cleaning up wild food cultures

[ganoderma]

specifically black and blood worms. i am more into black worms as i cant buy them here. but i can find them!

it is my understanding they are pretty damn filthy worms, and the water i found them in looks like something from mars. chemical free though...

is there anything fancy i should be doing to clean them up (i am wanting to breed them). i was planning on just keeping the water good and clean (this wont kill them will it?) and just let them breed for a few months and hop[e it all washes away.... would adding some carbon to the water help or hurt? any tips?

[Dave66]

This is a copy and paste from an archive I frequent. Saves me from wearing out my fingers.
———
>Culture Methods
>
>It is nearly impossible to be unsuccessful in culturing these worms
>and colonies can be maintained indefinitely with very little effort.
>Use a shallow, wide dish such as an 8" Carolina culture dish the
>equivalent or an enamel or plastic pan. Add about 2-3 cm of
>non-chlorinated water to the dish. Use lake, pond, or spring water
>if available or, if necessary, tap water that has been exposed to
>the air for a week or so. Cut up white or brown institutional paper
>towels into strips about 1 cm wide and add some to the water to
>provide a decomposable organic substratum for the worms. Add worms
>(which are available from Carolina Biological Supply Co.) to the
>dish. Feed the worms compressed shrimp pellets ("sinking fish food")
>available at pet stores. Do not provide more food at one time than
>the worms can eat in a day. Overfeeding can kill the colony. Replace
>the water when it becomes anoxic (or not. When the water is anoxic
>the worms will exhibit their characteristic respiratory posture with
>the posterior end flat under the water surface.)
>
>The worms are very tolerant of stagnant conditions with low
>dissolved oxygen and can subsist without food for long periods.
>Replace water as it evaporates and don't let the dish dry out
>completely. They cannot tolerate desiccation. You can make
>subcultures at will following the above procedure. The worms will
>reproduce by fragmentation under these conditions. If you wish to
>hurry the propagation process, you can cut the worms into pieces and
>each piece will regenerate the missing parts to become a complete
>worm.
————
Dave