Hi guys. On this episode I'll be showing how easy it is to culture walter worms. An awesome first food for fry and adult fish alike . follow along make some for your fish and shrimps.
You can find and make your own microworm cultures from your local soil. Take a potato, cut it in half and dig out part of the center of it. Dig a hole and place into damp loam if possible, other soil types work too. Try to do this by a tree or other vegetation for cover. Cover it up with soil and mark where it is. Come back in a couple of days to check if you have some on the potato and scoop out some of the center into a culture dish. You are good to go.
Hi Mark, I use instant mash potato instead of oatmeal. Apparaently oatmeal stinks when the culture start of go off, but the mash does not. I learnt this from the Aquarium co-op video.
Mark, a great tip for the worm culture. Get a brown paper towel (not white as they have chemicals in) and cut it to the size of the surface area of the culture. Lay it on top of the oatmeal. You’ll see the worms the next day can get through it but the oatmeal cannot. Now you can scrape the worms off the paper towel with a plastic spoon. Try it out mate. You get a lot of worms easy. It also keeps their numbers down and prolongs the life span of the culture a little bit.
If I could give this video two thumbs up, I would. Absolutely everything one needs to know about Walter worms from culturing to cleaning to feeding. Thank you!
Followed your guide (thx Mark) - I found the ideal container for a big batch - An old CD spindle, cut the tube bit off about an inch down, and stuff that with a bit of Filter Floss
I think one of the most important things about culturing these worms which is rarely stated is that they are incredibly easy to look after. Once these Walter worms get going you can just ignore them for a few weeks, you don't have to harvest them at all unless you want to. If you have larger fish, cichlids for example it's really not worth trying to feed them Walter worms, micro worms, BBS etc, they're just not big enough. Just leave the culture well alone and every four weeks take 10 minutes of your time to start another one (ideally have two on the go at any moment staggered 2 weeks apart, just in case one crashes, you always have a back-up). This then becomes invaluable when you have an accidental spawning in your tank that you were unaware of and are suddenly confronted with 2-300 free-swimming fry looking for food. If you have a culture on the go you have a never ending supply of first food for your fry. It will cost you less than 3 quid a year - how does that compare with commercially available fry food?
@@tonymcpartland1770 Ram fry are not particularly small unlike many tetras, danios etc. They are certainly big enough to take any of the microworms, banana worms, walter worms etc as soon as they are free-swimming. Vinegar eels are also good - they are even easier to culture and maintain than microworms. The best thing is that all of these critters wriggle about and seem to trigger an attack response from cichlids, they also do not die instantly, they will survive a couple of days so they won't cause water quality issues like uneaten crushed flakes, egg yolk etc. Within 3 or 4 days your fry should be big enough to take baby brine shrimp. That has been my experience with other dwarf cichlids, kribensis etc.
Mark, I cultured these guys for years, along with the even smaller Banana worms and larger Micro worms. But using Gerber Mixed Grain (dry) baby food mix with Iron. I used oats like you when I started but found the baby food did two things better. First, it gut loads the worms with vitamins and iron and second, oats smell REALLY BAD when they go off at the end of a cultures life. The baby food mix doesn't exactly smell like roses at the end, but the smell is MUCH less repulsive.
For the holes in the container to what mushroom growers do just a slightly bigger hole and put a cotton bud in it it lets it breathe really well but nothing can get in or out
Good day Mark. My name is Louis. I live in Cape town South Africa. thanks for all your video love it and learn a lot from them ...I have have a question wounder if you can help...Where i live we do not find Walter worm cultures ...i was wondering how to i start my own culture from scratch ....thanks Regards from South Africa Cape town ..
Hi mate ! I really like all your advice on the videos you do and i really apreciate the work you do ! I would like to ask you about what substrate are you use in your tropical fish tanks?! Because i got gravel and i don t know why but my plants are all die slowly slowly … many thanks
I have a week off next week - NOW I have plans for it! I'm definitely going to try Walter worms for my Endlers, which ones might be best for tiger barbs?
I've never seen it done with oatmeal. Everyone that I have seen do it uses the instant mashed potato mix. It might be a fun little experiment to try all the different food bases for them.. one with the oatmeal, one with baby food, one with instant mashed potatoes, ect.... We could see if there is really a difference with growth with one or are they basically the same to the worm?
Great video, Hi Mark do you know what is biggest of that type of food? i.e. Banana,Walter, grindle and Micro worms and are they the same to prepare please?
Can anyone give me a better insight on how to keep these starter culture kits please? They came in plastic air tight bags, I have seen many videos that say room temperature is ok, what should that be, also should they have air flow? Etc. Thank you
Sorry for the misunderstanding, I have already made a culture and I don’t have any problem with it, it looks ok to me, from the videos I have seen on the internet. My question should have been I have used half of the starter kit I ordered from ebay, the second half is still in a air tight plastic bag, does it still need air? shall i leave it air tight? as i will use it later on to make a second culture
Hi mark been doing the Walter worm culture for a couple of months now but I got loads left and due to start my next culture what’s the best way to dispose of the excess do you just flush it away or should it be done a certain way loving the vids subs are going up nicely keep up the good work 👍
Hi Mark. I'm getting a culture today but I'm concerned as I'm going to Wales on holiday next week. Should I start my culture to feed my fish over the next week or leave it until I return ? Will the culture survive for 2 weeks?
Walter worms white worms micro worms what's the difference between all of them ? & potatoes works good but for baby betta frys it seems that they eat the fins of the fry fihses.
Hi mark, big fan of yours. Quick question, have you ever cultured tubifex worms? I'm looking at giving it a shot but can't find any information anywhere. Keep up the good work.
No I haven't but apparently Very easy to get a culture going. They're detritus worms and eat anything really. There's a few videos on RUclips showing you how it's done. Try dexter's world.
There are also banana worms which are also smaller than microworms, not sure what the difference is between banana worms and walter worms! maybe banana worms stay in the water column longer.
Is there a significant difference between Walter Worms and Micro-Worms? I have seen posts where some people say that Walter Worms are smaller and some people claim there is no difference. Do you know of a difference?
I have been making this for 2 weeks now and when days go by u get millions of them i have a big tub u see on the video after a few days there climbing up the tub i also do what mark does and feed them to my adult fish . But when u clean them how long can they stay in clean water for i have millions in a wee tub thanks
My female betta was in the same tank with the male but she was in a plastic cylinder so she wouldn't fight or try spawning until he established his territory and everything and made a bubble nest but when I came up in the morning she had layed her eggs and they were all white and at the top of the water. Do u know what happened?
@@MARKSAQUATICS will they lay them after they've spawned like 20 minutes to an hour after. My brother let her out and then put her back in and we never witnessed the spawning but we did have eggs come out of her when we went back in. Now he has built a bubble nest and theyre all in it.
Great alternative to bbs, much less of a faff by the looks of it. What happened to the first 2 spawns? The mini cultures you had, are they porridge and yeast too or is there a good way to store them longer? Not really sure what to do with my grindal worm culture when I go on hols, it'll be a pain if it crashes.
Yes they're also porridge and yeast. If you make a big batch like I did it will last for weeks. In the past I've set up a fish feeder over a grindle worm culture and set it to drop crushed dog food once every two days. It worked great.👍😀 Not much luck with the first two spawns,but this lot is doing great.
Oh that's a good idea, would need a tall tub then I guess so I can keep the flies out. Hoping to try betta breeding in October so getting my ducks in a row ;)
@@MARKSAQUATICS I watched the video again to see if I did anything wrong because my culture died off, and I just noticed you replied. Man, youtube's notification system is unreliable. Thanks!
Hollow out two halves of potato Bury the 2 hollow halves of potato in the ground Wait 1 to 2 week to allow microworms to colonise the buried potato Carefully dig up the 2 potato halves you buried. Scrape the inside of the potato, these scrapings are your starter! Prepare some quick oats or oatmeal Add the oatmeal to the plastic container Sprinkle yeast on top of the oatmeal Add your potato scrapings which contain microworms from step 4 or starter culture Cut air holes in the contain lid and store the culture at room temperature After 3 to 5 days your microworm culture should be thriving!
I,ve been keeping theses worms for about two months i keep then similar to Marks system haven't been using yeast though i've used moistened bread, oatmeal, and instant mashed I've found then bread brings on the culture fastest the oatmeal most productive but slower to come on and the instant mash to be my poorest media for production my results are based on keeping in a 77 degree room
Nematodes are a phylum of worms. There are 3 (or 4 if you want to count velvet worms, but they usually aren't counted.) Nematoda, annelid (probably what most people think of as worms... Earth worms ect), and Platyhelminthes (flat worms).
@@MARKSAQUATICS You are the MAN Mark! I've had this little dude for about a month now and never knew what he was. Thank you sir! Absolutely perfect tutorial video by the way. Excellent work on it sir!
I think I ordered the wrong thing. I ordered white worms and they are too big to feed to fry. Are white worms and micro worms the same thing, they are about 2 inches?
You can find and make your own microworm cultures from your local soil. Take a potato, cut it in half and dig out part of the center of it. Dig a hole and place into damp loam if possible, other soil types work too. Try to do this by a tree or other vegetation for cover. Cover it up with soil and mark where it is. Come back in a couple of days to check if you have some on the potato and scoop out some of the center into a culture dish. You are good to go.
tryed this, it dos not work in denmark....no worms appear, not in my garden anyway hehe. is there any other way to get them from nature?
Hi Mark,
I use instant mash potato instead of oatmeal. Apparaently oatmeal stinks when the culture start of go off, but the mash does not. I learnt this from the Aquarium co-op video.
what consistency do you make the potatoes? Same as in this video?
I use bread, definitely smells way less than the oatmeal base.
Mark, a great tip for the worm culture. Get a brown paper towel (not white as they have chemicals in) and cut it to the size of the surface area of the culture. Lay it on top of the oatmeal. You’ll see the worms the next day can get through it but the oatmeal cannot. Now you can scrape the worms off the paper towel with a plastic spoon. Try it out mate. You get a lot of worms easy. It also keeps their numbers down and prolongs the life span of the culture a little bit.
Awesome idea Steven I'll give it a go. We're always learning. 👍😀
Live food seems to make a big difference for fish, young and old! Great video
tried this out (using microworms)... holy crap, theres millions of them! -its so fun watching my fry go totally bananas :-)
If I could give this video two thumbs up, I would. Absolutely everything one needs to know about Walter worms from culturing to cleaning to feeding. Thank you!
I just found you. And I've gotten nothing done this evening except watch your videos. Well done on keeping me still. ⚘
Followed your guide (thx Mark) - I found the ideal container for a big batch - An old CD spindle, cut the tube bit off about an inch down, and stuff that with a bit of Filter Floss
I think one of the most important things about culturing these worms which is rarely stated is that they are incredibly easy to look after. Once these Walter worms get going you can just ignore them for a few weeks, you don't have to harvest them at all unless you want to. If you have larger fish, cichlids for example it's really not worth trying to feed them Walter worms, micro worms, BBS etc, they're just not big enough.
Just leave the culture well alone and every four weeks take 10 minutes of your time to start another one (ideally have two on the go at any moment staggered 2 weeks apart, just in case one crashes, you always have a back-up).
This then becomes invaluable when you have an accidental spawning in your tank that you were unaware of and are suddenly confronted with 2-300 free-swimming fry looking for food. If you have a culture on the go you have a never ending supply of first food for your fry. It will cost you less than 3 quid a year - how does that compare with commercially available fry food?
Thanks for the tip, what would you suggest I feed baby ram fry?
@@tonymcpartland1770 Ram fry are not particularly small unlike many tetras, danios etc. They are certainly big enough to take any of the microworms, banana worms, walter worms etc as soon as they are free-swimming. Vinegar eels are also good - they are even easier to culture and maintain than microworms. The best thing is that all of these critters wriggle about and seem to trigger an attack response from cichlids, they also do not die instantly, they will survive a couple of days so they won't cause water quality issues like uneaten crushed flakes, egg yolk etc. Within 3 or 4 days your fry should be big enough to take baby brine shrimp. That has been my experience with other dwarf cichlids, kribensis etc.
Your videos are packed with useful information. 👌👌
When I get my South America tank going I'm definitely going to get some of them. Thanks for the great vids Mark keep them coming.
Mark your videos are saving me a lot of money. And they are always very interesting.
I truly enjoy your videos. Always very informative and it was fascinating to also know the history of these nematodes.
Wow Mark just watching your video with your fighting fish and the man is outstanding he's awsome and his fins are so long great fish
Thanks for watching 😊👍
Well you learn something new every day!!
Thanks for putting this information up.. With your help I finally have some zebra danio fry. Thanks Sir Mark !!!
Remind me never to ask you for a brew.... that teaspoon has seen some sights
Great informative video! Thanks!
As usual a great informative video, by the way my shrimps are multiplying by the day, can’t thank you enough for the help you gave me.
Been following you since the early days. Your videos are always very informative. Keep up the great work.
Brilliant video as always Mark, I am going to give this one a go definitely 👍🏻👍🏻⭐️⭐️
Go for it. they're a fantastic fry food.Thanks for watching.👍😀
An excellent video. Thank you
might have to give this a try.... always seemed a bit daunting trying to get them out the culture into water. Great video as always mark
Thanks for this vid. Just ordered my own culture.
Very interesting,' Thanks Mark!
Great video, I want to do a micro worm culture once I start breeding my Betta fish. Thanks for the video 👌
Brilliant thank you new subscriber
Thank you.😀👍
Mark, I cultured these guys for years, along with the even smaller Banana worms and larger Micro worms. But using Gerber Mixed Grain (dry) baby food mix with Iron. I used oats like you when I started but found the baby food did two things better. First, it gut loads the worms with vitamins and iron and second, oats smell REALLY BAD when they go off at the end of a cultures life. The baby food mix doesn't exactly smell like roses at the end, but the smell is MUCH less repulsive.
Thank you Tom I'll give your method a go. 😀👍
Thank You.
I drill a bigger hole in the center of the lid then tape a piece of cotton gauze over it for the same reason as your pinholes in the lid.
For the holes in the container to what mushroom growers do just a slightly bigger hole and put a cotton bud in it it lets it breathe really well but nothing can get in or out
Good day Mark. My name is Louis. I live in Cape town South Africa. thanks for all your video love it and learn a lot from them ...I have have a question wounder if you can help...Where i live we do not find Walter worm cultures ...i was wondering how to i start my own culture from scratch ....thanks Regards from South Africa Cape town ..
that tank looks amazing
Thank you. and thanks for watching.👍😀
Thanks.
I love porridge😍 great video, you explain everything so well, thanks for all your videos, I enjoy them so much, take care❤️
Thanks for watching.👍😀
all the good ones are lolololololo love it
Great job
Hi mate ! I really like all your advice on the videos you do and i really apreciate the work you do !
I would like to ask you about what substrate are you use in your tropical fish tanks?! Because i got gravel and i don t know why but my plants are all die slowly slowly … many thanks
Hi I use JBL PROSCAPE but any aqua scaping media will work for plants.
@@MARKSAQUATICS Thanks very much ! So do you think is something else wrong but not the gravel?! Many thanks
Mark, tell us a bit about how do you keep your water parameters and filters.
It all depends on what you keep really.👍
I have a week off next week - NOW I have plans for it! I'm definitely going to try Walter worms for my Endlers, which ones might be best for tiger barbs?
I wonder, has anybody ever witnessed their shrimp eat these little wigglers before?
you see them eat it in the video.
I've never seen it done with oatmeal. Everyone that I have seen do it uses the instant mashed potato mix. It might be a fun little experiment to try all the different food bases for them.. one with the oatmeal, one with baby food, one with instant mashed potatoes, ect.... We could see if there is really a difference with growth with one or are they basically the same to the worm?
Great video, Hi Mark do you know what is biggest of that type of food? i.e. Banana,Walter, grindle and Micro worms and are they the same to prepare please?
Hi Paul . Grindle worms are the biggest.
MARK'S AQUATICS Thanks Mark cheers 👍🏻
So these are good to feed to adult plecos and corydoras as well? Also great channel, hooked on your videos.
Hello Mark, I have a question, do the worms survive under water for long or do they die after a second or 2
Where do you get the worms too start with
Can anyone give me a better insight on how to keep these starter culture kits please? They came in plastic air tight bags, I have seen many videos that say room temperature is ok, what should that be, also should they have air flow? Etc. Thank you
Sorry for the misunderstanding, I have already made a culture and I don’t have any problem with it, it looks ok to me, from the videos I have seen on the internet. My question should have been I have used half of the starter kit I ordered from ebay, the second half is still in a air tight plastic bag, does it still need air? shall i leave it air tight? as i will use it later on to make a second culture
Hi mark been doing the Walter worm culture for a couple of months now but I got loads left and due to start my next culture what’s the best way to dispose of the excess do you just flush it away or should it be done a certain way loving the vids subs are going up nicely keep up the good work 👍
I normally flush all the old cultures after the new ones are established. 😀👍
how long should baby bettas be fed on vinegar eels?
What did you cook the porridge oats in? Tap water?
I use bread
Hi Mark. I'm getting a culture today but I'm concerned as I'm going to Wales on holiday next week. Should I start my culture to feed my fish over the next week or leave it until I return ? Will the culture survive for 2 weeks?
Can you feed these to angelfish fry? If so from which age?
Do you need a lid or can I cover the container with a piece of fine fabric held in place with a rubber band.
Walter worms white worms micro worms what's the difference between all of them ? & potatoes works good but for baby betta frys it seems that they eat the fins of the fry fihses.
Hi mark, big fan of yours. Quick question, have you ever cultured tubifex worms? I'm looking at giving it a shot but can't find any information anywhere.
Keep up the good work.
No I haven't but apparently Very easy to get a culture going. They're detritus worms and eat anything really. There's a few videos on RUclips showing you how it's done. Try dexter's world.
Hello from Algeria. Many of US do not understand english, please can you translate your vidéo (subtitle).thank you.
Hi Mark. I was wondering if you could keep the Walter Worms in a fridge or freezer to slow them down / preserve them?
There are also banana worms which are also smaller than microworms, not sure what the difference is between banana worms and walter worms! maybe banana worms stay in the water column longer.
Do you keep these in the fridge or at room temp
I keep mine at room temp. 👍😀
Is there a significant difference between Walter Worms and Micro-Worms? I have seen posts where some people say that Walter Worms are smaller and some people claim there is no difference. Do you know of a difference?
There's no much difference between micro worms and Walter worms.
Addicted to marks aquatics now 🤦♀️😂
Thanks for watching. 😀👍
I have been making this for 2 weeks now and when days go by u get millions of them i have a big tub u see on the video after a few days there climbing up the tub i also do what mark does and feed them to my adult fish . But when u clean them how long can they stay in clean water for i have millions in a wee tub thanks
G0od day mark, If i start my own culture do i need a starter or not?
Have you ever tried to make it without a starter culture? Btw nice video, very informative keep up the good work! :)
Yes I've done the bury a potato in the ground trick . It does work but its easier to get a culture.
My female betta was in the same tank with the male but she was in a plastic cylinder so she wouldn't fight or try spawning until he established his territory and everything and made a bubble nest but when I came up in the morning she had layed her eggs and they were all white and at the top of the water. Do u know what happened?
Nothing wrong. Betta eggs are white when first laid. 😀👍
@@MARKSAQUATICS will they lay them after they've spawned like 20 minutes to an hour after. My brother let her out and then put her back in and we never witnessed the spawning but we did have eggs come out of her when we went back in. Now he has built a bubble nest and theyre all in it.
Hi mark waiting for more of your acting skills . Do you own a actual shop with coral tanks in it . Or just work from home .😎
I run the shop from my home address.
Are you using this for the plecos as well?
I Just got my starter on ebay today. Teeming with them already. Will bristlenose fry also eat these?
Plecos are algea eaters
Know,they will eat cucumbers,zucchini’s,and algae on driftwood!
Thats what she said!!! lol
Where to find walter worms in the wild
Are these micro worms? Looks similar
These are walter worms. smaller than micro .👍😀
Would these worms be small enough for dwarf rainbow fry?
Hi. Not as a first food but after a couple of weeks yes.
Is that dry active yeast.
It sure is. The packet stuff you buy for bread making.
Great alternative to bbs, much less of a faff by the looks of it.
What happened to the first 2 spawns?
The mini cultures you had, are they porridge and yeast too or is there a good way to store them longer? Not really sure what to do with my grindal worm culture when I go on hols, it'll be a pain if it crashes.
Yes they're also porridge and yeast. If you make a big batch like I did it will last for weeks. In the past I've set up a fish feeder over a grindle worm culture and set it to drop crushed dog food once every two days. It worked great.👍😀
Not much luck with the first two spawns,but this lot is doing great.
Oh that's a good idea, would need a tall tub then I guess so I can keep the flies out. Hoping to try betta breeding in October so getting my ducks in a row ;)
I put a long tube in to the lid of the tub and then put a funnel on the end and clamped the feeder to the edge of that so it dropped down the tube.
Ok thanks! I'll have to go think this one through - or just take them with me to France and back lol.
Hi Mark have you any videos on parasites and how to get rid? I've been losing fish for a few weeks and have just seen I've got anchor worms
Only a white spot video.
Have you tried doing a culture with ready brek Mark. It says it’s got salt in on the side of the packet
Hi. I've never tried that before but I'm sure it would work.
Hi Mark are they mico worms or smaller ?
HI..Can the you feed your fish just water worms, or is this an addition to the standard fish food? Cheers
its for the kiddows and shrimps mate ;)
How are you my friend, I want to teach me how to find white worms and how to extract them from their source
What type of yeast is used please. There are so many types available, I'm lost, help😂
Hi any type of yeast will work.
@@MARKSAQUATICS thank you so.much Mark
I would like to try it myself. Anyone selling cultures in Johannesburg.
How do I know when to start another culture, in other words, how do I know they've ran out of food to propagate? Thanks!
Start another one when the amount of worm your getting slows down. I normally start another one after about 3 weeks. 😀👍
@@MARKSAQUATICS I watched the video again to see if I did anything wrong because my culture died off, and I just noticed you replied. Man, youtube's notification system is unreliable. Thanks!
ruclips.net/channel/UCDPyJzQZUjy3Ep2MZKP1Czgfeatured?view_as=public
How can i start, without starter culture ?
Hollow out two halves of potato
Bury the 2 hollow halves of potato in the ground
Wait 1 to 2 week to allow microworms to colonise the buried potato
Carefully dig up the 2 potato halves you buried. Scrape the inside of the potato, these scrapings are your starter!
Prepare some quick oats or oatmeal
Add the oatmeal to the plastic container
Sprinkle yeast on top of the oatmeal
Add your potato scrapings which contain microworms from step 4 or starter culture
Cut air holes in the contain lid and store the culture at room temperature
After 3 to 5 days your microworm culture should be thriving!
@@MARKSAQUATICS Thank You.
I,ve been keeping theses worms for about two months i keep then similar to Marks system haven't been using yeast though i've used moistened bread, oatmeal, and instant mashed I've found then bread brings on the culture fastest the oatmeal most productive but slower to come on and the instant mash to be my poorest media for production my results are based on keeping in a 77 degree room
Nematodes are a phylum of worms. There are 3 (or 4 if you want to count velvet worms, but they usually aren't counted.)
Nematoda, annelid (probably what most people think of as worms... Earth worms ect), and Platyhelminthes (flat worms).
How do you store your culture from day to day?
I leave the pots in my workshop out of direct sunlight.
Pls upload more offten
What if I don't have a started culture?
You can buy starter cultures on Ebay
can these worms survive in water??
They last a long time in water, but can't live it.
@@MARKSAQUATICS ok good to know
oh cripes i did not know you had to wash them ,,ooops
Hello, can you translate in french please? Thann you.
walter worm are same microworms or different ?
They're all worms some smaller than others.👍😀
thank you
Are Walter worms, banana worms and micro worms all the same worms?
I believe they're different, banana worms being the smallest. :-)
what i found around the www. the banana worms are the smallest, then come walterworms in size and then mircro worms as the biggest.
Can I use whole wheat powder instead of rolled oats?
Yes that will be fine 😀👍
ruclips.net/video/pQb4MIjIPaU/видео.html What type of Endlers where those? I have one and no idea what it is.
Hi. They're black bar Endlers 😀👍
@@MARKSAQUATICS You are the MAN Mark! I've had this little dude for about a month now and never knew what he was. Thank you sir!
Absolutely perfect tutorial video by the way. Excellent work on it sir!
Cheers 😀👍
Where do u get first Bach of the worms
Back garden under a rock
These are the same as the so called micro worms?
I think I ordered the wrong thing. I ordered white worms and they are too big to feed to fry. Are white worms and micro worms the same thing, they are about 2 inches?
I use bread