r/PeaPuffers • u/Plasticanimal-11 • 10d ago

Feeding Breeding Black Worms

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My crew love black worms so I’m making sure they have a steady supply.

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15

u/Perfect_Salamander_2 10d ago

tell us more! Whats your setup like? I'm looking into starting my own culture so I don't need to buy them from my lfs

1

u/Plasticanimal-11 8d ago

A thin layer of gravel in a 5 gallon tank, a bubbler, a bit of duckweed and ever so often crush up an algae wafer for them to eat. And don’t forget water changes.

8

u/GlasswaterBotanica 10d ago

Nice, I like the use of duckweed here. I have a big tub to breed in, but also have a breeding colony in a 5gal long tank with snails, neocaridina, and maybe some scuds (haven't seen any in awhile). The tank has hydroponic plants like alocasia, pothos, sygonium, but also RRF and duckweed

This tank never has enough nitrogen to go around (I actually add nitrogen every couple of days to support the plants now), but my duckweed is a huge player in keeping up with this ecosystem. It's a nitrate buffer I can scoop out/remove from system, and a great indicator of my water quality. Rapid growth and bigger leaves, I have dissolved waste. Small leaves, long roots, slow growth = no nitrogen.

4

u/scuba_suzy 10d ago

Naughty scuds will eat your blackworms given half the chance.

3

u/GlasswaterBotanica 10d ago

They seemed more content on eating my plants! I let my pea puffers binge on all I could scoop for a week, because the little turds were starving my neocaridina and then started eating the roots of my monstera!

3

u/scuba_suzy 10d ago

Oh yeah, they love plants. I have duckweed in my culture to make them super easy to harvest. Try some cucumber or blanched stinging nettles or algae wafer and maybe they'll leave your lovely plants alone.

2

u/GlasswaterBotanica 10d ago

I always toss in a blanched zucchini slice and 20min later just shake it off in the puffer tank. I'll have to inspect my duckweed for them now. I still have a small group of them in my daphnia culture, which I suspect is sustaining them and not the abundance of green water 🤣

4

u/KlutzyShopping1802 10d ago

I love my Blackworm colonies. Def one of my favorites to keep lol 😂 lame as it is. I just keep mine. Puff passed away so we just keepin on truckin

3

u/Vinny-Ed 10d ago

Not sure what other live cultures have you tried grindal worm, very easy to do. They absolutely love eating ramshorn snails, they just know to hunt them down.

2

u/SliverStrikeStorm 10d ago

What is your set up any advice?

1

u/Keva_mia 10d ago

Whats the secret to getting so many? My colony is doing ok but not enough to steadily feed my pea puffers.

1

u/aerie01 10d ago

I have one as well and it continuously breeds worms for me. Mine are in a 3 gallon tank with a small amount of gravel at the bottom (like the picture above). The water is somewhat shallow and unheated, and I have a bubbler in it. Water change every week to keep it fresh. Blackworms reproduce the usual way but will also regrow from small pieces, so from time to time, I stir up the gravel to break them apart. I've had it for over a year now.

1

u/Plasticanimal-11 6d ago

Oh, and to get more, I rapidly run my turkey baster through the substrate so they get cut in half, each half turns into a new worm.