# Black Worms



## blixem (Jun 13, 2005)

Anyone here raise black worms?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Nope, not me. Tried it a couple times, but had to finally give up on it.

By the way, Atlantic Butterflyfish will gobble up blackworms with gusto. Banded, Reef, Foureye, Spotfin, Banks... these guys have a big reputation for not surviving in captivity because they won't eat, but a diet of blackworms keeps thm going just fine as long as they get some chopped anemone every week. We had a whole big display of these butterfies at the Aquarium, and everyone would ask me how I did it. Well, that's how.

I love blackworms. When I had my store I went through two gallons a week of them, and the fish went bananas for them. 
They may be a pain to grow, but they're worth it. I hope you can find a better way to raise them than I tried. ( which shouldn't be too hard )


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## blixem (Jun 13, 2005)

Right now I've just got them in about 3/4" of water, with shredded up pieces of brown paper bag, and a few pieces of fish food in there. I've had a hard time actually finding accurate breeding information. I know they are asexual and reproduce by splitting, but trying to find any information on what water qualities and lighting is needed to make this happen the fastest is a pain.

(oh and btw, if you do freshwater, cory's go ga ga for blackworms if you can manage to put a few in their path.)


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## redpaulhus (Jan 18, 2005)

I raise white, grindal, and micro-worms, but I usually just buy the blackworms (a guy in my local fish club, the Boston Aquarium Society, orders a bunch from http://aquaticfoods.com, and sells them for basically cost at our monthly meetings).

My understanding is that the folks breeding these are using cold water trout ponds - too much work for me !

But I do love adding these to my food rotation - it gives my other cultures a bit of a break


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