Where can I dispose microworms?

[Claudia]

I know stupid q, but i heard that is not good to dispose microworms in the sink because you will end up having microworms crwling back up..i don't know if this is true but where is a good place to dispose an old microworm culture?

[WaterPond]

Why not sell it? I would be willing to take it of your hands if you would like.

[Claudia]

I am not selling because is old and i am getting almost nothing anymore plus i am not a pro on this but i have read that you are supposed to dispose of it after 3 weeks. I am in vancouver :)

[Melody]

You could freeze the culture and then garbage it in a sealed ziplock or the like. :smile: Don't forget to take a bit of the culture and place it in a container of fresh food. It should fill up for you in no time.

[Zebrapl3co]

You can flush it down the toilet. Just watch out of the splash ...

[Claudia]

I did Melody, I took a little bit and i have made a new culture. I think I'll use the toilet :smile:

[Melody]

I use oatmeal baby cereal when I have cultures on the go. It gutloads them with some nutrition for the fish. :yes: It does go bad a little faster, but not much.

[Claudia]

That is how i have mine with cereal but i got some from another guy and he uses bread seems to work ok but this morning was all dry so i send him a message and we eill se what happends. I think i like the one with cereal best. :;):

[Slipstream]

OO, u could use fruit loops, than your fishies will have different flavored food ;)

[Claudia]

sorry i meant oatmeal not cereal daaahh to me hahhaha

[Melody]

I figured that's what you meant, its cereal too. I think Slipstream is just being a bratt :laugh: .

I started with mine in oatmeal, then started mixing the baby cereal in. I dust a tiny bit of spirulina on it occasionally too. I don't know if they eat it or not, but it makes me feel better....lol.

[Claudia]

Yeah it works good but the one with bread seems good too, the only thing is that it dry out. I send a note to the guy that sold it to me to see what i can do about it, he told me before this happen that to make a new culture i have to add water but i don't know what to do with this cause is really dry and thick ( i did put some water) but seems thick still

[Melody]

You can always give up on the bread and do it the other way, which should make them more nutritious anyway. We all use the method that works best for us :smile: . Then if you want, try the bread again with a bit of the existing culture (once the culture is going well) so if it doesn't work, you haven't lost them all.

[PPulcher]

It is buried someplace in my magazine pile, but I have an issue of JAKA (Journal of the American Killifish Association) where someone tested out several methods and recipes for producing microworms. The winning recipe was the one that produced the worms for the longest and didn't smell so bad.

Anyone that has let a microworm culture go bad knows that smell...

I'll try to find it and summarize the info.

[Claudia]

Thanks ppulcher that wowuld be great :smile:

[PPulcher]

Here's the Summary.


Media Tested:

Oats
Mixed baby cereal
Yellow corn meal
Gram flour (Besan)
Wheat gluten flour
Instant mashed potatoes

For each media test, two tablespoons were mixed with approximately 50 yeast particles (instant yeast) added to a 2 cup container mixed with enough water to make a thick 'soup.' Cultures were inoculated with 150-200 worms.

Within a week, the corn meal, gram flour and wheat gluten flour "became disaters" and were discarded.

After 28 days the oat culture was still productive, but close to crashing and began to smell. The baby cereal culture was similar. The instant mashed potato culture was still producing good number of microworms. The experiment was continued to six weeks, and the oat and baby cereal cultures had just a few worms moving around that could be used to re culture. The potato culture lasted for 7 weeks before it died out.

Reference: Ramsey, David. (2006). "Microworms for the long haul." JAKA: 39 (5-6). Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec 2006 pp 169-172.

I use baby cereal, because I've got al box on hand that my son never got around to eating ;) I mix it a little thicker than the article.

[Claudia]

U use any mixed baby cereal? or it matters if is flavour one?

[PPulcher]

The box I've got right now is a fruit flavoured one. I don't think it matters.