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What’s smaller than a micro worm, not as risky as Infusoria and yet is great new fry food?

If you guessed Banana Worms give you self a hand. And yeah I guess the title did give this away a little.

The size of banana worms is what makes these the near perfect betta fry food. Or at least some feel that way. Fact is they have a long and growing list of fans in the world of betta breeders because they are hardy, easy to culture and yet are small enough they can be fed to newly hatched fry. As you’ll see below the video on how to culture them, there are other reasons to like these guys too.

Here’s what you should take away from the video:

Banana Worm Culturing Process

You’ll need:

• Cooked and cooled oatmeal
• Nutritional Yeast for added protein and the B vitamins
• Starter Culture (and in the vid you can actually see the worms wriggling)
• A plastic container like those used for margarine or cottage cheese or sour cream

Simply slather the starter culture on the oatmeal that you’ve sprinkled with the yeast. Spreading it out well helps worm production to proceed at a faster pace. Then cover with a ventilated lid.

Keep the culture at room temperature and in a dark place if you’re using a clear culturing habitat.

Give things 24-72 hours to percolate and you should be ready to harvest. (Seeing worms collecting in increasing numbers above the oatmeal on the sides of your container tells you it’s harvest time.) Simply grab some with your finger or a Q-tip of some sorts. Then swish your finger or the cotton swap into the water and unleash a cloud of worms which is also known as a fry feast.

And what’s up with nutritional yeast? Well, turns out it’s a fav of the vegan crowd. Basically it’s a strain of yeast, Saccharomyces Cerevisiae specifically, that has been washed and then dried using heat to deactivate it. It’s a super source of vitamin B12 yet being inactive it lacks any leavening power. So it won’t make things all frothy or bubbly like baking yeast might. You’ll likely find it under the Red Star label which is on Amazon if you can’t find it elsewhere.

Also, as you can see you can culture these things quite successfully without putting any banana in the growing medium.

Some Interesting Banana Worm Facts

Banana worms are essentially a tiny nematode much like microworms and vinegar eels.

These guys weigh in at about a millimeter or so in length. That makes them half the size of micro worms and smaller than Walter worms too. See why they are so highly prized as newly hatched betta fry food?

Aside from being smaller, they are also lighter than micros. So they won’t sink to the bottom nearly as fast. And staying suspended in the water makes them easier for the young’uns to munch on.

Even better, they can live as long as 24 hours in your fry tank.

Add to that their ability to reproduce at an alarming rate and you’ve got the makings of a nearly perfect fry food.

Yet despite the fact they tend not to die as fast in the water as other live foods might, that’s no excuse for overfeeding. Because you’ll soon discover that even a small swish will be enough to fill the bellies of literally a ton of fry so you want to take care not to overfeed and foul your fry’s water. Naturally how much to feed depends on how many fry you have at the dinner table. Plus multiple smaller feasts are better than one huge worm banquet.

Now typically a culture can go strong for a couple of weeks or so. When it starts to stink, and I don’t use that word lightly, well, that’s the time to start another culture and time to add some more oatmeal to the one that is petering out just to extend harvest time.

Tip: It’s a good idea to label your cultures with the start date so you have an idea how close to its expiration date it might be getting.

Anyway there’s one simple immutable rule that affects how fast you can raise your betta’s spawn to adulthood. That is to always be feeding the largest sized food your fry can stuff into their little mouths.

Sounds simple enough until you see how small these guys are at first. Then the initial challenge become obvious. And this is where banana worms come in. They are a great first fry food. That can help them grow fastest. Plus they let you skip the infusoria if you want and the risks inherent with feeding that. This is why banana worms might just be the most ideal betta fry food ever!

And if you need a source of these guys why not see what’s at the other end of this link? That, eBay or Aquabid are places you can pick up the starter culture you need.

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