A major screw up turns to unbelievable results.

[Tropical Haven]

I have 2 cultures of white worms that I have had for a little over a year. I keep them in 2 containers in my basement in front of my cold air return that is about 1 foot off the floor. This cold air return has been blowing really cool air over the top of my containers keeping them at a ideal temp. Well we had a really deep freeze hit where the temps hit a high of 2 to 3 degree's and lows of -15 at night without wind chills. This has lasted for 2 to 3 days and on the 3rd day I forgot about leaving the white worms under the cold air return. I ran down stairs and checked them out and both cultures were frozen solid like a brick. All of the white worms were on top and frozen rock hard, all I could say to myself is I have to start from scratch again.

Well then I thought to myself I have never frozen white worms before so maybe I should put them in a spot in the basement which would let them gradually thaw out and see what happens. To my surprise I went down to the basement about 36 hours later and looked at my cultures and all of them were alive and looking good. I couldn't believe it because they were frozen for at least 3 to 4 days. This happened about 3 weeks ago and they have been on a regular feeding schedule and have been thriving and growing like crazy. I just thought that I would share this with everyone because I could not believe that they all came back to life.

[Vern Archer]

Good Information to know thanks for posting!
v

[Eddie]

Wow, that is interesting. A little cryo action. Thanks for the information


Eddie

[White Worm]

Cold is good but dont cook them, they wont come back from that, lol.

[Tropical Haven]

This gives me a very good idea, I am gonna conduct a little experiment with this. Since it seems like these guys can endure frozen temperatures I am gonna take a small portion of my white worms and put them into my freezer for a month and let them slowly thaw out. If they come back to life like my other ones did then this is a great way to store your extra white worms just in case your culture or cultures crash on you. This way you never have to worry about buying another culture of white worms. I will make a seperate post with this experiment and let people know how the progress is going.

[MSD]

I have accidentally frozen the blackworm water in my fish fridge and thought all was lost. Just rinsed them as I normally do and they are fine. These things are very resilient and hard to kill at times.

[Roxanne]

Cold is good but dont cook them, they wont come back from that, lol.

:D:D

Isn't that amazing.....live export your product!!!....long shelf life ha ha..

logically, if they get caught in permafrost & can survive so makes sense you can "revive' them...
will be interesting to hear the results of your 'experiment';)

Rox

[pinkjello]

Hi,

The white worms that you speak of - are they for food - your culturing them? I was directed to your post because my white worms came back to life after 6 months of being outside in a rubbermaid container, frozen..and I was wondering if we are talking about the same worms? I am looking for some answers on how to get rid of these squiggly little worms that I found in my discus tank. Any suggestions? Do these sound like the same thing??

[Eddie]

Hi,

The white worms that you speak of - are they for food - your culturing them? I was directed to your post because my white worms came back to life after 6 months of being outside in a rubbermaid container, frozen..and I was wondering if we are talking about the same worms? I am looking for some answers on how to get rid of these squiggly little worms that I found in my discus tank. Any suggestions? Do these sound like the same thing??

Hi Pink Jello

I directed you to this thread to show how things stay alive even when frozen, not to show you that they are the same worms. They are not the same worms. White worms are for feeding and are cultured by many hobbyists. I don't have a clue what worms you have. Maybe Planaria

Eddie

[pinkjello]

:) Sorry about the confusion..thx for the response.