When the 2 paper 
got wet we started put worms 
in between of the paper the first one which was a little bit small was very active as it even took less than 10 sec to cross the paper and it was even trying to come out of the slide but the second one was big was very lazy 
took almost 3 minutes
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How long do the earthworms survive like this? (the ones not touched by salt or soap, that is)
Edit: Asking because I have never kept an earthworm without food before and they are voracious eaters, so I am curious to know how long they last.
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Could be injured if someone accidentally touched it with a salty or soapy hand before the experiment started?
Both salt and soap work the same way for both earthworms and snails. They dehydrate them. Doesn’t take a lot of exposure to kill. If someone picked the earthwork with a salty hand, for eg, it could explain the slow movement. Generally earthworms will move away rapidly from irritants. Survival instinct.
An idea for your experiments could be to create a vermiculture instead of catching new earthworms everytime you want to experiment. Put a few earthworms together in a proper habitat and put some food there. They will multiply. Voila! No more having to catch them when you need them. You’ll have your own supply.
What to do in order to keep them alive can also be a very fast way of learning their living conditions. Plus, having more subjects gives a lot of data and observations in less time.
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Great write up! So you mean this can be used for studying decision making on the part of Earthworms?
Or that, it is the result of reflex action?!! @tanvi-sharma
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Looks like you are not providing them food!!!?!
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Any reference? @MeharMathut
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Which aspect of the topic you found it interesting?
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I am guessing it was a bit lazy because the earthworms are handled with care and it was quite a healthy one but we can try it again to reach to a final conclusion. @Arunan
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The earthworms were picked with clean brushes and droppers.We took care that it won’t be injured.So, it must have been some internal problem or it was just lazy as that earthworm was really healthy physically @Vidyut
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Well, They live for quite some time in water without food.When we placed an earthworm in a test tube with water ,it stayed in there happily and didn’t try to escape for at least 1 hour.
So, they can live for at least 1 hour without food. These were my observations.
@Vidyut
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How long before the experiment were the earthworms caught?
Asking, because it struck me that it was also the bigger earthworm. If it was starving, that could explain the lack of energy. Earthworms generally eat about their weight in food daily. They are voracious feeders (which is why making vermicompost is so efficient)
Of course, it can simply be that the earthworm was lazy or a different species. The earthworms that go deep are sleeker and pretty fast. those that stay at the surface are fatter and tend to be slower. The sleek ones are also the escape artists in a worm bin. The fatter ones are generally happy if you give them good growing conditions. The sleeker ones tend to escape - particularly if the bin isn’t deep enough for their preferences.
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They were caught about 15 minutes before the experiment.
I don’t think it was starving . As I mentioned, it was quite healthy and enjoyed being in the water.
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Thanks for the clarification.
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Are these experiments ongoing? Or are these concluded now?
There is one experiment I’ve wanted to do with earthworms for a while now. I could try to join in, if this is ongoing.
I have observed that just before it rains after a dry spell, the earthworms try to escape the worm bin. Like if it is going to rain tomorrow afternoon, I can walk into the kitchen in the morning to find worms everywhere on the floor - they climb out of the bin. Not for extended rainy weather - just before rain starts. And I’d speculated that it may be instinct to get to higher ground to avoid being drowned by the rain (we also see earthworms emerge on roads, and steps and such when it rains).
Fair enough. That is how they survive.
BUT HOW DO THEY COME TO KNOW THAT IT IS GOING TO RAIN?
They escape the bin BEFORE the rain starts (well, now I’ve learned to leave the lid on tight to avoid the mess). Only thing that comes to mind is possibly changes in air pressure. Because unlike in nature, there are no other cues in a worm bin. They are always in the dark, no contact with the ground…
So I’d been meaning to test whether they are sensitive to air pressure some day. But not sure how to set that up.
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Thanks for such useful information. It will help us to design our experiments in a better way.
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Possible that it might have been touched with salty hands or brushes before putting on d plate.
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We put damp tissue papers in a plastic cup with holes in it at the bottom for water. The tissue papers contain cellulose, which the earthworms can digest, it acts like food for them
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This looks interesting 
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