Enchytraeus albidus (Whiteworm)

Most aquarists, if not already done so, will one day want to culture some live-foods to feed to their beloved fish. Whiteworm are just one of a myriad of nematodes that can be cultured quite easily at home.
A small amount of time and devotion and attention to detail will reward you with many sub-cultures for your fish larder.


1) Fully soak your bread, I like to use Hovis Granary, I find it's the best for my purposes.


2) Lay your saturated bread onto your worm culture.


3) Now let them tuck in.


4) Jeez..at this rate I'm gonna need another loaf

Temp
The optimum temperature for reproduction is 15° - 21° C. Below 9°C the worms will stop breeding and above 27°C they will die.

Breeding
For breeding you will need the following:
• A Container; e.g. an ice-cream tub or similar with holes punched in the lid. Pinholes will suffice so as not to attract fly infestation.
• Medium; Potting Compost; I make my own with a little garden lime added, as worms do not like acid soil. Aquatic soil is also a good medium.
• Food; To begin with I use granary bread cut into 1” squares and soaked in milk. when the Culture matures I then use full slices of Brown Granary Bread fully soaked in RO water, this method has presented me with my best results in terms of yield thus far.
Place your compost in your container to about three inches deep and gently firm. Spray this until it is nice and damp, but not soaking wet. Empty your starter into a depression in the centre of the container. Gently level this and add a square of bread to begin with. Cover this with a piece of glass or slate (the later works best). Cover the box as white worm’s don’t like light.
The worms will begin to slowly disperse into your culture box. To begin with the worms will eat very little and you may find that the food will grow a white hairy fungus. If this is the case carefully remove the uneaten food, taking care not to remove the worms that are attached to the base of the rotting food. Replace with fresh food. Check the culture every day to ensure that they have enough food. You will find that as the worms multiply, the food will be consumed more quickly.
You can increase the number of cultures by adding some worm filled media from your new culture once it is established (as you did to start your first culture), or upsize to a larger container.
Your culture should be ready to harvest in about 8 - 12 weeks.

Harvesting
A common fault is that people attempt to harvest too early. It usually takes at least 8 weeks for the worms to be collected in numbers large enough to both feed fish and sustain the culture.
To collect the white worm place them in a plastic tub containing a small amount of water for around 5 minutes (this is long enough for the worms to purge themselves of any compost), by this time they will have collected together in small balls and are easy to collect and feed to fish.

I hope this small article of another easy to culture livefood encourages some folks to give it a go.

Regards
C