Grindal Worms in Water Drops

Here you can see my first culture of Grindal worms in March 2021. 

Buy Grindal worms locally through Craigslist: 

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

 Or buy Grindal worms on Amazon (paid link): 

https://amzn.to/3E2BHZV

This container is also populated with Springtails. 

You can see them all crawling together. 

Here is a close up view. 

Adult Grindal worms are about 1 cm long. 

Colony of Grindal worms thrives in moist dirt. 

Well, dirt is...dirt. 

After while I start culturing Grindal worms on mediums that are cleaner and simpler to take care of.

 That is when I noticed Grindal worms in drops of water. 

Here you can see Grindal worms in drops of water accumulated on the lead of the container.

 Worms of different ages in every drop!

 Do they get trapped in water and are going to drown or what is going on? 

I did an experiment to check how long Grindal worms can live underwater. 

Check my previous video about it for more details. 

Here you can see Grindal worms in drops of water on the bottom of the container. 

In the previous experiment, I put Grindal worms underwater and they stayed alive for hours. 

This time...let's just watch the time-lapse recording of Grindal worms in water drops. 

Grindal worms move in and out of drops of water at their whim. 

Clusters of worms constantly move around dragging water drops along the way. 

The smaller the cluster, the faster water evaporates dehydrating worms in that cluster. 

So, the large clusters of worms have a better chance to survive than a single worm. 

Also, clusters of worms stand better chance to survive or rather avoid being attacked by predators. 

For example, fish often fail to recognize a cluster of worms as food to go after. 

Clusters come in different shapes and sizes than a single worm fish accustomed to eat.

 Only a fish large enough to swallow or break the cluster apart will go after worms in clusters.

 Gathering in clusters is a simple and quite effective survival tactic used by Grindal worms. 

Well, based on these observations I already adjusted my ways of feeding worms to my fish. 

And there is one more conclusion...

 Actually, I am going to make a separate video about it. 

Have fun and happy aquariums :)