Feeding freeze dried tubifex worms

jim21

I know this seems like a stupid question....but......

How do you feed freeze dried tubifex worms?!?!?

I stick the cube on the glass but it never stays long, once its loose it always finds a filter intake. I've tried soaking the cubes, but thats a huge mess. My first impression of a feeding cone is that it wont work well for FD cubes.

Any tips or tricks? I know the fish would appreciate it!

Thanks,
-jim

Lupin

I used to squish them and hold them until they're gone into the fish's digestive system.

Hyperlite

if soaking them is out of the question I'm sorry for posting this buuut

have you tried scooping some tank water into a cup, soaking the cube then adding the "tubifex worm water" back into the tank?

Unrulyevil

Hate to tell you but... these worms ... when not in the cube... they are a mess, its their natural state......... MESS!! Soak them in the small amount of water than use your fingers to put them in to the tank.

nohtr

I've read a lot of tubifex hate lately. I've been keeping fish over 50 years now. Everything from my 1st Comet goldfish at age 8 through angel fish breeding operations to now just a 55 gal with a couple Orandas and a Ryukin..Tubifex has always been a part of the fishes varied diet. HOWEVER I have yet to feed an entire cube at once to a single tank. Sticking the cube to glass does not work and I wish the myth would die except some packers still put that on their containers. Just pinch or scrape of small pits onto the water surface. 1/2 a cube for a typical 55 gallon community tank. Top feeds will gobble off the top, middle feeders while it sinks, bottom feeders will leave none to waste. Cichlid fry grow fast on SMALL portions of the small worms...Goldfish will grow legs and raid the refrigerator for tubifex (no not really)...I'm never without some as, like I said, part of a varied aquarium fish diet..

jentralala

The freeze dried cube is a bunch of tiny tubifex worms all packed together and formed. So when you soak it, all these worms come apart, into what they were before forming. This is MUCH better for the fish, because the worms can absorb the water, and be a lot easier for the fish to digest.

I place a cube in a bowl with some tank water for about 10 minutes and then stir it up. I pour a bit of the water in to the tank, with some worms. My fish go crazy for them.

One cube is a LOT of worms, I usually only pour about 1/4 or so of the worms into the tank. The rest go into my pond (:

You could probably rip the cube in to bits so that you don't have a ton of worms sitting in to bowl. It's supposed to be messy, that's not a bad thing (:

lakemalawifish

Had the same problems with feeding Tubifex to my Green Severum. I finally resorted to holding it in my hand until Hero came and got it. After that first time, it became a treat and a bonding moment for us. Seemed like he was proud that he did something different and any time afterwards when I had my hand in the tank, he kept following me around :) Not sure if this is possible with the type fish you have, but I was at least able to hold in my fingers long enough for Hero to come and get it before it broke apart and even if you have several fish, the brave ones will get it from your fingers and the not so brave ones will get what floats around from that.

nohtr

My grand kids 3 and 5 yo get a big kick out of feeding the goldfish from fingers.. Each to his/her own but I don't and never have presoaked flake food, pellets, or any freeze dried larvae....I'm beginning to understand why I read "slimy" and "a mess" in the same sentence with tubifex so much...

jentralala

Pre-soaking flake/pellets would be nearly impossible and a huge mess, although if it were physically possible I would definitely do so.

Think of it this way...when the fish eat the completely dry food, it's going to expand in their tummies. This can easily cause problems. It's why I like to pre-soak all freeze-dried food. Plus I think it's a lot easier to control how much food my fish are getting. I'd be careful letting kids handle tubifex, on the package it says it has an allergy risk, same as bloodworms. Just to be on the safe side :)

I really don't see a mess from pre-soaking though. Just let it sit in a bowl for a bit, stir it up, dump a bit in. My fish love 'hunting' these worms as the current spins them around.
To each his own though, as you said ;)

nohtr

Truly even our best standard practices were at one time experimental. I can recall when the frameless tank was considered a fad, and how materials are handled is rightly decided by the individual aquarist. My original point was and still is don't blame the tubifex...