Aquaponics - Worms

Worms.

I bought some worms and fed them to my fish.

They went nuts for them.

My worms came in a tub that said there were 70 of them inside. It also said they were from a company called Orana Inc.  The package didnt mention what kind of worms they were so I looked up their website.

Worms have web sites these days.

It turns out these people help other people who need help, and help them help me get worms. That's a lot of help, so all things being equal, and you live in Adelaide, (which you don't) buy worms from these people.

It also turns out my worms are known as red wrigglers. I bought them from a fishing tackle store as bait worms, but it looks like they may be the same worms you might add to a composting worm farm.

Someone named suggested that silver perch might not lose interest in food over winter, but instead, might just have different food requirements. I thought I'd give it a go, so bought some worms.

I did a bit of study on worms and found they can happily live in an aquaponics system. It seems, as long as there is plenty of oxygen, they can deal with being under water for ages.

A lot of people add worms to their systems, but quite a lot find that worms have moved in of their own accord, so it must be a nice place for them to live.

I added some worms to my system.

They help break down solids like roots, that are left behind when you harvest or remove a plant. They also help break down fish solids and make sure all the solids are spread throughout the grow bed rather than all gugging around the point or points where the water enters.

I added my worms in the corner opposite my core sampler, in the hope that I will find some in a core sample one day, and gain some idea of how long it took for them to get there.

It took less than 24 hours.

This isn't a picture of it taking less than 24 hours. Its a picture of the other corner.

The corner where I added the worms.











I like my core sampler.

This isn't a picture of the core sampler, but is in fact the opposite corner where I added the worms.

Its taken a few minutes after I added the worms.








I like my new worm friends.

These are some of my new worm friends.











I don't see them often, but I know they care.

.

4 comments:

  1. love it, and love the project. I'm currently in a year long "happiness" project myself. Self discovery of sorts. I started gardening and use worms in my compost, and stumbled across your blog through a pinterest search on aquaponics, which I am delving into next. have fun, and know you aren't alone!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks :)

      And thanks for the feedback. I hope you find some things of interest here.

      The stats say people are reading, but it's always nice to know for sure :)

      Delete
  2. does it count if your parents live near Adelaide? like Kangaroo Island near?

    ReplyDelete

Popular Posts