lugworm & seawater

[mickthefish]

lads , whats the crack with keeping lug in seawater?
is it possible to keep seawater fresh by using a fishtank air blower or could i even replace water for worms with that from a seperate bucket of water which has lain idle for a couple of days?
is it the worms that contaminate the water or does it become useless anyway if lain idle for a few days ?
i ask because it would cost me more to travel to the coast regularly for water than it would to discard quality worms and pay for new unfortunately.
im also led to believe the water from the tyne kills them , hence the coast trek.
i suspect i could be a loser all round on this one!

any info is much appreciated. cheers!

[Charlton]

get yourself a couple of 5 gallon containers and change the water every couple of days. An air blower will also help to keep the worms alive. i used to put mine in cat litter trays on shelves in a fridge in the garage, do not over crowd and keep checking the worms, any burst or bleeding worm will kill the rest quite quickly. Always use fresh sea water from the coast. River water has to much fresh water in it and will kill the worms almost instantly.

[Ian_D]

Depends on what kind of lug.
I used to tank blow lug (decent size ones from the Humber mud flats) using fresh water to which was added a salt mixture bought from a local aquarium supply. Kept in a cool place with an air-stone they\'d last for weeks, but to be honest it wasn\'t worth the hassle. In a matter of a couple of days they were so watery that they were next to useless.
For a short period it\'s better just to put them in a shallow tray - not too many to the tray, and add no more than half an inch of sea water. If kept cool they\'ll be OK for a few days.
With black lug (ungutted fresh-outs)just put them individually into those small plastic cups that you get from vending machines. Just moisten them with sea water. They have to be kept at the right temperature though, which usually means a bait fridge.
Again, it\'s a bit of a faff, and I don\'t bother personally. If they\'re gutted and frozen when still fresh they don\'t seem much less effective than the live ones

[BriH]

get yourself a couple of 5 gallon containers and change the water every couple of days. An air blower will also help to keep the worms alive. i used to put mine in cat litter trays on shelves in a fridge in the garage,

Keep your Fresh Sea water in the same fridge ,before changing the water - stops your worms from popping their heads (lug or silvers)

[YoursTruly]

Put your worms in a cat litter tray ( no more than 150) and put just enough sea water in the tray so the worm is only half covered with water.
Check each day and remove any dead or suspect worms.
If they are kept cool you can keep them for ages, you need to change the water every two days or so ( could change every day to be safe)
Both blow lug and yellow tails can be kept using this method.
Hope this is of some help.
Terry

[gazzawill]

try ures trulys method ive kept yellow tails for 2 weeks with same methood as long as sea water is kept same temp as what worms are in in air tight container is as good as fresh sea water

[rod-the-cod]

i keep yello tails for 4 to 5 weeks like terry said but they are a bit easier to blow there heeds wen they are getting 3 weeks plus

[mickthefish]

thanks for your comments.

[Seasonalsortofguy]

If you want to get obsessive about your hobbey (not advised) then you could use a water filter and not have to change the sal****er for quite some time. I kept some with a filter system for about a month in a bucket of sand then at the end of the season realised id kept some for much longer than that as some had escaped and lived under my mussel bed which I keep in the same fashion. My set up is large scale with a pond filter but im sure on a smaller scale any fish tank filter would work the same.

The cat litter tray works just fine though.