# Planted Tanks > Beginners' Corner >  My Tubifex Worms Culture

## antjoey1122

Hi I am new to this forum, and I had setup a tubifex worm culture - DIY. I am happy to share this.
IMG_20150913_145904_small.jpg
IMG_20150913_145911_small.jpg

Please give me comments...Cheers!

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## tohtruck

Hi, maybe you can start by sharing how you build it and how it works? and is that an Ikea utensils holder at the top of the set up?

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## antjoey1122

The idea is to have a system to provide mechanical and biological filtration while providing circulation and make easy to harvest the worms.

The way it works is to re-circulate filtered water to a tray containing the worms. The tray provides for barriers (Bulkheads) to keep most of the worms from draining. The water is drained back to a section of the aquarium with some big size gravels. The big size gravels help prevent the worms floating out while at the same time are easier to clean than say, sand. The worms are further separated from the filtration system by have a overflow box - microwave container from kitchen.

The filtration system consists of: a submersible air power mini spong filter to provide for mechanical. A micron bag full of porous bio-media for added on biological filtration.

The items used can be found at any LFS or Pet store and hardware store.

1. Aquarium: SGD7.50 Tank

2. Tray: I found the tray at the kitchen section in hardware store only SGD1.90, it is supposed to be used as an organizer for cutlery for small drawer.

3. Filter: Air powered Spong filter

4. Powerhead: Evo ...the smallest

5. A micron bag used for chemical media

6. Microwave container

7. Gravels

8. Tube for overflow, which I drilled a hole in the Tray at the most isolated section of the Tray.

9. Tubing and Spray bar (DIY from plastic tube bought from LFS)

I have yet to make adjustment to regulate the flow, so I added wire mesh to put on top of the spray bar to make the flow from spray to ebb.
Lots of DIY and lots of fun.

Will post pics of the components, when I have time.....Cheers!

Enjoy!

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## Guppendler

Interesting, how long the culture has been going. And how do you cope with the smell of the worms?

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## tetrakid

Thank you for posting this nice setup.  :Smile:

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## antjoey1122

It's been going for close to 3 months... Change water about every 2 weeks.

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## antjoey1122

The active carbon I added in the micron bag help.

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## Bern C

:Shocked:  :Shocked:  :Shocked:  Awesome setup... Thanks for sharing. Mind sharing how do you feed them? XD Any secret recipe?

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## antjoey1122

I've fed rotted leaves and flakes.....Secret recipe... Maybe occasional dead fish.. :Laughing:

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## Urban Aquaria

Thats an interesting design... sort of like an aquaponic style sump setup for the tubifex.  :Well done: 

I'm also curious about the smell generated from such cultures, especially with the generous amount of tubifex in the tray... i guess your activated carbon and ketapang leaves do help to minimize it.

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## antjoey1122

Yes....ketapang leaves does and carbon helps.

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## antjoey1122

> Yes....ketapang leaves does and carbon helps.


Yes like aquaponic... That's something I'm planning on doing

Sent from my HM NOTE 1LTE using Tapatalk

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## tetrakid

> Thats an interesting design... sort of like an aquaponic style sump setup for the tubifex. 
> 
> I'm also curious about the smell generated from such cultures, especially with the generous amount of tubifex in the tray... i guess your activated carbon and ketapang leaves do help to minimize it.


If properly done and with profuse oxygenation, there should be no or only minimal foul smell. 
Intense foul smell is caused by fast anaerobic decaying of dead worms due to lack of oxygen.

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## antjoey1122

Yes, the high frequency cycling is the trick to increase aeration and probably reduce the smell. I was thinking of pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius), which I smell very nice fragrance from a pond near Sakura restaurant in Admiralty Park Singapore. I had also added that to the water.

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## Bern C

> I've fed rotted leaves and flakes.....Secret recipe... Maybe occasional dead fish..


^_^ Thanks for sharing your secret recipe. XD Dead fish will be yummy but... might stink or spread disease? 
Really like your innovative setup.

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## antjoey1122

I actually found out from another forum they are feeding fish poop to these worms.

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## antjoey1122

Let update with better explanation.

The design is to have shallow water to ensure tubi do not get drown.

The idea is to have a system to provide mechanical and biological filtration while providing circulation and make easy to harvest the worms.

The way it works is to re-circulate filtered water to a tray containing the worms. The tray provides for barriers (Bulkheads) to keep most of the worms from draining. The water is drained back to a section of the aquarium with some big size gravels. The big size gravels help prevent the worms floating out while at the same time are easier to clean than say, sand. The worms are further separated from the filtration system by have an overflow box - microwave container from kitchen.

The filtration system consists of: a submersible air power mini sponge filter to provide for mechanical. A micron bag full of porous bio-media for added on biological filtration.

The items used can be found at any LFS or Pet store and hardware store.

1. Aquarium: SGD7.50 Tank

2. Tray: I found the tray at the kitchen section in hardware store only SGD1.90, it is supposed to be used as an organizer for cutlery for small drawer.

3. Filter: Air powered Sponge filter

4. Powerhead: Evo ...the smallest

5. A micron bag used for biological media

6. Microwave container as separator

7. Gravels

8. Tube for overflow, which I drilled a hole in the Tray at the most isolated section of the Tray.

9. Tubing and Spray bar (DIY from plastic tube bought from LFS)

I have yet to make adjustment to regulate the flow, so I added wire mesh to put on top of the spray bar to make the flow from spray to ebb.

Lots of DIY and lots of fun.

Hope this explanation is clear enough 

i am looking at making this into a bigger production for all my fishes.

My Tubifex Worms Culture.jpg

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## Bern C

:Knockout:  I tried culture tubi but almost faint due to the smell and daily WC. Not sure what the tubi farm feed their tubi that cause such intense stinky smell. 
You got a awesome setup to solve this issue. How often do you do WC?? I think after a while of culturing, your tubi will be cleaner & healthier than those from the farm.

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## antjoey1122

> I tried culture tubi but almost faint due to the smell and daily WC. Not sure what the tubi farm feed their tubi that cause such intense stinky smell. 
> You got a awesome setup to solve this issue. How often do you do WC?? I think after a while of culturing, your tubi will be cleaner & healthier than those from the farm.


Hi Bern C,

I do WC weekly, together when I do my fish tank WC. I am changing and most likely upgrading this to a bigger scale, so can feed all my fish.

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## boofeng

That's a very nice design! Bookmarked for future reference - though I'm not in need of tubifex right now. Thanks for updating!  :Smile:

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## Bern C

> Hi Bern C,
> 
> I do WC weekly, together when I do my fish tank WC. I am changing and most likely upgrading this to a bigger scale, so can feed all my fish.


A good setup to reduce lot of maintenance works.  :Jump for joy:  Looking forward for your bigger setup.

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## tetrakid

Hi Bern,

How is your Microfex (Dero Worms) culture going?

Also, hope Shifu UA can update us on his culture too.

Hope it's ok to ask here because these worms are relatives of each other.

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## antjoey1122

Yes, I am also interested to see Microfex culture updates. My Dero culture all died, not sure why, maybe must do something complicated like the Tubi for them.

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## Urban Aquaria

So far my microfex culture is still being maintained and i've managed to grow enough to give out small starter cultures over the past few months to those who have been interested.

Microfex are pretty much the only live culture that i've managed to keep alive and multiply without much effort for the past 8+ months... even through weeks of neglect too. All my other live cultures like tubifex, moina, micro worms, grindal worms etc have lasted for varying durations (some longer than others), but either they took too much effort to maintain or have to keep resetting, or all eventually died out when i left them alone without care for too long.

Not sure if there are different variants of these worms, but the true Dero digitata species (under macro lens or microscope can see their outstretched finger-like gills waving about) are surprisingly hardy and tolerant of adverse parameters, i've tested their culture water before and found that they can survive and multiply even in water with high ammonia and nitrate levels.

From my experience with these worms so far, there isn't much requirements to maintain them. I still just keep them in the same daiso 1.5 liter plastic jug (can carry and place it anywhere and it doesn't take up much space), drop a sinking wafer in regularly if i remember (if i skip feeding them for a few days they just stop multiplying but still stay alive), and do a 100% water change once a week if necessary. Thats enough to maintain a 50 cent sized ball of microfex which is currently more than sufficient to feed my small fishes as bonus live food a few times a week (though thats probably not enough for those who breed more fishes and need to feed alot more on daily basis).

I've not ramped up their production with more elaborate setups though, definitely not as sophisticated as antjoey's tubifex culturing system with filtration and all. So if anyone wants to mass culture microfex and has the space to do so, i guess it could be an interesting opportunity to experiment with larger setups too.

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## tetrakid

Thanks to Shifu UA for the update and very useful information. I am sure many will appreciate the insight gained.

Hope one of these days when I am more settled, I can obtain a sample of Deros for culturing too.  :Smile:

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## Bern C

> Hi Bern,
> 
> How is your Microfex (Dero Worms) culture going?
> 
> Also, hope Shifu UA can update us on his culture too.
> 
> Hope it's ok to ask here because these worms are relatives of each other.


Heya shifu Ted~~

XD Mine is lot worst than shifu UA... I think mine should be consider under conservation. @[email protected] I neglected them a lot, currently I left with less than 20 microfex. Very very seldom feed them or WC. Most of my time will be focusing on Daphnia. @[email protected] Also they seem to be much difficult to maintain. As when I do WC, there will be microfex starts swimming around when I move the container. I gotta put in more effort to prevent any microfex being poured away. Tried brineshrimp net but later having problem returning them back to the container as they will be clinging to the net.  :Crying:  Too troublesome. 
Daphnia still my beloved "pet" =D

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## tetrakid

> Heya shifu Ted~~
> 
> XD Mine is lot worst than shifu UA... I think mine should be consider under conservation. @[email protected] I neglected them a lot, currently I left with less than 20 microfex. Very very seldom feed them or WC. Most of my time will be focusing on Daphnia. @[email protected] Also they seem to be much difficult to maintain. As when I do WC, there will be microfex starts swimming around when I move the container. I gotta put in more effort to prevent any microfex being poured away. Tried brineshrimp net but later having problem returning them back to the container as they will be clinging to the net.  Too troublesome. 
> Daphnia still my beloved "pet" =D


It's good that you will concentrate your efforts on Daphnia, rather than be distracted by Microfex. Hope you will eventually be able to develop the art of large-scale cultivation.  :Smile:

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## antjoey1122

One bro suggested that this idea, could be commercialised for hobbyists or aquarists or enthusiast or fanatics to culture their own tubi. Do you think it is viable?  :Grin:

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## tetrakid

> One bro suggested that this idea, could be commercialised for hobbyists or aquarists or enthusiast or fanatics to culture their own tubi. Do you think it is viable?


One way is to assemble a kit consisting of the components of the system with full instructions. You can advertise and sell it online or through lfs outlets. Whether it will be a hit or not will depend on how easy it is for people to buy tubifex rather than grow their own.

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## Bern C

> It's good that you will concentrate your efforts on Daphnia, rather than be distracted by Microfex. Hope you will eventually be able to develop the art of large-scale cultivation.


Yeah...  :Opps:  on the path to hardcore Daphnian. @[email protected] still thinking of ways to increase the scales.




> One bro suggested that this idea, could be commercialised for hobbyists or aquarists or enthusiast or fanatics to culture their own tubi. Do you think it is viable?


XD I think it's a good idea. As what shifu Ted said, make it into a culture kit and it will solve the problem of keep going to LFS to buy tubifex. Also with self-cultured tubifex, I will feel much safer when feeding them to my fish as I know what I am feeding the tubifex. With a cleaner and healthier tubifex, frequent feeding with tubifex will be possible. Also as what shifu Ted said, it also depends on the effort of culturing vs buying.

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## Yuna

Came across this post recently and decided to give it a shot .

Just setup , need refinement . Worm tray is too shallow. Easy for worm to drop into filter section.

Realized that an overflow tube is better than just letting water flow out at the end of metal tray.

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## boofeng

Thanks for sharing these. 

If you're culturing the worms, I've reviewed the literature on the topic. Most academics use mud or sand to culture them - so if you're modifying anything, I guess the "metal tray" component can also be made deeper not just to accommodate the overflow pipe but also to have a substrate of sand/mud. None of the papers compared having a substrate vs not having one, they're mostly reporting on the effects of feed type and population density, temperatures, etc.

Seeing your post is making me wonder if I should try to build a culture system too. Probably not - because there are too many things going on already!

BTW, I do maintain the ones I buy over a period of a week by keeping them at low density in shallow aerated dechlorinated water and doing water changes every day.

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## Yuna

Hi boofeng,

did a few changes, change worm tray to ice cube tray and drilled some holes at the end for outflow.
its working well now ! i do not intend to culture them as well. too troublesome . Just keep them longer for the fishes.

also change the jetlift tube to the lift tube used in external breeding box. the up flow is better now. ^_^
added ketapang leaves in water .
change 50% water every 3-4 days . same idea as yours , just keep small worm population to prolong water change frequency.

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## extractsfromaquaria

Nice setups! Have some questions:

1. Read somewhere that tubifex breed by forming cocoons. Saw one setup where breeding worms had a separate tray, with gravel substrate and cardboard for worms to eat an attach cocoons to. Can worms breed in a bare tank, clustered in a ball? Or do they need special setups to reproduce?

2. Anyone know the approx size of a mature worm? 
Know that they are hermaphrodites and that male and female organs mature at different ages. 

3. Am feeding my ball of worms fish flakes and leftover peas, carrots from the fridge. So far they are surviving but don't seem to be increasing in size (ball size or individual worm size) after 2 weeks. 

Any advice?

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