Dero Worms

[dr.tran]

I bought an package off aquabid a little while ago that was suppose to have dero worms in it. It said it was in the roots of the floating plants, duck weed and frog bite. When I got it, it was very very little and I wasn't sure if it was dero worms. Eventually I gave up on them because I couldn't culture them to anywhere close to what I needed.

Then just recently, I found out it had been growing in one of my tanks that I had torn down. No fishes or plants just water. There was also no heater or filter. I was too lazy to empty the tank and I put it off for about a month. Now all the sudden I have thousands of these worms!

The only problem is that they don't live in the bottom of the tank but at the water surface. They seem to cling on to the glass. They do form balls of worms on the roots of my floating plants. So far they are great to feed to my fish fry. They also look like this

The Dero worm: an uninvited, but welcome, aquarium guest - YouTube

The Dero worm: an uninvited, but welcome, aquarium guest - YouTube

But I'm not sure at all. They don't seem to live on the bottom. From what I know about dero worms, they like to live in gravel or some kind of fibrous media. But these guys love the surface. Also they tend to swim in the water column when disturbed. They look like extremely small tubifex worms and my rainbowfish fry love them. Been feeding them these dero like worms for a month now and no problems. In fact the fish grow like crazy. I'll post some pictures tonight when I get home.

In the mean time, I have no clue? Have you guys had experiences with dero worms before? Does this description fit them? I am thinking of buying pure dero worms from a biological supply to make sure but I wanna check with you guys first.

[VisionQuest28]

I have been wanting to try these for a long time now. They seem to be available pretty sporadically though. The biological supply house seems to be the only place to regularly get them. I just never actually pulled the trigger on setting up a system for them or buying them.

I cant really answer your question on whether they sound like dero worms or not, I just have no "real world" experience with them. From what i know, them swimming in the water column and staying at the surface does sound kind of odd to me too. But really, I dont know. But in all reality...who cares...???

Your fish love them, they are growing well on them, and by the sounds of it you have a self sustaining supply of them at this point. To me, thats the perfect combo. Call them whatever you want, but your fish are calling them "dinner". haha

[mistergreen]

Can they be produced as a live food source like grindals, blackworms etc..

[wkndracer]

Detritus Worms (Whiteworms) / Annelids.
They feed on decomposing materals.

[dr.tran]

Crap being a little overloaded with classes and this job right now. I'll try to post a picture as soon as I can.

I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my live food cultures. I like everything to be pure and labeled. Especially when it comes to identifying my organisms, even what kind of infusoria I have. P.S. paramecium aurelia rocks!

But your right, it works and I am happy. Trying to work how to culture them but so far, it seems easy as pie. I cleaned the tank and it seems like there are millions of these buggers. There are several species of dero worms, maybe I got some kind of funny one?

[wkndracer]

I knew I had linked to a member vid of tthese things before and found it

http://s151.beta.photobucket.com/use...19100592377422

[unissuh]

Have you checked the gravel to see whether they are hiding in there too? If they're in an abandoned tank, it might be due to lack of current/food at the bottom?

I have a crapload of these, esp in tanks without carnivores, and while there are a lot at the surface there are even more in the gravel bed. They find food pretty fast, drop in an algae tab into the tank and there is a bed of worms covering it in a couple of hours.

[auban]

i like to culture them by sitting them outside in a tub filled with green water. adding a bit of composted organic cow manure seems to help, they seem to really like nasty water. since they can handle extremely hot temperatures, i dont normally have problems with the culture getting contaminated. they will grow where other things wont.

here is a short video of some that i had just collected. if you feed them to fish, you should shake them up, since they form balls of worms pretty quickly, which most fish ignore.

http://s1242.photobucket.com/albums/...722_192055.mp4

[VisionQuest28]

Originally Posted by mistergreen

Can they be produced as a live food source like grindals, blackworms etc..

They are aquatic worms, so more like tubifex worms i guess.

Originally Posted by dr.tran

I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to my live food cultures. I like everything to be pure and labeled. Especially when it comes to identifying my organisms, even what kind of infusoria I have. P.S. paramecium aurelia rocks!

yeah i can understand that. I have come across some things that i thought looked like great fish food, but not knowing what they were made me not try it. Not so much the not knowing WHAT they were, but if they might harm the fish somehow. Even though my gut told me that it would probably have been fine.

Anyway, maybe you will be able to get a positive ID on them, and feel a-ok... haha

[VivaDaWolf]

Is that what they are..? I had a flux of these guys in my fry tank..no clue where they came from, but they would hang above the water line..if I push em down, they start spazzing out.


Theyre all gone now, maybe eaten by the fry but, was interesting when I had em.

[dr.tran]

Nah not like that. The are red, just like micro tubifex worms. But its cool, I got it id'ed and it it is deroworms after all.