How Long Grindal Worms Live Underwater

Feeding your fish is the most entertaining part of aquarium care.

You can buy Grindal worms locally through Craigslist:

 https://newyork.craigslist.org/search/sss?userpostingid=7391919122 

Or you can buy Grindal worms from Amazon (paid link): 

https://amzn.to/3E2BHZV

 Feeding fish with live food stands out as the most fun in this regards.

Watch my kid feed his Endlers with live Grindal worms. 

Fish are in a frenzy as soon as they see tiny white wriggling worms. 

Wriggling Grindal worms are very attractive and highly nutritious food for fish. 

Irresistible one bite size snack for adult and young fish. 

Well, adult fish often bite a bunch of Grindal worms at once. 

Grindal worms live on land in damp places. 

They cannot swim and in water they sink, as you can see here. 

Most of the worms get eaten by fish right away at feeding time.

 And fish keep roaming at the bottom of the tank picking whatever it may find later. 

Now I am curious to find out how long Grindal worms can live underwater. 

It's nearly impossible to check it in my aquariums. 

Well, let's set up an experiment.

 First of all we need Grindal worms.

Here I have some.

 I wash worms off the plastic cover with water using a pipette. 

Grindal worms always sink to the bottom. 

There are enough worms for the experiment. 

Let's put these Grindal worms into a small plastic cup with water.

 I use a 30 ml clear plastic cup here. 

Add dechlorinated water to the middle. 

Now, let's sit and watch the worms. 

I made it easier to observe with a camera recording in time-lapse mode.

 Grindal worms stay alive underwater for a surprisingly long time.

You can see them moving around hour after hour. 

Fish roaming around certainly have enough time to find wriggling worms before they would die.

 Grindal worms may hide from fish under gravel. 

Also, worms may find some food under the gravel...would it help them survive longer?

 After watching worms wriggle underwater for 12 hours, I decide to give them fish food flakes.

 Let's take a short pause to drop a pinch of homemade flakes - that's what I feed my fish with.

 Now we are ready to continue our observations. 

It takes time for food flakes to sink down to where worms can get it. 

After 15 hours the Grindal worms start slowing their movements. 

More than half of them stop moving after 20 hours. 

The last Grindal worm died on the 24 hour mark. 

So, Grindal worms can live underwater for about 20 hours. 

Have fun and happy aquarium gardens :)