|
Tips for
keeping your microworms alive
|
Some people find it difficult to
keep microworms alive. I have had conversation
with some people who, for whatever reasons, find it difficult to
maintain their microworm cultures. Only once in the past,
have I had enough bad luck to have all my cultures go bad at the same
time. There are very few road blocks present when you decide
to start culturing microworms successfully. This page is
dedicated to describing those rare difficulties and how to overcome
them. Many of the tips may be scattered throughout the rest
of this site, but you will find a good summary of most of them here.
One key factor for keeping your microworms alive is providing oxygen.
There are a few options you have to ensuring an adequate
supply of air to your live fish foods. I interchange between
using a nail to poke several holes in the culture's lid and just simply
not closing the lid fully.
The right temperature is vital to the survival of your microworms.
On many sites, I have read that microworms can be forced to
multiply faster by propping the container on an aquarium lid, using the
heat of the light to crank up the metabolism of this live food.
I am not a fan of this option. While it may work in
the short term, it is detrimental to the overall amount of time your
culture will last for. Your worms may reproduce quickly for a
few days or a week, but it will eventually die out much faster.
Just provide a more "normal" temperature (neither too hot or
too cold) and you will find your microworm culture will stay alive for
months.
Your microworms also require an adequate source of food. The
easiest way to do this is to mix a pinch of yeast into the culture
every time you re-culture the worms. I cannot stress enough
how important this is. Above, it was mentioned that I once
lost all my cultures at the same time. This is because I
neglected the yeast in multiple times of subculturing.
Eventuallyt his caused all the microworm cultures to crash.
This brings me nicely to my last point. You should always
have multiple cultures at once. Try to stagger the timing if
your re-culturing and you will always have cultures at their prime for
harvesting
microworms.
|
|