Live Fish Food Best Grindal Worms Setup

00:00 Live Fish Food - Best Grindal Worms Setup Buy Grindal worms on Amazon (paid link): https://amzn.to/3E2BHZV Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/aquarium_garden/ Blog: https://rndmbits.blogspot.com/2026/04/live-fish-food-best-grindal-worms-setup.html All my projects https://www.fewdoit.com 00:05 Keeping pets, any kind of pets, comes with a lot of joy and a handful of chores. Many types of aquarium fish enjoy different types of live food. Grindal worms grow up to 1 cm long and Springtails grow just a couple millimeters long. It makes them perfect bite size for newborn, young, and small-sized fish. Grindal worms are ideal high-protein live food for keeping healthy, active fish. I've been growing Grindal worms with springtails in the same containers next to aquariums right in my living room. Healthy cultures are odor-free. 02:08 Here you can see how I stock the cultures on top of each other to save space. I take Grindal worms for feeding fish every day from a different container. It takes about one month for Grindal worms to grow from eggs into mature adults. I use a soft brush to scoop Grindal worms from the walls of the container. Rinse worms from the brush in the aquarium. Grindal worms can survive in water for up to 15 hours. 03:16 Let's setup a new Grindal worms culture. I cultured Grindal worms and springtails on different mediums. Tree bark is what I've been using in the last two years. I prefer to use smooth, peeling bark of the Japanese Zelkova tree. 16 oz disposable plastic containers with covers serve really well for my setup. Poke needle-sized holes in the cover, pointing inside of the container for air circulation. Break tree bark into parts to make them fit flat on the bottom of the container. It would take about a week for the tree bark to get saturated with water at normal room temperature. Close the lid and let it sit overnight. 04:16 The next day, I clean the tree bark from any mold, fungus, or whatever else starts growing. Use knife and hard brush for cleaning the tree bark. Most types of mold (type of fungus) are actually harmful to Grindal worms and Springtails. Physically removing mold is the most practical way of preventing it from spreading. 05:06 Here you can see about 2 years old culture of Grindal worms with springtails on tree bark. Splitting the old culture is the most practical way of seeding the new culture. Add new tree bark on top of or next to the old tree bark. I feed a flake of cereal to this-size Grindal worms culture daily. So, half of a flake or less should do for feeding each half of the culture. Better less than more to prevent overfeeding. Crash and sprinkle the flakes only on top where you see Grindal worms. Cover the containers to prevent cultures from drying out. The next day. 06:16 Here is the important detail - I harvest Grindal worms for feeding my fish only from the walls of the container. Even split in half, the old culture yields a lot of worms for the next day’s feeding. Notice that I put a flat rock at the feeding spot. I keep a couple of Everglades Pygmy Sunfish in this tank since last year. Small and very interesting fish in many regards. Everglades Pygmy Sunfish’s diet consists only of small-sized live food. Providing live food for this type of fish is a must. 07:30 Culturing Grindal worms on tree bark is one of the reliable resources. Brush off any mold as soon as you see it. Notice the patch of leftover food on the old tree bark. Avoid adding new food to this spot. I am adding food on top of it just to show you what is going to happen. Normally, I sprinkle food only right on top where Grindal worms are. 08:30 By the next day, the patch of leftover food increased in size very noticeably. Sprinkle food only on top of the worms - avoid adding food to the leftover patch. Moist the culture and close the containers. 09:26 By the next morning, the leftover food patch is gone. Reducing amounts of food is the most practical way of dealing with leftover food. I see some small patches of leftover food in this younger culture. I am going to sprinkle a small amount of food only here where I can see worms. Giving less food is safer and prompts worms to start spreading around in search of food. 10:18 5 days after the initial setup, Grindal worms in both cultures keep spreading nicely on all tree barks. Let's feed each culture with one flake this time. 10:48 The next day, worms in the new culture spread around in a spider-web pattern. I believe the web-spreading pattern indicates a low humidity of the tree bark. Most often I see it in newly set-up cultures with small populations. 11:32 Let's feed the fish. A small scoop on the tip of the brush holds a lot of worms. 12:48 Here you can see the stock of my Grindal worms cultures for feeding fish in this aquarium. 12:56 And this is the old culture 10 days after I split it into two parts. Grindal worms need daily feeding for continued reproduction. Have fun and happy fish :)