Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Would the worms survive in a constant flow GB?
With the water being at a constant height would they not drown?

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/worms/anat ... omy10.html

As long as the water is oxygenated (as it should be for the plants) it should be OK. Even if the worm felt like the water was getting a bit stuffy, he could always come up for some fresh air.

Others with, you know, real experience could chime in...

Parallel posts and answers with http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=355344#p355344

Composting Worms happily live in well oxygenated water. I've found them in pump baskets.

Now if agriculturists are saying worms are bad, they might be talking about other kinds of worms.

However, there are also some AP operations out there that are cautioning people against worms. Granted, these operations are primarily raft aquaponics so I'm not even sure why they make such a big deal about it since it isn't like you are going to go introducing tons of worms if you have no media to put them in. But perhaps one reason they caution people is that.......

If you are pulling worms out of a manure pile to put into your aquaponics, you might want to re-consider. The worms themselves are a great thing but you don't want to be transferring things like e. coli or salmonella from the manure into your aquaponics. So if you are planning to collect manure worms, you should put them into a worm bin clean of manure or other questionable inputs for several months before using those worms in your aquaponics. By the way, most "composting" worms are the same types of worms people would use to break down manure piles too. You just want to avoid the contamination of your aquaponics with warm blooded animal manure and the normal recommended time between manure application and harvest is 4 months.

The worms you buy in a yellow box from Bunnings, are these red wrigglers? If not, does anybody know what they are and if they are suitable?

Yep, they are the ones

I've put those worms from bunnings in my growbed, they work an absolute treat :-)

Always find a couple in the root ball of whatever I pull out, they look very healthy and seem to be helping the mini ecosystem thrive...

I realize I'm coming late to this discussion, but my understanding from researching it is that the worms help add the nutrients to the soil that the fish don't necessarily add: calcium, potassium and iron.

is there a difference between earthworms and african nightcrawlers?

Got home 500 g of earthworms from IRTC - http://www.irtc.org.in/.

They are a govt body doing various science R&D and training things. We are hoping for some sort of collaboration with this team. If all goes well, we would have our second demo AP system setup in this campus. Super excited about it!

These crawlers are of two varieties Eudrilus eugeniae (African) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudrilus_eugeniae
and Eisenia fetida (European) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_fetida

Cost was pretty high... Rs. 1000 per kg (approx. $15).

Attached is a picture. Three questions for now.

1. Which grow bed is ideal for them - FD or CF?
2. How long can they stay under water?
3. Will they nibble on the plant roots and destroy some of the plants in the long run?

Any thing else?

Appreciate your thoughts.

It doesn't matter whether it's F&D or CF... they can survive in water constantly... as long as the water is sufficiently oxygenated...

Worms actually require a surface layer of water to breathe... they exchange oxygen from the water...

The worms will certainly live amongst the plant roots... but I don't think they actually "nibble" on them to any great extent.. certainly not destroying them...

They prefer to feed on the solids/wastes that get trapped in the root ball....

Thanks Rupert. Appreciate the quick answers.

They multiply soon, it was told. Just wondering what if they don't get enough food to eat in these limited-sized beds? In that special case, do we have to provide supplemental food for the worms directly into the grow beds? Has anyone encountered a similar situation?

Some people certainly do attempt to supplementary feed their worms... and I'm not sure what the case is with those that have moved to solids removal./filtration... as to whether or not the worm population declines...

Let us wait and watch. I will update if any such situation arises here. What do they feed their worms?

If you started removing solids then certainly the worm population would decline over time.

Rup you mentioned that some people feed their worms. Are some of these the same ones who are removing solids from their systems? That would be funny.

Worms eat dead plant matter not living plant matter. So they will eat roots but only those that are left behind after harvest and have died.