Earth Worms

[helenuk]

Hi all i want to start a wormery to feed my discus with. What would be the best way of doing this. I have a small glass tank that is not in use if i was to mix up some garden mud and some composed and put it in there would this be suitable for the worms or would i be better buying a proper wormery?

[Robdog]

As long as you can be sure that there is no contaminents in the soil from your backyard(pesticides etc- and don't forget stuff your neighbours might use and have run off into your yard) then you can use it for sure.
To prep the worms for eating wrap them in wet paper for 24hrs to clear their guts and feed at will.

[discus lover01]

i would be very cautious as robdog has mentioned as if any small contamination is in any part of the soil you may as well poor kero on top of the tank it will kill em just the same surely you can find other forms of food besides earth worm?

[Merrilyn]

Helen, earthworms are a great natural food for discus.

Start with a clean culture from a plant nursery or aquarium shop, feed them vegetable scraps or for an added vitamin boost, feed them some flake fish food.

Freeze them prior to chopping them into bite size portions. Your discus will love them, and it brings them into breeding condition very quickly.

[helenuk]

Thank you everyone for your kind replies. I am going to start a wormery but not with the glass tank now instead i am going to use a wooden box as i have been told you need holes in the bottom for drainage and i am not going to use soil from the garden but peat moss so that i am sure there is not contamination. Many thanks all for your help :wink:

[scott bowler]

im going to run down to the nursery tomorrow and grab some and give it a go hehe

[Dave001]

I use to breed worms on a large scale many years ago, use to harvest 80 kg's a week out of my 2 12sq meter beds. It's quite easy to do, i'll give a quick run down.

Make sure what ever you use for a bed is able to drain, a large pot plant pot is perfectly fine for small scale. Fill the bottom 2 inches with small stone (aquarium gravel is fine), place weed matt over this, then put at least 12 inches of bedding material in the pot (this is what the worms will live in, we used horse poo, but for feed worms for the aquarium, I'd go with peat moss, finely shredded newspaper or cardboard, clean lawn clippings) or a mixture of each).
Make sure you age this material (wet it thouroughly, cover with hessian or natural carpet underlay), until it stops giving of heat (like any compost bin will).

Once it's aged, just dump a heap of worms in there and let them do their stuff. Water daily, better to give them to much water then not enough, as long as you have the gravel under the weed mat, you can't over water as any access will drain out.

Feeding is simple enough, I find for starting out a bed, Wheatbix is really good, gets them breeding really well. Take half a Wheatbix, soak it in water lift up your hessian/underlay, pour the weetbix on top of the bedding, cover and that's it, when it's all or mostly all gone, feed them again. As the worms muliply you can add more wheatbix, and also try other foods, worms will eat most stuff that's dead. Main thing to remember is the worms can't eat dry food, it has to be wet.

If you have any questions, just ask.

Dave

[helenuk]

Awwwwwww thanks Dave that was a fantastic bit of info :wink:

[scott bowler]

that is awesome dave thank from me too .Think i will go and have a look tomorrow how much some of these things are going to cost me hehe

[endless]

Great info dave. There is no mention of soil in your post. Do we forgoe this altogether?

[fiftycal]

I made my mum get us a worm farm back 14yrs ago or so. Its pretty big and still going.

Worm poop is good fertiliser for your plants too.

[Dave001]

Great info dave. There is no mention of soil in your post. Do we forgoe this altogether?

There is no need for Soil, but you can use it if you want, just make sure it's doesn't hold to much water.