three small males and two larger female juvies still in the 2 1/2 gallon tank.
11/11/15 Moved trio of Dageti from flat grow out box to 2 1/2 tank on back rack.
4/21/15 Harvested first mosquito larvae today, before they went to the bullet stage. I am getting rid of the big containers with water, that is anything above 5 gallons because it is too tedious to harvest them frequently to prevent the flying buggers. But after seeing again today how much the fish love them, I will maintain a number of smaller containers.
1/20/15 Saw first baby in the vacated Misaje tank! Proves the pair is fertile. Three weeks for a baby to appear, I was getting doubtful. The pair has been spawning actively in the new tank, so hopefully I can rebuild the Misaje population.
1/4/15 Moved floating bunch of java moss in 5 gallon tank that had the dageti and found two tiny fry at the surface. Also noted a larger fry with nice belly.
Checked the 15 gallon tank with one male and three female Epiplatys infrafasciatus infrafasciatus and thought there was a fry at the surface in some grass. Indeed there was! This is the first fry in over a year.
12/31/14 Moved trio of Dageti from 5 gallon out front to 2 1/2 gallon in back. The one baby found in breeding tank from 11/30/14 did not survive, probably starved.
Moved pair of spoorenbergi to adjacent tank and added a plump female for a breeding trio. Tank left to age to check for future babies. Never got any babies from tank vacated 10/25/14, which is now again the breeding tank.
Adult male and female Aph. sheeli red dot that have been kept separately were paired today in a five gallon tank. Breeding behavior noticed immediately.
12/30/14 Noticed a single baby three days ago in the Aph sheeli red dot tank with parents bought 10/11/14 from Mike T. Should have tried to catch the baby then, as I have not seen it since. Drained two thirds of the tank this morning, and caught four babies! Put two each into separate grow out containers. Left the parents in the tank.
Moved the two remaining Aph calliurum juveniles to the tank with the other two. Have not seen any other babies in the tank with the parents.
Removed pair of Fd misaje from breeding tank with water lettuce set up 12/3/14. Put back into breeding tank that has been vacant since 12/3 with no babies found.
12/30/14 Two of the goldfish have died, but I am getting green water so the daphnia are doing well. The goldfish did not knock the duckweed down, so I have been removing it from the tank. Maybe the last fish will clean up duckweed stragglers.
12/2/14 Bought three goldfish for $.32 each at Petsmart to try to get a 10 gallon tank to go to green water for daphnia food. Also a way to use duckweed.
11/30/14 Found and moved one baby dageti from the parents off tank. Proves that trio to be fertile.
11/14/14 Moved four of the five cherry shrimp to a 10 gallon with newly installed sponge filter. Put in the java moss that had been in their holding tank in case it has baby shrimp. The one female that apparently is berried was moved into the five gallon tank with four albino incistrus.
11/13/14 Caught two more Aph calliurum babies and moved to separate grow out container. Now makes a total of four babies, with the first two much larger than the two caught today.
11/8/14 The monthly meeting was hosted by Jack Lafayette at his home in Reading. He has a lot of bigger tanks, many with rift lake cichlids. Bought a bag of unsexed juvenile Aplocheilus linneatus F3 from Lee Harper for $5 and a bag of 5 cherry shrimp from Gary Haas for $5. Several of the shrimp are berried.
Bought a pound block of frozen brine shrimp. All fish took to it immediately.
Got two male Aph bit ijebu ode males from Lee Harper. Paired them with my two lonely females in separate 2 1/2 breeder tanks.
10/31/14 Single small baby Aph calliurum spotted in tank with trio from Tony Kline from purchase at September 2014 meeting. This was the first baby spotted.
Pair of Epy dageti moved from 2 1/2 gallon to five gallon with single male, forming a reverse trio to try to breed. The 2 1/2 left set up to check for babies.
Scriptaphyosemion schmitti juarzon male moved to singles tank. Was dead by evening. Solved that lonely heart problem.
Male and female Fd gardneri misaje raised separately were paired in 5 gallon tank vacated by schmitti. Still have a single female that should be put in rotation.
The larger female in the spoorenbergi trio has been a little beaten. Moved her over a tank to recover.
10/25/14 Removed breeding trio of spoorenbergi from their tank. Put male in with the other two females, and moved the females from his trio to another tank to fatten up. Some of the floating plants from their breeding tank were moved to a 2 1/2 gallon holding tank to see if some babies might hatch.
10/1/14 Same old story. One male spoorenbergi died.
9/20/14 Got 2 pair of Fd spoorenbergi from Gary Greenwood. I really like this species and want to establish it in my fishroom. The last time I bought two pair, one male jumped and the other died a short time after purchase. Still had two females surviving, so now have two trios.
Also bought pair of Scriptaphyosemion schmitti juarzon from Gary. Female did not look happy and died a few days later.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Keeping Blackworms Alive
My typical method for keeping blackworms is to buy 1/2 pound for around seven dollars, rinse them, drain out most of the water, then keep them in the bag in my downstairs fishroom fridge. Use some over the next few days, do a couple of rinses, then forget. When the fridge begins to smell, it is time to once again own up to the fact that I blew another seven dollars.
Our Keystone Killie Group meeting last week was at Jack LaFayette's house in Reading, PA. Jack keeps his blackworms in a fifty gallon aquarium with just a few inches of water. He does make occasional water changes, and does keep his worms alive. Having seen his set up, I decided to try my luck with my newest 1/2 pound of blackworms by keeping them in my fishroom.
Not having a 50 gallon tank in waiting, I decided to try a two gallon set up instead! I rinsed the worms, then put them in the little plastic aquarium with a small sponge filter made by Aquarium Technology. I am sure that that oxygen delivered from the sponge filter is critical to the keeping of the worms.
I was expecting a bloody mess after day one, but the water was not too bad. I discarded the water, rinsed the worms, then added aged rain water. So far, so good.
This is a picture of the blackworm tank taken this morning before a water change. I have changed the water maybe three times this week, using the spent water to feed my daphnia. Note how clean the water is after the first week.
Here is the tank before changing the water. Note the filter at the right part of the picture.
This is a picture of some of my daphnia containers after I had used the spent blackworm water to fill them back up. I had run half of the water from each container through a brine shrimp net to capture the daphnia. The spent daphnia water was used to refill the blackworm tank.
I have a couple more of the little sponge filters to run other experiments. Currently I am not feeding the blackworms, so their nutritional value as a fishfood should decrease over time. I would like to set up more tanks at a lesser density of worms and feed them to see if I can actually cultivate blackworms.
But so far, so good. Have not blown this last batch of worms. Jack, thanks for the inspiration and motivation to try this approach.
Our Keystone Killie Group meeting last week was at Jack LaFayette's house in Reading, PA. Jack keeps his blackworms in a fifty gallon aquarium with just a few inches of water. He does make occasional water changes, and does keep his worms alive. Having seen his set up, I decided to try my luck with my newest 1/2 pound of blackworms by keeping them in my fishroom.
Not having a 50 gallon tank in waiting, I decided to try a two gallon set up instead! I rinsed the worms, then put them in the little plastic aquarium with a small sponge filter made by Aquarium Technology. I am sure that that oxygen delivered from the sponge filter is critical to the keeping of the worms.
I was expecting a bloody mess after day one, but the water was not too bad. I discarded the water, rinsed the worms, then added aged rain water. So far, so good.
This is a picture of the blackworm tank taken this morning before a water change. I have changed the water maybe three times this week, using the spent water to feed my daphnia. Note how clean the water is after the first week.
Here is the tank before changing the water. Note the filter at the right part of the picture.
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| Worms like to congregate on the filter |
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| Filter with worms in small plastic container |
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| Worms that fell from filter, ready to feed to fish |
This is a picture of some of my daphnia containers after I had used the spent blackworm water to fill them back up. I had run half of the water from each container through a brine shrimp net to capture the daphnia. The spent daphnia water was used to refill the blackworm tank.
 |
| Back in operation. No fuss, no smell. |
I have a couple more of the little sponge filters to run other experiments. Currently I am not feeding the blackworms, so their nutritional value as a fishfood should decrease over time. I would like to set up more tanks at a lesser density of worms and feed them to see if I can actually cultivate blackworms.
But so far, so good. Have not blown this last batch of worms. Jack, thanks for the inspiration and motivation to try this approach.
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