Need some help on romifex

[deepesh]

I got my romifex at the meet and they survived a 12 hour trip to Chandigarh. For those in the know, don't ask why or how it took me 12 hours to do 300 odd kilometers.

The worms are tough! The 5 mm ball of worms made the trip in about 2 ml of water.

The first thing was to split them in two. Each half went in to shallow Tupperware containers, one with a small dish washing sponge and the other with a scotchbrite wherein they disappeared. In the absence of jau ka atta they are getting finely ground Quaker oats. They seem to be ok but not feeling very sexy for there are not too many of them yet.

The setup consists of a Tupperware dabba with sponge/ scotchbrite and about 75 ml water. I feed them a pinch of ground oats mixed in about half a teaspoon of water after their daily 90% water change.

Before every water change I noticed that the bottom of the dabba is covered with fine debris and little bits of black brown worm turds if at all they produce such errr stuff. Once in a while I see clumps of worms of about 5 to 10 individuals but nothing big.

So the final question... How do I get them in the mood? To reproduce or even split in two so that I may send a few of them to their deaths daily?

Deepesh

[VishaalDalal]

They will take their own time.

and the biggest joke is that all 3 of my cultures crashed suddenly.

so conclusion is that too much of good food(my mix) which was getting me huge masses of worms to harvest everyday(in fact I have not been feeding any commercial food since November)

managed to save some for further culture but it was a 3 day nightmare to have all 3 cultures crashing when I have been distributing these right left and center.

Nazar Laag gayi shyad. aaj Kala dora bandh ke aya hun. (case of evil eye i think, have tied a black thread today)

[Romi]

They will take their own time.

and the biggest joke is that all 3 of my cultures crashed suddenly.

so conclusion is that too much of good food(my mix) which was getting me huge masses of worms to harvest everyday(in fact I have not been feeding any commercial food since November)

managed to save some for further culture but it was a 3 day nightmare to have all 3 cultures crashing when I have been distributing these right left and center.

Nazar Laag gayi shyad. aaj Kala dora bandh ke aya hun. (case of evil eye i think, have tied a black thread today)

Don't worry bro. The time has come to test the worth of all the friends you gave cultures to, earlier.

I hope you have reason to celebrate your past helpfulness, not regret it, hehe.

[Romi]

I got my romifex at the meet and they survived a 12 hour trip to Chandigarh. For those in the know, don't ask why or how it took me 12 hours to do 300 odd kilometers.

The worms are tough! The 5 mm ball of worms made the trip in about 2 ml of water.

The first thing was to split them in two. Each half went in to shallow Tupperware containers, one with a small dish washing sponge and the other with a scotchbrite wherein they disappeared. In the absence of jau ka atta they are getting finely ground Quaker oats. They seem to be ok but not feeling very sexy for there are not too many of them yet.

The setup consists of a Tupperware dabba with sponge/ scotchbrite and about 75 ml water. I feed them a pinch of ground oats mixed in about half a teaspoon of water after their daily 90% water change.

Before every water change I noticed that the bottom of the dabba is covered with fine debris and little bits of black brown worm turds if at all they produce such errr stuff. Once in a while I see clumps of worms of about 5 to 10 individuals but nothing big.

So the final question... How do I get them in the mood? To reproduce or even split in two so that I may send a few of them to their deaths daily?

Deepesh

Where are the pics, deep?

I suspect you have forgotten an important detail i had emphasised in person with you. Are you giving the worms some areas where the water changes do not shake them up from end to end? How can u expect babies without a stable bed? Helloo.... As i said, use a 60 ml syringe to quietly such out stale water and squirt in fresh. .. do it discreetly

No, there are no turds of a type that you can see. The organic matter is all mixed up, food and refuse.

One thing u can do is to take some groaud oatmeal or ground algae flakes (being used by Tirthankar Chattopadhyay facebook tells me) or tetrabits powder (spoil them a bit,till u become more confident), add it to a bottle with some water, shake it up. then pour a bit of this to each container, instead of adding the powder straight. The blobs of powder that do not mix in water just rot.

Pics?

[deepesh]

I do the water changes using a syringe and do it very slow so as to not pick up some of the worms or swirl them about. Sometimes I use a micro siphon using an infant feeding tube from a chemists shop, basically a thin and short tube that also conveniently fits on a syringe.

I will have to try that oats milk thing. Till now I was making it into a slurry that would however sink to the bottom of the container.

As for pics, I am hopeless with the camera as Romi well knows. However I shall try.


Deepesh

[deepesh]

Hey Vishaal
What was your mix? IIRC it involved some non veg stuff, liver and all. Could I have the recipe?

Heavy populations need only a small initiating point to crash. Everything then dominoes into a crash. But losing all three cultures mean something extraneous. Some bug maybe?

Deepesh

[VishaalDalal]

Hey Vishaal
What was your mix? IIRC it involved some non veg stuff, liver and all. Could I have the recipe?

Heavy populations need only a small initiating point to crash. Everything then dominoes into a crash. But losing all three cultures mean something extraneous. Some bug maybe?

Deepesh

good news i think,

1 culture is definetly finished 2 have some worms but have started a fresh culture just in case.

[deepesh]

Are the romifex cultures supposed to smell a bit? One of my cultures has a distinct swampy smell. Like wet leaves on the ground with a whiff of hydrogen sulphide underneath.

The initial impression of leaf litter I like but the hint of sulphides was worrying so I have been changing water like crazy and also trying to get rid of the debris. I have also cut down feeding by about half. The worms seem to be doing ok.

Keeping my fingers crossed hoping I am not on the verge of a crash!

Deepesh

[deepesh]

As for the photos... I clicked a few but the worms are in the scrub pad. Wile they are perfectly visible to the naked eye especially as the scrub pad is white, the camera can't resolve them as they are distributed throughout the pad individually.

If I let the water remain still a couple of minutes they're their heads (or posssibly their bottoms) out of the pad and wave in the water. I think they have increased by about 50%.

Deepesh

[aamir]

Its so nice to see a dedicated hobbiyst in chandigarh. Where do you live in chandigarh?