Live foods are extremely beneficial when breeding fish, as their enticing movements encourage the fry to consume and grow more rapidly.
In this article, you will learn how to culture Walter worms to feed your fishes and newborn frys since they are extremely small and can be eaten by them.
It is quite hard to feed newborns with frozen foods and hence these Walter worms are a great substitute.
Live foods are organisms that are eaten directly, without being killed or cooked. These may include plant or animal matter that is alive.
They are an excellent addition to the diet of fry, as they provide a more natural diet to grow more rapidly and remain healthy and are a key component of any fry diet and should include feeder insects, such as fruit flies and crickets, as well as live plants like lettuce or spinach.
Some Examples include bloodworms, brine shrimp, daphnia, and micro worms that include Walter worms, banana worms, and microworms.
There are many reasons why live foods are beneficial to a pet’s diet. For example, live foods provide a more complete, diverse, and balanced diet than dry foods. Live foods also contain protein and oils that help coat the animal’s digestive tract and protect him from harmful bacteria.
They are a good, natural source of protein and oils. They are usually high in vitamin B12 and vitamin D, which help the animal’s immune system function properly. Other important nutrients include calcium and iron.
In addition, live food is an essential ingredient for the production of certain vitamins in animals such as vitamin B complex and vitamin C.
Some examples of live foods include bloodworms, brine shrimp, daphnia, and micro worms.
Some fish, such as betta fish, ram cichlids, and rainbowfish, produce offspring that are too small to consume traditional fry foods, such as live baby brine shrimp or crushed flakes. Instead, you can easily cultivate micro, banana, or Walter worms to maintain the babies’ health and happiness.
How to Culture Walter Worms to Feed Your Fishes & Keep Them Alive?
Culturing micro worms such as Walter worms or banana worms is very simple and can be done in your household. There isn’t a necessity of buying live food for your aquarium instead you can just culture your own Walter worms and feed them to your fish as a healthy snack.
Why should you feed live foods like water worms to your fishes?
When breeding fish, live foods are very helpful because the way they move makes the babies want to eat and grow faster.
But some fish, like betta fish, ram cichlids, and rainbowfish, have babies that are too small to eat live baby brine shrimp or crushed flakes.
Instead, it’s easy to start a culture of micro, banana, or Walter worms to keep the babies happy and healthy.
These tiny worms are small enough to be easily consumed by the fry. They are a good source of protein, vitamins, and minerals that should be consumed daily or twice a week by your fish.
Many aquarium lovers and fish keepers refer to the free-living nematode Panagrellus redivivus as the microworm.
Interestingly, the free-living nematode Panagrellus redivivus (also known as the microworm) is a parasitic worm that lives in the intestines of many freshwater fish, including goldfish.
Although, they can still be cultured to feed your aquarium fishes as they are a very great source of nutrition and most fishes eat these types of worms in the wild.
The aquarium fish are quite lazy and cannot do much as they are not in the mood to feed. So, prepare some food for them with these worms.
The worm, which has evolved to adapt to an environment without predators, is a small (1mm wide), fast-moving animal with tiny, delicate antennae and distinctive brown color.
It is a tiny roundworm that is used as the first diet for larger types of newly hatched fish, such as larval common carp.
The microworm is frequently utilized in aquaculture as food for various fish and crab species.
What kind of fish will eat Walter worms?
Until they reach a size of around 1/4 to 1/2 inch, most fries prefer Killifish, Bettas, Guppies, Gouramis, Corydoras, and Apistogramma, among other species.
At that point, you might try feeding them Grindal Worms.
What is the best environment to culture Walter worms?
To store your culturing container, pick a dark corner of your room.
If you do not have a subculture then you can follow the guide along and start the first set of Walter worms culture to feed your newborn frys or to your fishes as a snack. Now, first, let us collect all the things that we might need to start the culture.
What all ingredients and things do you need to culture Walter worms?
1. Oatmeal or Cornmeal or Baby cereal or flour: These are some types of food that can be used to make a medium to culture Walter worms.
2. Yeast
3. 1 Potato
4. Gardening tools: You can take your garden tool kit if available or just a shovel would do the job too.
5. Knife: To cut the potato
6. Plastic containers: We need these to store the culture. You will need to make very tiny holes for the culture to breathe and to keep it away from predators.
7. Spoon or popsicle stick
8. Surgical gloves and mask
9. Small to a medium saucepan
These are some of the ingredients and equipment you will be needing to start the very first culture of Walter worms.
How to culture Walter worms without a starter or subculture?
It is possible to culture banana worms, Walter worms, and micro worms with the ingredients present in the household.
They are a great source of nutrition for fishes and other aquatic pets, especially for newborn fishes as they are smaller in size and can easily feed onto the Walter worms. Culturing Walter worms is fairly very simple.
Although, it will take around 1 to 2 weeks of time to make a fresh culture of Walter worms. You can then make different subcultures from the previous culture and so on within 3 to 7 days depending upon the surrounding temperature.
Here is the step-by-step walkthrough you can follow and make your very first culture of Walter worms in your home itself
-
It is recommended to wear surgical gloves to keep yourself away from foreign bacteria or viruses.
-
Take a fresh potato and cut it into two halves.
-
Now, the next step is to take a shovel from your gardening kit and dig a small hole into the ground (Moist ground), and then place this potato completely into the ground. Also, keep a note of where you have buried the potato.
-
Make sure to keep the ground moist by sprinkling some water if you see the ground dry.
-
It is time to wait for about 1-2 weeks until the formation of nematodes or micro worms takes place.
-
Carefully dig up the buried potato after 1-2 weeks. Carefully collect the small nematodes from the potato using a popsicle or spoon. The rotten potato smells bad and I would recommend you to wear a mask to prevent it.
The next step is to create a medium in order to grow and culture the nematodes on a large scale. Follow this guide along to create a medium that is suitable for Walter worms to culture.
How to prepare a medium to store the Walter worms culture?
-
In a small to medium saucepan, bring water to boil. Optionally, if groundwater is available that is preferable over spring or fresh water.
-
Now, you can add oatmeal or cornmeal into the boiling water and then turn off the burner. Mix the oatmeal into the water until you get a thick paste. Add a little more oats and make sure the mixture gets thick paste. A little moisture works just fine in the mixture. Although, there shouldn’t be any excess water present in the saucepan.
-
Now, wait for the mixture to cool down overnight.
-
By the next morning, the oatmeal should be solid, and you should be able to slice, scoop, and press the mixture into the shape you want for your container. Because your nematodes will only be living on the surface, you don’t need to fill your containers all the way to the top.
-
Half an inch of mild oatmeal will be enough. Your nematodes will require room to climb up the container’s sides.
-
You may easily collect them on the container’s edges for harvesting.
-
Use a tiny spray bottle filled with water to saturate the interior walls and surface of the oatmeal medium with a fine mist of droplets. Now is the time to uniformly distribute your beginning culture throughout the surface of your freshly made oatmeal media.
-
Stir or mix your starting culture into the oatmeal medium but do not mix it in. Your nematodes will be living on the surface of the water.
-
Cover your container for culture. Per 8 ounces of culture media, add 4- 5 micro pellets of Brewer’s yeast.
-
Pour the yeast on top. Never combine yeast with the medium.
-
Also, make sure your container has little air openings to allow your culture to breathe.
How to harvest Walter worms to feed your aquarium fishes?
Gather the worms that are creeping up the edges of the container and lid with a Popsicle stick, Q-tip, or similar utensil.
Then, place your worms in a small portion cup of clean room temperature water. If feasible, use aquarium or spring water to dilute your worms instead of tap water.
Gently swirl the worms and water together. Feed the worms to your fish with an eye dropper.
How To Maintain Walter Worm Cultures?
Once per week, you must gently stir your micro worm culture to keep them thriving.
Microworms do not burrow, unlike other worms.
It is recommended to always maintain two microworm cultures simultaneously.
This ensures that you will always have micro worms available to feed your fish and fry in the event that one of your cultures crashes or fails.
In addition, you will always be able to initiate a new culture.
On the container’s lid, indicate the date the culture was started.
This allows you to determine the age of the culture and when you should consider starting a new one.
It is also normal for microworm cultures to smell like vinegar.
The duration of micro worm cultures varies depending on the environment in which they are kept.
Microworms, or nematodes, are a type of worm that can be cultured in a petri dish. The duration of micro worm cultures varies depending on the environment in which they are kept.
For example, micro worms will remain active and reproduce for longer periods of time if they are kept at room temperature than if they are kept at higher temperatures.
Although, slightly warmer temperatures do accelerate their metabolism, resulting in a faster rate of multiplication and a shorter lifespan for the cultures.
The culture will become more fluid and soup-like as a result of the oats.
When it begins to become runny, but the micro worms are still thriving, start a new culture.
As time passes, the culture will become increasingly soupy, begin to emit an unpleasant odor, and possibly develop mould; at this point, it must be discarded.
How often should you start a new culture of Walter worms for your fishes?
It is better to introduce a new culture every 8-10 days.
Prepare your new medium and incorporate some of your previous cultures into it.
You can grow your culture at any time after it has been set up, which usually takes between 3 and 7 days.
All you have to do is go through the steps again. If you don’t, you’ll have to wait until your culture starts to smell bad and is as thin as soup.
This is a sign that the yeast has eaten all of the grain and that the number of Walter worms will go down.
At this point, you should get another container, put cooked grain and baker’s yeast in it, and repeat the steps from above.
If you keep your culture going, your newly hatched fry will always have Walter worms to eat.
Adequate Temperature for culturing?
Temperatures range between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. When temperatures fall below 64 degrees Fahrenheit, reproduction slows but does not cease.
When temps hit 86 degrees Fahrenheit or above, they will likewise begin to die off.
Lifespan and Reproduction of Walter worms?
The average lifespan of a Walter Worm is 35 to 40 days, and they become sexually mature at 4 days of age, at which point they are capable of generating up to 85 live young on a daily basis.
Before reaching maturity, they go through a total of five skin sheds.
Because there are always more females than men, most civilizations breed very quickly, which helps them maintain a large population.
How long do Walter worms get?
The maximum length of a Walter Worm is 1.5 millimeters. In general, females are larger than their male counterparts.
What to feed your Walter worms?
There is no need to provide any additional nourishment or water.
In the event that your culture dies due to a lack of moisture, you can try to bring it back to life by drizzling a fine mist of water over it.
Conclusion
Don’t think twice. You can also try things out and make your own mix of foods to make cultures.
The grain is eaten by the yeast in the mixture, which helps feed the Walter worms along with the bacteria that are already there.
The word “yeast” is a type of fungus that is used in bread and other baked goods. It is important because it helps the dough rise and promotes fermentation.
Yeast consumes the sugar in the mixture, which feeds the Walter worms as well as bacteria that are already there.
It can take anywhere from 3 to 7 days to harvest a new culture. How long it takes to harvest also depends on how big your new container is and how much food you have.
The harvest will be slower, but there will be a lot more Walter worms. The bigger the new container and food supply, the slower the harvest will be.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single worm in an apple will inevitably eat his way through the entire fruit. The same is true for Walter worms in a new container and food supply.
By changing the temperature, you can change how quickly your culture grows.
Lower temperatures make the culture last longer, but it takes longer for the Walter worms to reproduce and be harvested.
If you raise the temperature, your culture will grow faster and you will get more Walter worms. Remember that Walter worms are very small, so if you can’t see them up close, you might miss them.
If your Walter worm culture is doing well, you will see the worms climbing the walls.
Banana and Walter worms are easy to raise, and when the fry is a few days to a week old, they make great food (depends on growth rate).
