keeping ragworm alive

[codcatcher3000]

got some leftover rag given. looks lively. but covered in peat. can i keep them alive by adding them to sea water?

[safc]

How long you wanting to keep them?

Theyll keep for up to a week if you jsut leave them in dry newspaper

[alan heeley]

worm

got some leftover rag given. looks lively. but covered in peat. can i keep them alive by adding them to sea water?

just put them in a little bit water not enough too cover them should last a while or wash peat off and wrap single in damp newspaper will last ages

[Raptor1]

Peat

Leave them in the peat ,dry newspaper in bait tray, worm in peat onto paper,cover with another couple sheets of newspaper ,keep in fridge cold but not freezing,garage floor in winter also as long as its cold,will keep week or two perfectly if worm was in good original condition.
Alternative as said already,bait tray clean fresh sea water ,few millimetres deep ,lay worms in this,fridge them ,keep as long as you want till you use them.Wash all peat off them first though.

[Bob C]

Often when the Worms are in Peat, they are the Farmed variety. Farmed Rag just dont survive long in Water.
If they are wild Rag and in good nick, then as has been said, Litter trays with about 5-10mm of SeaWater so that their Backs are clear of the surface so that they can get Oxygen. This way they will keep as long as you want as long as you change the Water every 2/3 days.

[codcatcher3000]

thanks all for the advice. most of em are in seawater now . the odd few that had not looked great or leaking juice has been kept in paper. . should get used tomorrow really . hopefully they are still effective.

[Fishcakes]

I keep mine in water but to be honest I'm a bit lazy. If you pop into anywhere that does marine aquariums they sell sachets of marine salt for a couple of quid. It's enough for 5 litres.

The advantages are that I can keep a sachet in the cupboard for when I need it and I only need to change the water every week or so (I guess because it doesn't have any of the bugs you might find in actual seawater). The disadvantage is that it costs a couple of quid.

If I want to keep them for a while I buy them in a bag of water (moonfleet will give you them straight from their fridge in a bag of water) and put them in water in my fridge. Then I just put them in a tub of vermiculite when I want to use them.

Another thing I do is keep them in small tubs of a few worms. Then if one goes off it doesn't kill all your worm.

Hope this is useful mate.

[onefortheroad]

thanks all for the advice. most of em are in seawater now . the odd few that had not looked great or leaking juice has been kept in paper. . should get used tomorrow really . hopefully they are still effective.

if they are submerged , you really need an air pump on them, they usually go anaemic if left too long in water and they tend to thrash about and snap themselves when disturbed. best just to give them a drink from time to time and keep them in damp newspapers , they also begin to eat each other over time , left In water. if they are in peat id of just left them in that tbh.