Effects of Culture Space on the Production of Tubificid Worms (Oligochaeta, Naididae)

Tubificids are aquatic oligochaete worms distributed all over the world. The worms are very important, as they are used as live food for cultured fish and aquatic invertebrates. This study was carried out to determine the effect of culture space on the production of tubificid worms. The worms were cultured in three different treatments, namely treatment-I (40,000 cm^3), treatment-II (96,000 cm^3) and treatment-III (152,000 cm^3) under flow-through conditions. The experiment was continued for 90 days using a culture medium containing a mixture of 20% mustard oil cake, 20% wheat bran, 30% soybean meal, 20% cow-dung and 10% sand soaked with rice gruel. The observed highest yield (P 0.05) of 1,662.16±28.32 mg.cm^-2 was found after 70 days of culture in treatment-III. Only about 0.80 kg media ingredients valued at US$ 0.24 were needed to produce 1 kg worms.