# Tutorial how to raise black worms for breeding betta



## 920fish (Aug 15, 2011)

Here my tutorial on how to raise your own farm of black worms for breeding your bettas. Black worms are super easy to breed and maintian. They are little wrigglers so your bettas will love them and they also fill up their stomach faster than dry food. If you have any questions ask me in youtube since i don't come here alot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOFtAA4qIcA


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## Bluebell (Oct 8, 2011)

LoL! my mom would freak out if i have a single worm in the house  she doesn't even let me buy my betta freeze dried blood worms


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

^Your mom would be horrified of my room! I think I have nearly 15,000 adult mealworms with my colony for our geckos


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## Bluebell (Oct 8, 2011)

More than worms she'll be terrified to see your profile pic which has a snake  
on sunday i went to buy my betta a prime bottle and my mom was with me and when i was leaving the shop i heard my mom scream when i turned around she looked frozen and super scared cuz she was less than a meter away from a glass box containing a massive snake  she has a phobia of snakes and wriggly things


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## 920fish (Aug 15, 2011)

Lol just hide your container in a dark corner the worms doesn't climb out lol. Mine don't smell.


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## Bluebell (Oct 8, 2011)

yeh im gonna do that! my fish hates pellet food..


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## 920fish (Aug 15, 2011)

Well one of the fish in the video didn't eat when i first got her refuse everything so i had to get live food and blackworms was what brought her back to a healthy state.


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## GreenTea (Jan 31, 2011)

purplemuffin said:


> ^Your mom would be horrified of my room! I think I have nearly 15,000 adult mealworms with my colony for our geckos



Oh my goodness. Well then....


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## purplemuffin (Aug 12, 2010)

Hey, better than spending gas money every week to pick up new ones.  Geckos don't eat dead worms, gotta be live! I just toss in leftover veggies and oatmeal and they breed like crazy!

 Breeding blackworms sounds interesting as well. I LOVE having a stock of feeders at home!


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

My mom doesn't like the fact that my black worms are in the fridge :0 But I'm getting a couple of mini fridges...one for myself and one for my fish room.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I raise/house blackworms to use for my wild bettas as they prefer live food, and I prefer knowing the conditions my worms are housed in.

I just use an unheated 2 gallon tank with about an inch of gravel at the bottom. I use a small internal filter for oxygenation and throw in all my decaying Indian Almond Leaves for the blackworms to feed on. 

I do a couple of water changes a week using water from my cycled tank and throw in some NLS flakes every so often. The worms can go through a surprising amount of mulm and leaves in a week. 

So far fingers crossed, I have not had a single case of dropsy caused by feeding blackworms. Plus it's a guarantee I'll find my wilds' spawning after a good feed of them.


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

I believe dropsy is more linked to brown worms than black worms. Although Linda Olson gave me some antibiotics when I told her I was feeding my fish black worms...I never had a problem with them. In fact juvie bettas LOVE them...I can only imagine how the wilds are.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I think dropsy is caused more by the conditions some of the worms are housed in. I know some people are very against feeding live worms of any kind. 

Unfortunately, all my albimarginata pair will eat is blackworms and frozen brine shrimp. However, they are thriving and have already spawned three times now. I keep finding all these fry in the main tank on top of those already in the breeder's net. I guess there goes my nice 30 gallon I wanted to use for some natives :sob:


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## MrVampire181 (May 12, 2009)

I love live food...heck all my bettas ate were bugs all summer long and they did great out there!


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## Bettas Rule (Aug 18, 2011)

Wow thanks for this!! I always drive 45 minutes away to the local fish store to buy my black worms, I had no idea they were so easy to cultivate! I am gonna try this out for myself. How quickly do they reproduce?


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

I thought black worms were like tubifex (google pictures). But I was wrong. they look much bigger and are apparently easier to keep.


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## 920fish (Aug 15, 2011)

Bettas Rule said:


> Wow thanks for this!! I always drive 45 minutes away to the local fish store to buy my black worms, I had no idea they were so easy to cultivate! I am gonna try this out for myself. How quickly do they reproduce?


 
No clue how fast they reproduce but i usually do 1 time feeding each week or every other week and still finds alot of them in their. The more you feed them the more they will reproduce base on the info i found online. I dont feed mine alot. Once in a while i just feed them shrimp pellets and raw meat.


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## Bettas Rule (Aug 18, 2011)

920fish said:


> No clue how fast they reproduce but i usually do 1 time feeding each week or every other week and still finds alot of them in their. The more you feed them the more they will reproduce base on the info i found online. I dont feed mine alot. Once in a while i just feed them shrimp pellets and raw meat.


Thanks for this info!! I have never had a sick fish turn down black worms. They are like candy for fish LOL.


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## 920fish (Aug 15, 2011)

Another plus is the black worms would be safier if you breed them urself and petstore black worms are expensive for a little bag and they also tend to have tons of dead one.


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