Breeding Superworms

[vadriewyn]

Hey bros,

I know many people have explored culturing or breeding their own live foods.. Not many have shared their success stories or analysed if it was actually worth the effort to do this at home on a small scale.

Does anyone actually have their own composting bins to breed earthworms in enough quantity for regular feeding of their arowana?

I've been feeding my arowana with superworms for some time and seeing as how the cost of buying a box is much more expensive than feeding with, say, MP.. I decided to try to start a small side project to see if it's at all worth the effort (and hopefully reduce my dependence on LFS bought worms). Anyone else has had any success stories? I would love to hear them..

Cheers..


Day 1: Isolation


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[onlyyouknow]

Not worth the effort. You still have to clean the container of their waste, feed them oat and fresh vegetable for moisture. Also have to put up with the smell and the number of babies produced also not a lot. In Singapore's weather they will die easily also.

[vadriewyn]

Hmm. Seems like everyone says it's not worth it. I see articles online that say each beetle can produce about 500 eggs. Even at 50% attrition, 250 offspring seems quite okay. Just that this probably needs to be done in bulk to spread the cost of keeping them fed.

I think I'll probably just try it for fun and at the same time educate my daughter on life cycles.

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[d2810]

Not worth the effort. Smell too much, especially with this hot weather.

[angjason]

Hi,

I used to try breeding them but like the other brothers have pointed out, the smell was too much to bear and the cost of oats and raw materials used feed them is also not exactly cheap.

Let me share with you what I have done back then.

1) Go to SKP and get those small packaging for cut chilli, those you get from those hawker centres. It comes in a row of 50/100s.
2) Separate the superworm, 1 each in 1 packaging. You need to make pin holes on the cap of the packaging so as to ensure that the worm/bug does not suffocate.
3) Place all of the containers into a dark place like a shoe box and wait for them to mutate into bugs.
4) Get a plastic container from the fish shop, like those for keeping terrapins. (I used the largest size back then)
5) Put around an inch of oat in the container and place the bugs in the container after they have mutated. Place some vegetables (make sure they are dry) in the container. This will be the food source for the bugs. After a week, shift the bugs to the next container, remove the vegetables and wait for the worms to hatch. Add on more oats in needed and when they grow large enough, maybe like a meal worm size, add some vegetables.

It is quite a fun process but the smell can be bad.

[vadriewyn]

Thanks. That sounds like what most of the articles advocate. I'll probably need to do this in some bulk for it to be worth the cost of the bran and oats. Supposedly each beetle should produce up to 500 eggs. Given that, the ROI should be fairly okay.

How about composting earthworms? Anyone bought or DIYed a bin?

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[onlyyouknow]

I have a DIY compost bin with earthworms I bought from Y618. Much easier to upkeep, just need to add vegetables and cardboard/newspaper every week. I have seen small baby worms in the bin so they are reproducing. Haven't harvest anything yet, just keep for fun.

[Air Tiger]

If got the extra space and don't mind the "trouble", I guess it's ok to try.

[exotic_idiot]

Im breeding grindal worms for my ikan billis...

So far so good..

[vadriewyn]

So after my initial post, I've now gotten some results.







I'm happy to report that all 4 of my initial trial batch have successfully pupaeted and 1 of them has become a beetle. It's currently housed with a bed a oats, pellets and a slice of apple.

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