White Worms — A Great Supplemental Live Food
by Jack Heller
First published in The Darter, Missouri Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
White worms (Enchytrae) are a small annelid worm that is moderately easy to
raise, and is usually taken by most carnivorous aquarium fish with great enthusiasm. These
little worms can be raised in a number of different mediums using several different foods,
but there are a few general requirements that must be met if the worms are to be raised
and harvested successfully. I'd like to share my method of raising and harvesting these
worms and hopefully will raise the interest in some of the readers to give this food a
try.
The primary considerations are the container, the raising medium, the food and the
maintenance temperature.
Let me mention the temperature first since this is very important to the successful
raising of white worms:
I have experienced the greatest success raising these worms at a temperature of no more
than sixty degrees F. I keep the raising container in a small refrigerator turned up to
the highest level possible without turning it off. This setting usually produces a
temperature of around sixty degrees. Another trick hat I learned from Ralph Wilhelm and
from Charles Harrison is to keep the worm containers in a covered styro box with a cut off
soda bottle filled with ice. Each day, the bottle, with melted ice, is returned to the
freezer and a new bottle is taken from the freezer and placed between the containers in
the styro. This achieves the same cool temperature as refrigeration.
For a medium, I use African Violet Potting Soil and a boiled peat moss in equal amounts
and keep this medium moderately moist. This I place in a wooden box that measures twelve
inches by ten inches. I add the worms, and on top of the peat moss I lay a piece of bread
which I have soaked in a yeast/water mixture, after having first removed the crust. On top
of the yeast soaked bread, I lay a piece of plate glass and then place the container in
the refrigerator.
When a culture is first established, it needs to be checked every few days to make sure
that the bread is not souring. As the bread disappears, it is replaced by a new slice of
bread. This culture requires patience, since it takes about four weeks for it to develop
to the point where it can be harvested. Generally when a full slice of bread disappears
entirely in two days, the worms are ready to be harvested.
Harvesting the worms is accomplished by washing off the glass plate into a clean
container of water. The worms are then fed with a baster. Be careful to feed this food no
more than twice a week since it is a very fatty worm, and causes fatty buildup on the
fish. My killifish love this live food, and would eat it constantly if given the chance.
A culture of white worms, if kept at the correct temperature, maintained in clean
medium, and fed well without being overfed (be careful to remove uneaten bread when it
starts to go bad) should continue to produce for six months before the medium starts to go
bad, and the worms have to be re-potted in a new container with new medium.
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