Microworm vs BBS

[gibbo156]

I have a new batch of fry, free swimming on 13th May and i have decided to feed them microworm instead of BBS.

comments please.

[spyderuk]

How's it going?

My research seems that most tend to lean toward bbs. I think a varied diet can only be good so alternating between bbs and micro worms should be a good move.

I have micro, walter and banana worm cultures on the go and my thinking is, I can quickly feed in the morning then go to work without worrying about uneaten bbs dyeing off and fouling the water. I also have white worms on the go for conditioning parents to be but they are so slow in taking off. Also setup a grindal worm culture yesterday.

Tubs everywhere.

[gibbo156]

It's going really well.

The microworms are much less bother.
The culture took a week to get going but is producing a steady stream now, i am feeding the microworm to the batch of fry and into the grow on tank ( but they get other stuff as well )
I intend to intersperse the microworm for the fry with decaps. I use EZ Eggs for brine shrimp, they are the decapsulated but still hatchable eggs. Expensive, but i am rarely feeding more than one or two batches at a time, and they can be given unhatched as well. I have some ordinary decaps in the cupboard for use in emergencies.

I find it mush easier to feed smaller amounts of microworm and you don't waste any.
So i can feed smaller amounts about 6 times a day instead of the bbs at three times a day ( lucky me, i work from home, so every coffee or smoke break is baby feeding time )
AND you don't need to remember to start a new batch of brine shrimp eggs, the microworm culture is just there all of the time.
I also have a white worm culture for the adults. The whiteworm culture started on the same day as the microworm but took a week longer to get going. This morning it just seemed to explode with worms.
They don't last long in the display tank, but the adult angels with fry just ignored them. I have found that angels with fry seem to eat a lot less so maybe they just didn't fancy any.
I use bare botomed tanks for breeding angels so it is easy to see any food that needs hoovering out.

The batch of fry are growing nicely on (mainly) microworm, but diferent colours seem to grow at different rates anyway so it is probably too soon to judge.

[spyderuk]

My whiteworms have been going for about 3-4 weeks and tend to stay buried most of the time. I loosened up the soil the other week and I have more worms than I started with but I'm still waiting for the population explosion.

Even if your feeding solely on BBS I think it's worth having microworms as a backup just in case a batch of bbs fails, crashes etc.

I buy my BS eggs from an ebay seller usually around £11 for 100gm delivered. Always had good hatch rates from them.

I fed a few whitewroms to a pair the other day and was surprised to see how hesitant they were to take them.

[gibbo156]

I think i killed my whiteworms.

The weather was warm on Sunday and i got enough out of the whiteworm box to feed four tanks, including my big display tank.
Then the weather turned cold again. I dug about in the whiteworm box today and couldn't find a single worm.

Looks like the worms that came to the surface on Sunday was all of them.

I have ordered another culture to try again.

Meanwhile the microworm culture is feeding two batches of fry.

[spyderuk]

Oh dear. Yes sounds like they got a bit warm and was trying to escape. If there were any eggs around they should hatch in around 12 days so all may not be lost although it would take a good while to recover.

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