CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How to raise red worms at home

1. How to raise red worms at home

In the natural environment, red nematodes mainly feed on bacteria, yeast, algae and organic debris (fragments of plants and animals). To cultivate red nematodes artificially, you need to prepare the culture medium in advance. Take 4.5 kg of fertile soil (soil from the garden or vegetable garden) and 1 kg of straw (cut into 2 cm), pour them into a large tank, add 50 kg of water, stir thoroughly, place at 15-18℃ for 3-4 days, and then filter with gauze. The filtrate is called the stock solution.

Take a certain amount of stock solution and pour it into another tank, then add 2-4 times of pond water, and the culture solution is ready. At this time, you can put a small amount of red nematodes into the culture solution, and keep the water temperature at 18-25℃. The red nematodes grow very fast and will multiply in large quantities to feed goldfish or other fish. In the process of cultivating red nematodes, add stock solution at any time to ensure sufficient feed for the fish and worms.

Water earthworms: also known as red nematodes, red nematodes, belong to the aquatic oligochaetes among the annelids, with bright red or blue-gray body color. They mostly live in the mud on the banks or river bottoms of rivers, densely packed on the surface of the mud, with one end fixed in the mud and the other end trembling in the water with the mud. Once disturbed, they immediately retract into the mud.

The nutritional value of water earthworms is extremely high. They must be rinsed repeatedly in clean water before feeding. They are a favorite food for goldfish and koi, and are also the main food for eel fry. When the tide of the Huangpu River in Shanghai recedes, a large number of water earthworms grow in the mud on the shore. Every spring and autumn, people will catch them in large quantities.

2. How to cultivate Daphnia?

Daphnia, also known as "red worms", is a cladoceran aquatic zooplankton. When the water temperature is high, the larvae of Daphnia pulex can grow to sexual maturity and begin to conceive in 5 to 8 days. The number of eggs in each litter can reach up to 100, and up to 1,000 eggs can be laid in a lifetime. The optimum temperature is 18 to 22°C. When the temperature drops to 3 to 5°C, the spawning stops, and when it rises to 6 to 10°C, the spawning resumes.

The optimum pH value is 7.5-8. The optimum saturation of dissolved oxygen in water is 70%-120%, and the oxygen consumption of organic matter is preferably 20 mg/L. Its main food is single-cell algae and bacteria. Cultivation method: Use a soil pond or cement pond about 1 meter deep, inject 50 cm deep water, add mixed compost juice, make algae and bacteria multiply in large quantities, and then transplant the fleas.

When the temperature is 20-25°C, a large number of fleas will multiply in 3-4 days. All the fleas can be fished out in about a week and used as bait for young fish. Add manure juice to the pond and continue to cultivate. Generally, when the cultivation is good, 800 grams can be produced per liter of water. During the cultivation process, you should always pay attention to whether there are individuals with winter eggs, the number of larvae, and the number of individuals per liter of water.

If the number of larvae is small, it indicates low reproductive capacity. There are many reasons for low reproductive capacity, such as insufficient food, too high water temperature, deteriorating water quality, too many aging individuals, etc., which can be handled according to the specific situation. If filamentous green algae or volutes are found in the culture pond, efforts should be made to eliminate them or clean the pond and re-cultivate. As seed fleas for inoculation, it is best to cultivate them in a special pond to ensure that there are enough healthy individuals with good growth during inoculation, so that the offspring can grow well and have high yields.

3. How to cultivate Daphnia?

Daphnia, commonly known as red worms, is a major component of freshwater zooplankton and the main food for fish fry. Daphnia are larger than protozoa and rotifers, visible to the naked eye, easy to culture, and rich in nutrients. The water temperature suitable for the growth of Daphnia is 18°C ​​to 28°C and the pH value is 7.2 to 8.5.

The pond specially used for cultivating Daphnia can be an earthen pond or a cement pond with an area of ​​10 to 100 square meters and a water depth of 50 to 100 centimeters.

Before cultivation, clean the pond with quicklime to kill Daphnia pests (water centipedes, pine algae, tadpoles, fish and shrimp), then apply basal fertilizer (2 kg/m³ pig manure) and add Daphnia species at the same time. It is better to have more Daphnia species, about 20 to 40 grams of large Daphnia species per cubic meter. Daphnia mainly feed on bacteria and phytoplankton suspended in water. Generally, topdressing is done once a week, 0.

5 kg/m³ of manure. After one week, the Daphnia will multiply in large numbers. After another week, you can scoop them out and feed them to the fish pond. You can use ordinary linen boxes or hand nets to scoop them out. The time is before 7-8 am, because at this time, the Daphnia are in the upper layer of the water.

Since manure contains high nitrogen content and can cause putrefactive bacteria to multiply in large numbers, thus increasing the food supply for Daphnia, manure is the most effective way to cultivate Daphnia.

Mixed compost cultivation is also very good, but when Daphnia reproduces in large numbers, it is necessary to pay attention to timely and appropriate topdressing. Inorganic fertilizers have lower yields than manure. Relevant literature believes that Daphnia can obtain high yields under good artificial conditions. The key is: the Daphnia cultivation pool should not seep or leak water to maintain a stable external living environment for Daphnia; the pool area should not be too large, because Daphnia are often unevenly distributed in large water surfaces, forming local agglomeration. Within the range of aggregation, the accumulation of metabolites and lack of food have adverse effects on the growth and reproduction of Daphnia, and it is also inconvenient to control fertilizer and harvest.

The breeding of Daphnia must be maintained under conditions where the physical and chemical factors are suitable, and appropriate topdressing must be carried out continuously to keep the pond water at a certain fertility level and ensure that the Daphnia have enough food. This is of great significance for high yields; management must be strengthened, and pests must be prevented and eliminated regularly; harvesting must be done at the right time and in the right amount to keep the Daphnia at a certain density.

4. How to harvest Daphnia?

The amount of each harvest should be controlled at 1/5 to 1/4 of the total amount of Daphnia in the pond. Each time Daphnia are harvested, fertilizer should be applied to keep the Daphnia growing and reproducing, keep the population stable, and provide tadpole breeding for a long time. If the temperature is too high, the water is too green and bubbles are generated, some new water should be added to the pond to facilitate the growth of Daphnia.