Walter Worms and Banana Worms

Walter Worms and Banana Worms

The two live food cultures I had ordered for my baby killies (when ever I get some to hatch) are walter worms and banana worms. They arrived in little containers and smelled a bit like vinegar. I am guessing the seller sent me a portion of an older culture so that there would be plenty of worms. When they arrived, I went out and bought my supplies to get my cultures going. What was needed included: sandwhich sized food storage containers, baby cereal, and a ripe banana

I poured about a 3/4" thick layer of gerbers baby cereal into 2 containers (one for walter worms, and one for banana worms). I poured in some water that I first ran through a brita filter and mixed it with a fork. I kept adding water until the mixture was pasty and easily worked, but not watery. Then, in one of the containers I added a 1/4 peice of a ripe banana and mushed that into the mixture. I mixed it up well so the banana was evenly spread through the baby cereal. I smoothed the top of both down.

The next step was to add the worms. In the container I mixed the banana into, I added the banana worm starter. I did my best to spread it evenly over the surface so all the worms could get food. I added the walter worms in the same way to the other container.

It has been a couple of days since I set up the cultures and if I hold them up to the light and look closely I can already see a ton of tiny worms moving around. They look more like little bits of glistening light. The worms should be kept in a dark, warm place, but should not be kept above 85*f.

To harvest some worms to feed, simply wipe them off the sides of the container. Once the culture has been going for a few days they should start to climb up the sides. A finger or popsicle stick works and you can either swish them directly into the fry tank or into a jar of dechlorinated water, and then use a dropper to feed them. They will live for 24 hours, possibly a bit more, in the tank water. This makes them a great food as they won't foul the water as quickly as some other foods.

According to the seller in about 10 days the culture will start to smell vinegery. At this point I should add a little it more baby cereal to the cultures to keep them going for a couple more weeks. Before I add the new cereal however, I should start up a new culture of each, so that when the old culture dies off, I will have a new one going. By continually doing this I can always have live foods available for newborn fry. Overall these seem like an easy to culture and feed live food for newborn fry. They are small enough for the smallest fry and even slightly bigger fry, like livebearer fry would probably like them.

Thank you to fishguy_1955 on aquabid for the great culture starters and great service:)