[Wet Thumb Forum]-Tubifex in the substrate

17617 Views 24 Replies 15 Participants Last post by Michael, Nov 28, 2021

Andrea Baker

Discussion Starter · Aug 21, 2004

Hello,

I am new to this forum and found it on Diana Walstad's recommendation. I wrote to her with the following question and she suggested that I post here:

I recently tore my moderately planted aquarium down and re-built with a soil substrate and additional plants. The pervious tank version had been running for about 18 months with no major problems-- in that version I had reasoned that by purchasing more tubifex worms than my fish could eat in a day, I could give the worms a chance to make it down into the gravel and cultivate a sustained population in the tank that the fish would be free to graze on throughout the day. I did this and kept it going for around six months by only rarely adding (maybe once every six weeks) a new portion or two of worms. My clown loaches in particular were very happy with this arrangement and depended upon it for the bulk of their diet. I assume that the gravel was being aerated too by both the worms and the loaches digging for the worms. In fact, when I tore the tank down I found at least a dozen worms that had made it to a size of approximately six inches so they must have had the effect of stirring up the gravel as they moved around.

I have a feeling that the worms would do exceptionally well in the new soil substrate, but before I go ahead and add worms to my set-up I would very much appreciate your feedback as to whether raising worms in the tank could be a problem. Many aquarium people seem to consider tubifex disease-ridden and to-be-avoided. I do not know what degree of this is do to the poor breading grounds that they have come from in the past (which I understand has largely been remedied)-- also by raising them in the tank it seems I would avoid most of these problems.

My question is, am I missing something? I love the idea of creating a self-maintaining, self-feeding system but also wonder if there is a good reason why this is not done.

When I initially wrote to Diana she asked if in the previous version the worms allowed me not to vacuum. I'm not really sure. I didn't vacuum very much but I also didn't run the system long enough to know what would have happened a couple years down the line. When I removed the gravel it certainly had a good amount of dark stuff in it but I hadn't seen any chemical consequences.

I really look forward to your responses and to participating in this forum.

Andrea

See less See more

Save

21 - 25 of 25 Posts

dwalstad

· #21 · Jan 28, 2005

My blackworms seem to have died out without any problems. Either that or the fish ate them all. I'm not sure that I would try it again except to fatten breeding fish.

The tank got a little messy- mulm accumulated on gravel and the Cory kept stirring it up. Once I moved the Cory out, the problem went away.

Save

DataGuru

· #22 · Jan 28, 2005

Thye died in a fish tank.

I'm thinking about setting up a shallow natural tank *for* the blackworms. No fish. maybe snails and daphnia. Think it'd work?
No way to fit anything in there for water movement with only 3 inches of water.

Save

Tentacles

· #23 · Aug 15, 2006

I have blackworms living under the gravel (no substrate) in my goldfish tank. They've been there a year but they never look robust when I suck them up in the gravel vac so I don't think they eat much but maybe a cold water aerated environment is the key to keeping them alive?

Save

Deolen

· #24 · Nov 28, 2021

Andrea Baker said:
Hello,

I am new to this forum and found it on Diana Walstad's recommendation. I wrote to her with the following question and she suggested that I post here:

I recently tore my moderately planted aquarium down and re-built with a soil substrate and additional plants. The pervious tank version had been running for about 18 months with no major problems-- in that version I had reasoned that by purchasing more tubifex worms than my fish could eat in a day, I could give the worms a chance to make it down into the gravel and cultivate a sustained population in the tank that the fish would be free to graze on throughout the day. I did this and kept it going for around six months by only rarely adding (maybe once every six weeks) a new portion or two of worms. My clown loaches in particular were very happy with this arrangement and depended upon it for the bulk of their diet. I assume that the gravel was being aerated too by both the worms and the loaches digging for the worms. In fact, when I tore the tank down I found at least a dozen worms that had made it to a size of approximately six inches so they must have had the effect of stirring up the gravel as they moved around.

I have a feeling that the worms would do exceptionally well in the new soil substrate, but before I go ahead and add worms to my set-up I would very much appreciate your feedback as to whether raising worms in the tank could be a problem. Many aquarium people seem to consider tubifex disease-ridden and to-be-avoided. I do not know what degree of this is do to the poor breading grounds that they have come from in the past (which I understand has largely been remedied)-- also by raising them in the tank it seems I would avoid most of these problems.

My question is, am I missing something? I love the idea of creating a self-maintaining, self-feeding system but also wonder if there is a good reason why this is not done.

When I initially wrote to Diana she asked if in the previous version the worms allowed me not to vacuum. I'm not really sure. I didn't vacuum very much but I also didn't run the system long enough to know what would have happened a couple years down the line. When I removed the gravel it certainly had a good amount of dark stuff in it but I hadn't seen any chemical consequences.

I really look forward to your responses and to participating in this forum.

Andrea

Thats a good ideas, crewting a balanced ecosystem, bit what I worry is that bacteria is one of the diet of the worms and with the fish eating them, they may introduce these bacterias to fish's body causing illnessess such as septicemia.

Save

Michael

· #25 · Nov 28, 2021

Welcome to APC!

This discussion is from 2006, so you aren't likely to hear from any of the participants. As for your concern about septicemia, fish have evolved to eat all sorts of invertebrates and can easily protect themselves from bacteria in their natural food.

Save

Reactions: 1

21 - 25 of 25 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

Top Contributors this Month