About  
Keeping  
Feeding  
  Live  
    Collected  
    Cultured  
      Worms  
        Micro  
        Vineger  
        Grindal  
        White  
        Earth  
      Infusoria  
      Daphnia  
      Rotifers  
      Moina  
      Flies  
      Shrimp  
  Frozen  
  Fresh  
  Dry  
Breeding  
Species  
Articles  
Links  
Clubs  
Fora  
Images  
News  
Mongabay Biotopes
Shrimp
Oliver Knott's Planted Tank Pages
AGA Aquascaping Tanks
Chuck Gadd's Planted Tank Pages
FINS:APD,Killitalk
Tropica Aquatic Nursury in Denmark
Cryptocorynes
The Krib, home of the *.aquaria FAQs
aquaria.net
How to grow microworms Microworms are a small Nematode, about a millimeter or two in length. They are fed to fry typically a day or two after first hatching.

They are cultured in cereal in small containers and may be the easiest to grow of all live foods.

Simply take a small plastic container, such as a margarine tub and add cereal, either cooked or dry. If you use dry cereal you'll need to add enough water to make a thick paste; if cooked it should be of this consistency. Oatmeal can be used, either the regular breakfast kind, or, baby food cereal. The high protein variety, if available in your area, is probably the best.

Inoculate it with a stater culture. Sit back and wait. In a few days to a week, you'll see a wiggling mass crawling up the sides just above the cereal. They can be collected with a paint brush, or just wiped off with your finger.

In a week or two, the culture will become more liquid and will eventually smell really bad, so you should probably start cultures periodically - they don't last forever, three weeks is about all you'll get out of one.

Sometimes they can be rejuvinated by simply dumping the culture out and adding new medium. The microworms that get left behind are enough to inoculate the new media.

Some people add a pinch of yeast to the media which prevents it from fouling as quickly. I've personally had problems with yeast anywhere near aquarium water - it seems to form long sticky white threads and gets in the fishes gills causing distress and death. Apparently this is not universal as some people have success, but forewarned is forearmed.

Microworms can also be frozen and thawed successfully; get an ice cube tray and freeze a culture in small cubes and you'll never run out. You might want to put this in a plastic bag and label it well as fish food lest it be thrown out by unsympathetic and surprised family members.



Copyright 2007 Richard J. Sexton.

For daily review, why not join the Killifish Mailing List?
Sponsor: We buy all our Mercedes parts at MBZ.ORG.



Killifish
Cryptocorynes
Catfish - Planet Catfish
FINS:APD:Killitalk
Rainbowfish - Home of the Rainbowfish
Fish Species - Fishbase
Plant Species - Tropica, Denmark
The Krib
Loaches - Loaches.COM