How To Culture Microworms For Fish Fry

Learn how to culture microworms at home for use as a live fry food. In this video I'll discuss how to prepare your own cultures, expected longevity, how to know when a culture has expired, and a clean method for feeding microworms to your fry.

[@kristykeimig3498]

I just wanted to add: if your culture doesn't seem to be reproducing very fast, you can add a pinch of yeast and the population will boom... just a pinch goes a long way, use too much and tgats when it stinks bad and will spoil the culture quickly. also be sure to either harvest often and/or stir the culture every week or 2. The old culture you can add some new potatoes to it and it will keep it going too. You can also cut a hole in the lid and use poly-fil to keep bugs out and let air in. Or just a simple paper towel over the top with a Rubbermaid works. @lowells fish lab I just wanted to say I really like your content, it's calm, easy to understand not your typical crazy you tubers

[@MakeMoreFish]

Thanks! That's interesting, I've only added yeast in the beginning, not later on to cause a population boom. I'll have to try that. One thing I have noticed is that addition of yeast seems to prevent other molds from growing. I think it outcompetes it. Live food culturing methods can be complicated and boring to talk about for some people, but it's such an important skill

[@kristykeimig3498]

@@MakeMoreFish yea it sucks that I don't have any close ppl to talk to they all think I'm nuts having so many tanks, breeding and live cultures. But I can literally research it all day and try out everything and I never get bored of it. But yeah I haven't had an issue with mold before... but yeah if I need to mix up my next batch and they seem to be slowing down I add in the yeast, or if it's runny add a pinch of flakes and then the next day it's back going crazy.

[@tvideo1189]

I (and many others) found that Gerber Multigrain baby cereal works best by far as a medium. It takes a long time to get to the "smells bad" level and the biggest benefit is that it gut loads the Micro worms, Walter worm and Banana worms with all the boosted nutrients included in the cereal formula. I also use it to culture Grindal worms for the same reason... no smell and it gut loads the worms with WAY more nutrients than plain oatmeal or dried mashed potatoes. Also, add a few grains of yeast to the culture and the culture will really take off... MUCH more productive than cereal or potatoes alone.

[@MakeMoreFish]

Great info, I'll have to give that a try. Especially if it doesn't smell quickly

[@seamus6994]

Good job! I've raised other larger worms. I bought some new Zebra Danio's and put them in a different community tank. I have two tree branches that are upright on either side of the tank. Covered heavily with Christmas moss. They're an inch from the surface with thick water sprite floating on all of the moss. Besides live bearers the Danio's are having orgy's in the moss and water sprite. So I'm using a pipette to remove eggs on the moss and as small as the fry will be. I guess they can eat these Micro worms..... I hope. Thanks for the great tips. I was going to try Oatmeal. But since it stinks, Potato flakes sounds better.

[@xisotopex]

why bbs for fry, is it the size, or is it because the bbs are alive and attract the interest of the fry?

[@MakeMoreFish]

Both and for their nutritional value.

[@jasonericala]

If anyone is looking for the k-cup it's a melitta javajig reusable k-cup, should be able to find it on-line

[@koninginwilhelminalaan6102]

Too bad that it is not for sale here in Europe. Can’t find anything similar right now.

[@Jennifer-nz2ss]

Trying so hard not to kill my Scarlett Badis!! I need to learn how to do live food. Thankx for this. 😍👍

[@MakeMoreFish]

Thanks for watching! I have some badis at home and I keep them fed with baby brine shrimp mostly. I've seen them go after worms though, I'm sure they'll eat some microworms

[@Jennifer-nz2ss]

@@MakeMoreFish they are picking at Hikari Crab Cuisine and some sinking wafers now.🙏

[@MakeMoreFish]

So good to hear, Badis are awesome little fish

[@allans7802]

Great tutorial thanks 👍, just a question though, what exactly is potato flakes? I’m from South Africa and I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen that product in our stores, would grated fresh potato work? I’ve done the oatmeal version before but this seems like a much better idea

[@MakeMoreFish]

It's a dehydrated potato product that comes in a box. I would think anything similar would work too. I've had at least one person report that fresh mashed potato works too. I've never used oatmeal but my understanding is that potato is much less smelly

[@allans7802]

@@MakeMoreFish great,thanks for that, I’ll definitely give mashed potatoes a try

[@andrewsharp7003]

I know this is an old video but in the chance youre still reading comments, so you used a small bit of the culture when making a new culture of the worms, so would you go ahead and make like 10 starter cultures off of all the worms you're sent. Hopefully that makes sense.

[@PotooBurd]

Binge watching your videos back to back- and adding comments for the algorithm~! 🌻👍 Keep up the great content!

[@sfiron]

Raising the micro worms is easy. Separating them in large quantities from the potato paste is my problem. Keeping in mind the waste materials that can pollute the water.

[@bobby_au]

Just redid all mine with this. Thanks again :)

[@simtalkayak]

Very informative and interesting. Well done. Also.. "Ok, today we're going to make some microworms."... That's what she said. 😅

[@MakeMoreFish]

Does it work with vinegar eels? Maybe too wordy..

[@MrGigi-dz9cv]

What are these worms exactly ?

[@xisotopex]

nematodes

[@adambrough7552]

so I've been culturing these for a little bit now and i cant help but notice about 50% of my new cultures go absolutely rancid after about 4-5 days and the other half have little to no stink at all. what am I doing differently between the two?

[@MakeMoreFish]

I have experienced the same thing. I think it's just a function of what microbes get into the culture- a contamination issue. I noticed that I had more cultures stay "clean" if I added a little yeast which makes some sense to me. Yeast is great at digesting starchy stuff so it might outcompete other microbes and keep them from overtaking the culture. Just an idea and an observation

[@adambrough7552]

@@MakeMoreFish thanks I will try that. when they go bad its disturbingly foul.