# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna >  Live Foods - Microfex / Dero Worms Culture

## Urban Aquaria

Back in May 2015, i managed to obtain a starter culture of microfex (aka dero worms) from J'adore.

Microfex are similar to tubifex but they are much smaller in size, hence easier for smaller fishes and fish fry to eat. In addition, they are hardy and can consume all sorts of food, so their care and maintenance is relatively simple.

I set about experimenting with different methods to culture the microfex as live food for my fishes. The starter culture i got was perhaps 20-30 worms, a small ball of them measured around the size of a pin head.

Here is the initial starter culture ball of microfex worms (it is sitting on a Hikari sinking wafer of less than 1cm diameter for scale comparison):



This is the size of the culture after approximately 1 month of growth:



You can compare the difference in density and size of the worm culture based on the same sinking wafers in the container.

For reference, here is a close up macro photo and video of a small ball of microfex worms:







How To Culture:

During the early stages of my microfex culture experiments, i divided the starter culture into a few separate containers to test different water parameters and feeding techniques, eventually i settled on a setup which worked for my space and feed requirements.

Part of my methods are based on accumulated info from other keepers and research documents online. Here is the link to a detailed research document on laboratory mass culture of dero worms: http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/55534/PDF

My latest culture setup is based on a 1.5 liter plastic jug (bought from Daiso), i choose it because the volume is sufficient for maintaining a good sized culture, doesn't require much space to keep and is still easy to carry around to do water changes with its narrowed flow lip and handle:



No filter or air stone installed (based on the research document findings) and no substrate added (to make maintaining the container and harvesting the worms easier).

Feeding the culture is just a matter of periodically adding fish or shrimp food into the container, the microfex will automatically crawl towards the food and start feeding on it. Each time i feed a combination of algae or sinking wafers/pellets equivalent to the mass of the worms. The worms usually finish eating that amount of food within a day.

Maintenance and water changes is simply pouring out the container water (usually when it gets stinky) and then replacing it with clean dechlorinated tap water. I usually change 90% of the water every 2-3 days (pouring out the old water through a fine brine shrimp net to catch any free swimming microfex, which i then return back into the container). The majority of microfex will clump up at the bottom of the container anyways, so its quite easy to manage.

During the water change process, i usually take the opportunity to also pick out some microfex to feed my fishes. I use a pair of small tweezers to pick up a ball of microfex...



... and then swish it around in the tank. The microfex will scatter and start swimming in the water column. Its time for the fishes to start hunting!




Final Thoughts + Tips:

Based on my experience culturing microfex so far, i've found that the speed of their population growth depends greatly on the amount of food they consume. They reproduce by fission method, a young worm grows from one end of an adult worm and they eventually detach to form 2 worms... so more food = more growth = the faster they multiply.

Therefore if you want to grow the population fast, just supply them with more food. But therein lies the issue of water quality, more food = more waste. Although microfex seem to be highly tolerant to poor water conditions (even when i left my microfex cultures for almost a week without food and the water turned super stinky, they still survived), their reproduction rate will stall significantly.

So there will be a limit to how many worms and food (aka bio-load) a container can handle based on its water volume. If you are looking at just feeding your fishes live microfex every few days as a treat, then my 1.5 liter container culture example as mentioned above is a simple, space saving way to do it.

But if you want to culture more microfex to feed more fishes on a daily basis, then you'll need to increase the container size and water volume accordingly, so that it can support a much larger population of worms and the increased amount of food required to sustain them.

Co-culturing daphnia or moina with microfex is also a good technique, i add a small amount of moina into my microfex cultures and they filter feed on the suspended bacteria created by waste production from the worms. This enables the culturing of two varieties of live food in one container (do note that with moina in the container, the overall bio-load can overload very quickly due to the speed at which they can multiply, so you'll need to keep a closer eye on the water conditions to avoid a crash).

If you do get the opportunity to obtain some microfex to start a culture, do give it a try. Your fishes will love snacking on these wiggly critters!  :Grin:

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## Bern C

:Well done:  X10 Awesome guide.  :Jump for joy:  Lots of worms~~

XD Recently I realize Dero will eat cucumber slice too. I fed my 2 nerite horn snails with a 2cm x 1cm x 0.5cm cucumber slice but ended up Dero are munching it the whole day. XD I only saw my snails munched for a while and get bored of it. Next day the cucumber slice is gone, not sure who ate it.

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## SwordZ

Any LFS selling microfex? Currently having a copepod culture XD

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## tetrakid

> Any LFS selling microfex? Currently having a copepod culture XD


I doubt that any LFS will sell microfex (dero worms), as it will not be salable, since the buying public mostly only buy tubifex.
Hobbyists can culture it perhaps for use within their own circle.

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## Urban Aquaria

> X10 Awesome guide.  Lots of worms~~
> 
> XD Recently I realize Dero will eat cucumber slice too. I fed my 2 nerite horn snails with a 2cm x 1cm x 0.5cm cucumber slice but ended up Dero are munching it the whole day. XD I only saw my snails munched for a while and get bored of it. Next day the cucumber slice is gone, not sure who ate it.


Thanks!

Yeah, microfex do consume food surprisingly fast... i have tossed in different foods like vegetable scraps and ketapang leaves, even sheets of algae scraped from my filter hoses, and the microfex just eat them all up within hours.  :Very Happy: 

I'm always wondering where all the food goes to, since they tend to produce very little visible waste material. I guess the worms digest and process food efficiently enough that they can utilize most of it to grow and multiply with relatively low wastage.




> Any LFS selling microfex? Currently having a copepod culture XD


So far i haven't seen any LFS selling microfex specifically... usually its mainly tubifex. But quite often there may be microfex (and many other varieties of worms) all mixed in together with the tubifex too. I guess you could try to ID and separate the microfex from the other worms (microfex have a unique "S" shaped swimming pattern in the water column, and they stay very small in size, only 1-2cm in length).

Alternatively, you can also get them from other aquarists who may be actively culturing them. I'll be giving away starter cultures once i increase my microfex population further, will post updates on that soon. 

Shrimp keepers who keep dedicated shrimp-only tanks (without small fishes) tend to also have a higher chance of encountering colonies of microfex living and multiplying in their tanks too (the worms hitchhike in with plants), so they could also be a source for starter cultures (like how i got my starter culture from J'adore).

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## Bern C

> Thanks!
> 
> Yeah, microfex do consume food surprisingly fast... i have tossed in different foods like vegetable scraps and ketapang leaves, even sheets of algae scraped from my filter hoses, and the microfex just eat them all up within hours. 
> 
> I'm always wondering where all the food goes to, since they tend to produce very little visible waste material. I guess the worms digest and process food efficiently enough that they can utilize most of it to grow and multiply with relatively low wastage.


XD They seem to eat all kinds of food. Oh.. I didn't actually notice about their waste output.. XD cos I always neglect them and didnt do WC so end up lots of detritus. 
@[email protected] Currently my small Dero culture population shrunked and at the verge of crashing after 2 weeks of neglect. Yeah.. you are very right about the water quality. I used like less than 250ml of water and =X 4get to feed them for 1week+ then puff... most of the worms gone and left with less than 10 survivors.

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## tetrakid

> XD ...... @[email protected] Currently my small Dero culture population shrunked and at the verge of crashing after 2 weeks of neglect. Yeah.. you are very right about the water quality. I used like less than 250ml of water and =X 4get to feed them for 1week+ then puff... most of the worms gone and left with less than 10 survivors.


Aiyo, you pampered your daphnias so much that you forgot about feeding the dero worms. How can?  :Smile:

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## Bern C

> Aiyo, you pampered your daphnias so much that you forgot about feeding the dero worms. How can?


 :Laughing:  Got mesmerized by the cute daphnias... XD Can't be help, they are too charming that I will look at them more than anything else.

XD I think this time round I gotta culture them with Daphnia so they won't get neglected.

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## tetrakid

> Got mesmerized by the cute daphnias... XD Can't be help, they are too charming that I will look at them more than anything else.
> 
> XD I think this time round I gotta culture them with Daphnia so they won't get neglected.



Ya, me too, I am also fascinated with that cute "sea elephant". Much much better than those silly "sea monkeys".

Yes it's a good idea to cultivate them together. To be successful, the culture/s need to be cared for with dedication too.  :Smile:

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## marco

Can anyone spare a small portion of the dero worms

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## SwordZ

Thanks! Also anyone willing to spare a portion of dero worms please let me know  :Smile:

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## Urban Aquaria

Once i've grown out my microfex culture further, i'll be making some starter cultures available. Will post updates when they are ready.

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## Dscheng

WOw !! Sorry off topic. Can you look into how to create brackish water for nertie snail to breed? Haha :P

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## Urban Aquaria

> WOw !! Sorry off topic. Can you look into how to create brackish water for nertie snail to breed? Haha :P


I guess thats a topic for another thread, but i haven't been able to successfully breed nerite snails in brackish water setups so far... probably have to use higher salinity or perhaps full saltwater conditions to hatch and develop the larvae. I'm not focusing on breeding nerite snails anyways, i guess its cheaper and easier to just buy them from LFS.  :Grin:

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## Bern C

> Ya, me too, I am also fascinated with that cute "sea elephant". Much much better than those silly "sea monkeys".
> 
> Yes it's a good idea to cultivate them together. To be successful, the culture/s need to be cared for with dedication too.


=D Yeah.... My current hobby, keeping Daphnia the sea elephant. =D Yeah.. you guys gave me that idea to culture them together. 





> WOw !! Sorry off topic. Can you look into how to create brackish water for nertie snail to breed? Haha :P





> I guess thats a topic for another thread, but i haven't been able to successfully breed nerite snails in brackish water setups so far... probably have to use higher salinity or perhaps full saltwater conditions to hatch and develop the larvae. I'm not focusing on breeding nerite snails anyways, i guess its cheaper and easier to just buy them from LFS.


Yeah... I remember reading it somewhere that Nerite snails is actually saltwater snails that able survive in freshwater.

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## Urban Aquaria

Okay, i managed to divide a few small clumps of microfex to create some starter cultures, and have given them to fellow forumers who expressed interest in culturing them.

If anyone else is keen, just drop me a PM on it.

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## Guiderer

hi UA, i'm interested to culture them as well, but i cant PM yet (sorry, mostly reads but cant contribute much, still learning along this hobby)
how can i contact you?

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## Urban Aquaria

> hi UA, i'm interested to culture them as well, but i cant PM yet (sorry, mostly reads but cant contribute much, still learning along this hobby)
> how can i contact you?


You can also email me directly at: [email protected]

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## Guiderer

Thanks UA for the starter cultures, indeed they are really interesting!
i think they look much less unpleasant than tubifex or bloodworm, my girlfriend who is disgusted by live bloodworms or tubifex, actually finds them interesting, we were having fun observing these tiny little things for quite sometime just now.

thanks UA again!

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## antjoey1122

Hi all senior members, I am interested in the Microfex culture, who has some to spare?
Thank You!

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## Cmlee

I am interested to get some cultures too. Does snails eat up these micro worms?

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## Urban Aquaria

> I am interested to get some cultures too. Does snails eat up these micro worms?


I guess snails would probably eat any dead worms they manage to find... but i've not noticed snails eating these microfex live before, these type of worms can swim anyways so they are able to easily outrun a snail.  :Very Happy:

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## tommygro2

I am very interested in obtaining one of this starting culture too.

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## antjoey1122

> I am very interested in obtaining one of this starting culture too.


Hi all,
I've just had confirmation to have dero worms or microflex. I'll be culturing them. Shall update once I've enough. Cheers!

 https://youtu.be/RlZ7jeWVsaE 

Sent from my HM NOTE 1LTE using Tapatalk

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## tommygro2

sweet, let me know how it goes

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## jkcs

who has extra microfex to pass to me? well, i can buy from the kind soul.

intend to feed my DPs. if i buy tubifex or brine shrimp, the quantity is too much for a serving cos i got no resources or idea how to keep them alive.

tia

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## boofeng

Ohai - sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I recently set up a live food culture space and would like to buy starter cultures of clean (parasite free) dero worms. If anyone has some to spare, lets arrange something? Ill keep it as hassle free for you as possible.  :Smile: 

Incidentally, Im also buying clean tubifex and daphnia starters, if anyone has them. Myself, Ill be most happy to supply grindals, microworms, and earthworms to anyone who needs a starter.

Cheers!  :Grin:

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