Hello Everyone,

Located in the AKA public library we have an article or two on Grindal Worm (GM) cultures.  I currently feed my GW cultures dog food pellets with varying degrees of success.  I do use the cultures on poly as discussed in Mr. Barry Cooper's article (Grindal Worms on Poly).

     Grindal worms on poly;    AKA Public Library
     Live foods for fry;            AKA Public Library
     Gravimetrics;                  AKA Public Library, WAKO Public Library

My cultures are relatively clean from scum, bacteria, and other contamination, and they produce moderate amounts of GWs.  One concern I have is that my cultures build up a hard gritty substance.  I assume this gritty substance is from residual calcium in the dog pellets that are not absorbed by the worms and left to solidify as a crust on the poly. Over time this buildup causes the necessity to replace the poly substrate.

Another question I have, is does anyone have conclusive experience in pre-charging the GWs with various medication and using this as a means to treat killies?  If you have experience in this form of medication to killies, how do you dose using GWs?

Let's keep a thread with some viable and valuable experience going here...

Best wishes,

Jim Langan, AKA Webmaster

Hello,

Back in SA I would use Pronutro (https://www.amazon.com/Pronutro-Bokomo-Original-500g/dp/B00BFCGZ6U/ref=sr_1_1?crid=33P3N8QWB3JBZ&dchild=1&keywords=pronutro+cereal&qid=1612896345&sprefix=pronutro%2Caps%2C157&sr=8-1 ) to feed my grindals and they did very well on this. I have been using dog food pellets for a while now and am tempted to order the Pronutro off Amazon as I don't feel I am getting as good growth of my cultures.

You can use brine shrimps to take up metronidazole (https://experts.illinois.edu/en/publications/bioencapsulation-of-metronidazole-in-adult-brine-shrimp-artemia-s) so, in principle I think it would work with grindals as well but you would be taking something of a shot in the dark as to how much of the meds are getting into the fish. Also the Metro is toxic to the grindals. An EC50 of 933 mg/kg soil was reported for Grindals (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653502003363) but a much stronger effect was seen on egg production than on adult toxicity. The concentration of metro and flubendazole in food needs to be much lower than in the water to be effective. If I were to try this I would feed the worms a medicated food rather than add the meds to the substrate.

Bye

Made the switch back to Pronutro and almost immediately got better production in the grindal and white worm cultures. Bye-bye dog food.

Tyrone,

Awesome, thank you!

Jim

I'll give it a try on a white worm culture I have going. 

I hope you see benefits as well, and it wasn't just because I was feeding the dog food wrong!

Before, whether using petri dishes with feeding below the dishes so the worms could stick to the dish, or a mesh onto which the worms could crawl to feed on, I just never got much. But the grindals have quickly started sticking the petri dish again and the white worms are getting there.

I find I have to change my culture conditions every time I move house so there may be more to it than just the type of food given.

Good luck!

I use the method that Paul Procissi has on his Fishguy's Place website (https://fishguysplace.com/livefoods00.html#grindalinst). I follow his directions to the letter. I have had success like never before and have two thriving cultures that produce in great abundance. No mites and no problems of any kind at all. I have very little experience with Grindal Worms so I am very pleased with my results. I feed small pieces of wheat bread. I am careful to not over feed the cultures and do not feed again until all the bread has been completely gone for one day.

Medric,

I modified your post to include a URL link to the grindal work instructions.  Very nice post, thanks for posting!

Best wishes, JP Langan

My Grindal Worm cultures are thriving and productive enough to feed my fish regularly. I recently refreshed my cultures with new medium as Paul Procissi recommends. I had been lax about that task but not to the point of crashing my cultures. I emptied all four of my cultures into a bucket and mixed them well , washed my culture containers , filled them with new medium and inoculated them with a cup of the old culture. I waited two days and then fed the cultures without the cover plates on . When that food was gone I did it again and then once more without the cover plates . After a month I had a bounteous harvest once again. I cut my plastic cover plates so that there is one inch of space around the edge that is NOT covered. I believe that this is necessary for air flow. Every other week I remove and clean my cover plates and mix the medium vigorously with a fork to remove dead spots , what you might call anaerobic areas , then I don’t feed them for a couple days. I think they “sour” if fed continually. I’m really happy with my Grindal Worms because I’ve never been so successful with them like this before. Going on three years now with the same colony.

Good info.  The Pronutro did work on my grindal and white worm cultures but as often is the case I neglected them for too long and they are toast.  I will have to get new cultures going again.