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[excel]

Keeping California Black Worms

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http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=62953

Hello everyone,
I am a new member here and would like to share how to keep CBW with everyone. I have been doing this for years with great success.

First off, everytime you buy your CBW from the LFS, they always tell you to put it in the fridge. And sure enough, everyday that you open it, it really stinks because many of them have died. At this point,you proceed to wash them under the faucet, thus killing more of them because of chlorine. Therefore, your worms almost always stink when you take them out. Also, at those temperatures, they cannot reproduce by dividing. you need room temperature.

Here is how I keep mine and successfully have them actually divide and multiply. (not by a ton, but from what I can see, probably 2x in a months time.

I use a 12" long, 6" wide, and 6" deep tuperware container with a lid. I put in 3 strips of BROWN (must be BROWN) paperbag (1"X3")
I put in 5 ounces of CBW along with bottled spring water, or R/O water. At one end of the container, I drill a hole small enough, near the top, to put in an airhose, then i attach a small airstone to it. I then connect an airpump to the hose and control the airflow for light airation. Then, the whole box goes inside the cabinet under the fish tank. ( make sure you try to remove any dead worms at the start using toothpick or plastic fork)

Every 3 days, i open the lid and take out what ever amount of worms I need for feeding, drop in 2 small pcs of tetra bits, close the lid, and put them back. they seem to really thrive.

I might change the water about every 2 months, or whenever it starts to stink, which is almost never.

I do not take credit for this, i learned it somewhere on the net a few years back, and just varied it a bit. The original article suggested no feeding and the worms would just eat the decaying paper. That worked well also, except it became very messy when the paper decayed and was all over the place. it was very hard to separate the worms and the paper.

Well, good luck everyone.

thanx,

Ted