My Detritis worm culture

[brewmaster15]

Thought I'd share my latest "project".. Started a Naidid worm colony. I have gotten very interested in various live food culture and the mad scientist in me has been experimenting again. You probably have seen these worms in your tanks from time to time. They are swim around like a tiny snake undulating in the water. They are harmless tank denizens that live off the detritis waste in the tank. The live in filters , substrate if you have it. You often see them if you medicate the fish when it irritates them. If you have substrate they may poke out of the substrates a bit if the dissolved Oxygen is low. High numbers may indicate you need to up your maintenance. I have one tank of pleco fry here that are eating machines and waste making demons. As a result theres always mulm and the sponges always need cleaning. Where the tank is I use a bucket to do water changes. I saw a few of these worms and started collecting them. I now have a pretty decent colony going. They behave similar to blackworms and They are a fraction of their size. Perfect size for alot of small fry.

I figured it was worth trying to culture them and so far its been going well. They are particularly fond of my pellets which they form a feeding ball around. I believe they use Chemotaxis (chemical signals) to find their food...which explains the clumping.I think they also give off a chemical signal because they will ignore some food if I spread it out...preferring to feed in a mass of worms

You can read more about them here..

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/130960-Naididae

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/naididae

al

[brewmaster15]

Some pics from my phone..

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[brewmaster15]

I haven't quite figured out a species yet but for now I will just call them Naidid

[brewmaster15]

They don't really like the microscope light it throws off alot of heat. In this pic you can see the worms abandoning the pellet of food. As soon as I remove it from the microscope the return to the pellet.

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Al

[LizStreithorst]

Let me know how it goes. It's not a food that rings my bell, though.

[brewmaster15]

I wish I had a better microscope I really can't take a decent pic through the eye piece.

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[brewmaster15]

Let me know how it goes. It's not a food that rings my bell, though.
Why not?

[LizStreithorst]

I don't really know. I have pleco fry and newborn Mystery Snails that might eat them, but they do well with what I'm giving them. But I no longer have Discus fry.

[brewmaster15]

I don't really know. I have pleco fry and newborn Mystery Snails that might eat them, but they do well with what I'm giving them. But I no longer have Discus fry.

Oh I see. For me they are perfect for alot of different fish fry... they are tiny. I havent found any nutritional analysis but these are in the same family as tubifex I would guess similar profile. And since cultured from my tanks I dont have to worry about heavymetals, parasites, toxic bacteria etc in tubifex and they are a fractiin of a size of tubifex and blackworms. Its a win win if culture well.

[Iminit]

To funny I’ve got tnese guys growing like crazy in my shrimp and hillstream loach tanks. I feed to fry and my community tank. Pulled these out of the shrimp tank yesterday138902. Was wondering if these would be good for discus fry?

[brewmaster15]

Lol..looks like mine.:) no reason why you could not feed them to your discus.

[Discus Fever]

Hey AL I am really curious on what the nutritional value would be on those.

[Charlyc11]

Not a new scope you need an eyepiece camera as long as your optics are good.. They sell on Amazon with a wide range in price.


I wish I had a better microscope I really can't take a decent pic through the eye piece.

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[danotaylor]

Haha, cool Al. Very industrious of you. Do you know how rabidly they multiply? I’ll better the sump in my 500gal Malawi tank is a veritable worm farm :eek: