Detailed Explanation of the Key Technical Points for Artificial Rearing of Tubifex Worms

    Tubifex worms look like juvenile earthworms. They belong to the aquatic oligochaetes among the annelids, with a body color of bright red or bluish-gray, slender, generally about 4 cm long, and up to 10 cm at most.

    1. Site selection. Choose abandoned ditches or ponds with good water quality, rich in organic matter, a water depth of 0.5-1 m, and slow water flow. Before use, remove the sludge at the bottom of the pond, and it is best to lay a lime-sand-clay mixture.

    2. Management. The culture pond should preferably maintain a slight flow of water to ensure fresh water quality, sufficient dissolved oxygen, and a pH value between 5.6-9. Install sturdy filter mesh at the water inlet and outlet to prevent wild fish and predators from entering.  

    3. Stocking. You can collect tubifex worm seed from wastewater ditches, stocking 25-50 kg of worm seed per mu of water surface.

    4. Feeding. Feed once every 3 days, each time using 100 kg of concentrated feed plus 1200 kg of cow dung per mu, diluted and evenly sprinkled. The concentrated feed needs to be fermented first: add water and mix the feed (the amount of water added should be such that when you hold the feed in your hand and release it, it crumbles), seal and ferment for 15-20 days before use.

    5. Fertilizing. Choose sludge rich in organic debris as the culture medium material, spread it on the pond bottom at a thickness of 10 cm, and appropriately add some bagasse beneath the sludge. Then fill with water to soak, and apply 300-400 kg of human and livestock manure per mu as base fertilizer. Before stocking the worm seed, apply 30 kg each of rice bran, wheat bran, and flour per mu, mixed and fermented, into the pond.   

    6. Harvesting. Generally, harvesting can be done about 30 days after stocking. Harvesting method: drain most of the pond water so that the remaining pond water is in an oxygen-deficient state, wait until the tubifex worms gather into clumps and float on the water surface, then scoop them up with a 24-mesh dip net. The daily harvest amount should not be too large; it is sufficient to scoop up the clumped tubifex worms. The collected tubifex worms can be disinfected and fed as feed, or made into dried products for processing into mixed feed.