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Hello all,
I just wanted to mention a food that has sort of disappeared. Here in Colombia I can not get live or frozen foods. Actually, I can get live tubifex but I have heard so many stories that they carry disease that I am afraid to try them. I was think about buying live tubifex and freezing them (anyone tried this?) as I need a good high protein food. Anyway, today I came across a tin of freeze dried tubifex from some Chinese company (Otto). Many of you might remember that freeze dried tubifex were touted as the new miracle fish food many years ago. TFH actually had an entire article devoted to this new "revolutionary" food.
I used to feed this stuff years ago, but eventually stopped for some reason. I had forgotten that one of the big marketing strategies was that you just stick the little cube of worms to the aquarium glass. What I found out today is that you can also stick the cube to rocks and driftwood. I think that this could be a great food for fussy eaters like Chaetostoma and the Chiloglanis. I stuck some to the rocks in my 55 gallon when I started this and just went back and chacked and the L 200 have eaten it all.
What is old is new again.
-Shane

Shane,

I think the quality of the freeze dried tubifex is important. I had a tin of freeze dried tubifex that even my <i>Clarias</i> wouldn't touch (and they would eat just about anything else).
I plain gave up and threw the tin away, since no fish would touch it, and I highly doubted its nutritive value.

Heok Hee

I always had a tub of tubifex about as you say "Years ago" but I went off the idea as I thought there was little or no goodness in them.
Do you think they are worth using Shane?

Hi!!

Well here it is highly recommand not to used Tubifex because they are suppose to occur in water that are highly polluated. Still youo can use them but you have to clean them and make sure they don't have any waste left. I think you do this under running water, I have to check with some friends.

It is also true that you could ( and still do) find some brands that were selling dry Tubifex cube, if you use a reliable brand, I should say that these should be ok. The only problem with these is that the cube float and there is not much to do to make it sink, you can sure squeeze it some where deeper, but he might end up floating after being eaten a bit by the fish.
Cheers
Yann

I don't think my fish ever found FD tubifex all that tasty . Guppies and hatchetfish oddly were the only things that would eat it and it took an AGE to sink (if it ever did) - not much use in our tanks.

Didn't know about the stick it to the glass/rocks trick mind you. Will probably pick up a pack next time I'm buying food and give it a go.

Jools

I had to reply to this post so I could use the new tasty emoticon.

clean ur live tubifex worms before feeding ur fish as they produce a lot of waste and it can get very smelly. i fed my plecos with hikari frozen bloodworms and they seem to like it.

I think this product fell by the wayside for the reasons that many of you pointed out. However, I am pretty happy to find them as I have no other options. I can get freeze dried bloodworms, but they never sink and are sucked up by the filters. Heok Hee is probably correct that quality plays a factor.
As to my other question, has anyone tried buying live tubifex and freezing them? How much "safer" would they be if I did this?

I've frozen tubifex when I bought too much to keep alive for long. The fish would eat them as enthusiastically as they would live tubifex. I'm not that sure freezing is an effective method for killing disease-carrying microorganisms, though. Bacterial cysts are known to withstand freezing.

Heok Hee

i don't think its a good idea as it is not as simple as buying live tubifex worms and freezing them. proper procedures have to be carry out to make sure the worms are frozen and safe from bacteria. i will not put my fishes at risk.

i have a container of this that i was going to use as a vacation food for my two bettas that i had in fish bowls. then i got a ten gallon with a pleco and a pictus. (some other fish too but not catfishes) i tried using it because i was concerned that my bottom feeders were not getting enough food. the first cube i put overnight under a stone and the next morning it was GONE. there was nothing left. i think it is a good investment for fish that won't eat off the surface

I would'nt use them. They are sewer worms and it must say something about what they can do to your Cat's.

graeme, not to offend you or anything but i make sure these worms come from a good company that doesn't grow there worms in sewage . i would like to repeat this is not to offend you.

Haven't used FD tubifex in ages, but I know that all my fish go NUTS about FD bloodworms. I buy the stuff in 0.25 lb foil bags.

Dinyar

manman01 wrote:... but i make sure these worms come from a good company that doesn't grow there worms in sewage .

No matter how reputable the source, bad food can still get you. We once had over 50 C. adolfoi fry wiped out by a single batch of bad, brand name, frozen baby brineshrimp.

Rusty