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Worm colony?


Pneumonic

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Eventually you may get some detritus worms in the soil and if you see alot coming to the glass or surface, it means there's not enough oxygen going to the subtrate for them or because there is a huge population due to the tank being overfed/leftovers.

 

I have seen some shrimp eat dead worms before.  Some people do experience planaria etc and have tried to avoid those although some don't really have issues with them in the tank.

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Anyone have any luck getting a colony of worms going in an existing aquarium? If so id love to hear about it.
What worms work best?
Which worms would shrimp eat/not eat?
If it doesn't work in an established aquarium would it in a Walstad jar? If so at what point do I add the worms?
Thanks!



Curious, why are you looking to have worms in the tank? Substrate aeration, encourage bacterial variety?

Planaria are flat probably not very good for aeration and are known to attack shrimp where possible esp during night since they are light sensitive. I definitely would not encourage those!


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Curious, why are you looking to have worms in the tank? Substrate aeration, encourage bacterial variety?

Planaria are flat probably not very good for aeration and are known to attack shrimp where possible esp during night since they are light sensitive. I definitely would not encourage those!


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Yeah I've heard of the issues with planaria. I'm more just curious if there is a renewable live food source that is shrimp safe.
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37 minutes ago, Pneumonic said:


Yeah I've heard of the issues with planaria. I'm more just curious if there is a renewable live food source that is shrimp safe.

 

Ah, got it. Shrimp diets are supposed to be mostly vegetation and they're not typically hunters, so unless the worms are dying off consistently (possibly symptomatic of something worse), I have doubts that the shrimp would really take to them. If you're looking for a more long term food source, look into various dried leaves such as mulberry, amaranth, IAL, etc. which can last quite a while without producing excess waste (I bought mulberry leaves from @dazalea which my shrimp are crazy about). Another alternative are "snowflake" type foods that expand/scatter into many flakes. Dazalea also happens to be selling mulberry cubes which are a combination of the two, though I have yet to try those.

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Ah, got it. Shrimp diets are supposed to be mostly vegetation and they're not typically hunters, so unless the worms are dying off consistently (possibly symptomatic of something worse), I have doubts that the shrimp would really take to them. If you're looking for a more long term food source, look into various dried leaves such as mulberry, amaranth, IAL, etc. which can last quite a while without producing excess waste (I bought mulberry leaves from @dazalea which my shrimp are crazy about). Another alternative are "snowflake" type foods that expand/scatter into many flakes. Dazalea also happens to be selling mulberry cubes which are a combination of the two, though I have yet to try those.

Thanks! Living in Michigan I have a plethora of leaves at my disposal. I'm hoping the amount o have will last the winter. If not there are some oaks in my neighborhood that drop leaves very late and I can probably take some without my neighbors thinking I'm too crazy [emoji4]
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35 minutes ago, Pneumonic said:


Thanks! Living in Michigan I have a plethora of leaves at my disposal. I'm hoping the amount o have will last the winter. If not there are some oaks in my neighborhood that drop leaves very late and I can probably take some without my neighbors thinking I'm too crazy emoji4.png

 

Nice! Leaves can carry toxins from road smog, pesticides etc. so just make sure they're very pristine! There was a thread I think recently around leaves that are known to be good to use, so might want to find that list.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I never really seen an issue with planaria and shrimp tbh.  I believe when a shrimp is sick or dead then the planaria will latch on etc.  It's the same when there is a sick shrimp and another shrimp starts grazing on it, it's like they know when another shrimp is sick or close to dying instead of actually attacking a healthy shrimp.  Ever seen zombie creatures?  when one creature is controlled by a parasite, but is in fact already dead, but still moving.  So I wonder if that may be the case...where a shrimp is close to dying and that's when they are being attacked.. as I've seen no issues with babies either in many tanks and some of other's experiences.

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