Info on Spiny Eels

[slt]

thanks gibbo, yes he looks healthy, and he's a good size, i'll dig up some worms to morrow and put them as you said in my hanging basket of moss,
i have caught him trying to nibble the tail of my little butterfly plec, so it doe's seem that you may be right in saying that he may only want things
that wriggle and move about, i'll place the worms by the bog wood he's made his home under, thanks for all your help

 

[Gibbo]

No worries, anytime you need it

 

[slt]

well it was a cold wet day here so i decided to do a bit of digging for worms to feed pirelli, hands blue with cold soaking wet after what seemed to be hours i finnaly got humm 1 little worm, i put it in a saucer of milk yes milk as my lfs guy told me to do for 2 hours, then rinsed it, waited for pirelli to show, then out he came so i carefuly dangled the worm in front of him, just as he looked interested swoosh bala shark grabbed it,
downed it in one go, so gibbo any suggestions hehe,

 

[William]

You can actually buy worms over the internet!

http/www.wigglywigglers.co.uk , I've also got a technique for growing and breeding them after you order your first batch if your interested (instead of having to buy all their junk which costs a fortune!!) it involves icecream containers

 

[Gibbo]

Get another worm!!!

Try and get some sacking cloth from somewhere and lay it on the soil, about 2ft x 2ft will do. Put any veggie kitchen scraps under the sacking whenever you get the chance and water well. After several days the scraps will be rotting well and the worms will be feasting. Just pick 'em off as you need them.

Try feeding the other fish before you feed him and get the worm as near to him asap.
In time you'll get your timing right and he'll get used to the hand that feeds him lol

Did he seem interested at all b4 the Bala got it?

 

[slt]

thanks william yes i'm very interested, gibbo yes he was interested , he was swiming toward me not far from my hand when bala
zoomed in from the other end of the tank, i'd put in food before offering the worm. but he was that quick i never saw him, he just snatched it out of my hand, after all that time it took to get it, it would be better if i could culture worms inside due to the weather, oh and me freezing to death, hehe would'nt been so bad if i'd got more but 1 bet neighbours thought i'd gone loopy lol william what is it i need to order of the link you gave ??

 

[William]

You don't "need" to order anything, but you could buy some worms if you want. It'd probably be more reliable if you got their kit which their selling but what I did was use icecream containers punch small holes in bottom and tops (for worms to go through) put torn up newspapers on the base of the 1st container make them slightly damp but not wet as worms don't lie drowning or drying out. Then add some organic waste ie, vegetable peelings and THEY LOVE!! teabags they'll
a) give you compost)
B) get rid of some kitchen waste recycling eh?
c) breed like crazy and give you plenty of worms for your fish, the small ones are perfect - Even platies can eat the baby worms! Once a White cloud ate one also quite a site with this worm dangling out of his mouth .

It is kind of risky as things can go wrong fast in a wormery so don't buy too many worms - as few as you can I find ... in fact I just used compost worms from a compost heap you can't use worms from ordinary soil though as they are a different type and will die in icecream containers....

Hope this is of some use

 

[slt]

thanks william thats brill i've got a couple of those tupaware containers, i never use so i'll put them to use as a wormary
will the worms from a fish tackle shop be ok, ?? you no the anglers shop,

 

[William]

To be honest I don't know but anglers are usually a responsible bunch and wouldn't want to poison their fish anyway whether they are composting worms I don't know but its got to be worth a try I think, I reckon they should... be composting worms, no guarentees though. Its really only the big nightcrawlers in the regular soil which won't live in the tubs.

Tuppaware sounds fine...

Two pieces of advice

1) don't let it get too wet - it'll smell as the anaerobic bacteria will work
2) don't add too much food
3) don't add meat as it'll make it acidic and generally nasty
4) lower ph using newspaper
5) don't let it get too dry
6) keep it all in a carboard box - just in case the worms escape - if they do you'll find them dried up in the cardboard box, shame but you can put their corpses back into the worm boxes and they'll get recycled.

Thats about it really

 

[slt]

thanks william i'll down the fish tackle shop tomorow,
lol saves me freezing to death out side lol

 

[StiX]

Two pieces of advice

1) don't let it get too wet - it'll smell as the anaerobic bacteria will work
2) don't add too much food
3) don't add meat as it'll make it acidic and generally nasty
4) lower ph using newspaper
5) don't let it get too dry
6) keep it all in a carboard box - just in case the worms escape - if they do you'll find them dried up in the cardboard box, shame but you can put their corpses back into the worm boxes and they'll get recycled.

Thats about it really

ummm...two pieces of advice ? lol

 

[StiX]

doh, stupid site, u have to have a credit card to buy them

 

[carey]

I was just reading this topic when I remembered one of my lfs had eels that only get to a few inches, well thats the biggest ones I have seen. They have stripes on their back ( a bit like a clown loach) does anyone know what I am talking about?

 

[William]

Khuli Loaches perhaps?

 

[tdnp]

What I did was ask my lfs and he suggested the local bait shop so of I went I asked the guy how he got his worms he told me he had a massive wormery thing all indoor so no pestercides or anything nasty was used