# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  Feeding tubifex worms any problem???

## exotic_idiot

Hi, I used to feeding tubifex worms and my apistogramma nijsseni female just die. Before she dies, her body grows very slim and skinny no matter what food i feed her, she also won't eat? Live foods or flakes u name it. So i separate her from my male inside a breeding tank after a few days then die. Any ideas whether our local fishshop who sell worms safe from disease and parasites? Lucky i'm not owning any good quality ones but still my heart aches. Mine first pair of apistogramma! :Crying: 

Free to any comments or any bros out there who have the same problem?

Ben :Exasperated:

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## Quixotic

Live tubifex can never be disease or parasite free. They are often cultured in sewage-contaminated mud, so these are conducive to bacterias and parasites.

Washing solely with water will not remove them. Although there are suggestions that washing with diluted medication (e.g. off the shelf medication, mouth wash) may help, it is never a 100%, short of killing the worms first.

However, some breeders swear by them to condition their fish to breed. Live tubifex is also used for some fishes that absolutely refuses commercialised food. I use a lot of live tubifex for the reasons above. IMHO, for fishes that can eat commercial food, live tubifex should never make up the main diet, just occasional treats.

That said, _Apistogramma_ spp. seem to be easily infected with internal bacteria, so feeding dry commercial food would seem the better choice. For _Apistogramma_ spp. that refuses dry food initially, go read up the Freshwater Fauna section where there are discussions on how to convert them to taking commercial food.

You should realise that with live food, there are risks involved. Do some research into the type of food before feeding. Eventually, it is up to you to decide if the risk is worth taking.

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## Samuel2618

> Live tubifex can never be disease or parasite free. They are often cultured in sewage-contaminated mud, so these are conducive to bacterias and parasites.
> 
> Washing solely with water will not remove them. Although there are suggestions that washing with diluted medication (e.g. off the shelf medication, mouth wash) may help, it is never a 100%, short of killing the worms first.
> 
> However, some breeders swear by them to condition their fish to breed. Live tubifex is also used for some fishes that absolutely refuses commercialised food. I use a lot of live tubifex for the reasons above. IMHO, for fishes that can eat commercial food, live tubifex should never make up the main diet, just occasional treats.
> 
> 
> You should realise that with live food, there are risks involved. Do some research into the type of food before feeding. Eventually, it is up to you to decide if the risk is worth taking.


Bro Exotic_Idiot,

Sorry for your lost.. Totally agreed to what Bro Quixotic said.. Feeding apistos with live tubifex worms always put them in risk of internal parasites.. Although they can grow faster while consuming tubifex.. But what the point of having very magnificant large species but prone to illness liek dropsy and other internal parasites.. I personally encountered such experiences before. 

By the way, Bro Quixotic, what does IMHO means?

Regards
Samuel

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## Quixotic

Sorry about that, IMHO = in my humble opinion.

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## exotic_idiot

> Feeding apistos with live tubifex worms always put them in risk of internal parasites.. Although they can grow faster while consuming tubifex.. But what the point of having very magnificant large species but prone to illness liek dropsy and other internal parasites..


Any other live foods to feed them other than live tubifex worms?
I can't keep frozen blood worms because my fridge been used up by my mum.
Live brine shrimps too expensive for me. Anybody try feeding micworms to them???

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## Quixotic

There are other live food around, but they are mostly cultured by the aquarists for their own fishes.

I am not sure if I understood it correctly, but you can hatch live brine shrimp yourself. However, since you mentioned that they are expensive, I presume that you are not able to do so?

Micro worm is more suitable for fish fry or juveniles. Juveniles or adult fish can be fed grindal worm.

http://www.livefoodcultures.com/

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## Ah_ZhaN

If you're afraid of your apistogramma spp. contracting bacteria infection from live food, you can just jolly well let them feed on reputable/reliable frozen or dry food. 

Frozen food - Hikari blood worm, mysis shrimps
Dry food - New Life Spectrum formula

But if you are trying to pump up your fish bio-mass especially frys, live food is still the better option.

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## Interestor

> Hi, I used to feeding tubifex worms and my apistogramma nijsseni female just die. Before she dies, her body grows very slim and skinny no matter what food i feed her, she also won't eat? Live foods or flakes u name it. So i separate her from my male inside a breeding tank after a few days then die. Any ideas whether our local fishshop who sell worms safe from disease and parasites? Lucky i'm not owning any good quality ones but still my heart aches. Mine first pair of apistogramma!
> 
> Free to any comments or any bros out there who have the same problem?
> 
> Ben


newly bought back tubifex need to be Quarantine too. At least a week before goes into a fish mouth  :Smile: 


CHeers..

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## exotic_idiot

Hahaaa how you quarantine your worms? But can you keep them fresh? 
Becase i always buy 50c quite alot. And they will smells bad and the top water layer always got cloudy. Do you add any medicine to clean them first?

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## Interestor

put them in a tau huay container and with air bubble. everytime water cloudy, just change water.

do it for a week or so than feed your fish.

CHeers..

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## exotic_idiot

Thanks pal.

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## Reginald Ho

Hi Exotic, the symptoms of your Apisto getting thinner over time and refusing to eat sounds like it had contracted tuberculosis. Did it lose its colour and hid in a corner of the tank? Am not too sure how hardy Apistos are, as I have currently just started trying out my hand on keeping them. Some fish like bettas, platys, white cloud, guppies seem more hardy and will be healthy in response to whatever fish food fed to them.. 

I've given up trying to feed live food because they had always given me problems. There was once when i 'tooth-picked' too much a ball of tubifex and some clumps sank to the gravel. To my horror, they started a colony IN the gravel and I had to empty the whole tank and re-start all over again.. (they multiply, and some die causing ammonia, nitrate, etc, contamination). 

So now, the only blood worms treat i give my fish on a weekly basis are the frozen ones. The pack with white aluminium foil seems to be the cleanest.

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## exotic_idiot

> the symptoms of your Apisto getting thinner over time and refusing to eat sounds like it had contracted tuberculosis. Did it lose its colour and hid in a corner of the tank? Am not too sure how hardy Apistos are, as I have currently just started trying out my hand on keeping them. Some fish like bettas, platys, white cloud, guppies seem more hardy and will be healthy in response to whatever fish food fed to them.. 
> I've given up trying to feed live food because they had always given me problems. There was once when i 'tooth-picked' too much a ball of tubifex and some clumps sank to the gravel. To my horror, they started a colony IN the gravel and I had to empty the whole tank and re-start all over again..


Yes, i agree other fishes seems more hardly whatever you feed them also seems alright. But Apistos like fall sick easily if never taken care properly.
Better feed frozen foods or live brine shrimp safer. And bro what's the brand of your frozen blood worms? Thanks

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## Reginald Ho

Hi bro Exotic, i think it's Hiraku or something like that. Most LFS carry the yellow foil one, pink foil and this. This one has less dirt and mulm compared to the others i've tried. But i'll still melt the cubes in a foam cup before siphoning them and feeding the fish slowly. 

Btw bro, what do you feed your apisto? I've tried commercial food and blood worms. But they seem too shy to even appear in front...

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## exotic_idiot

Hi Sis Reginald, 


> i think it's Hiraku or something like that. Most LFS carry the yellow foil one, pink foil and this. This one has less dirt and mulm compared to the others i've tried. But i'll still melt the cubes in a foam cup before siphoning them and feeding the fish slowly.


Thanks i'll try it out once i find space in my fridge. Because it's pack with my mum's stuff inside..




> Btw bro, what do you feed your apisto? I've tried commercial food and blood worms. But they seem too shy to even appear in front...


I try dry freeze-dried blood worms, but you must mix with water before you feed but they don't seems to like it alot. I also feed then with fish flakes a bit hard to feed don't even know whether they got eat or not. I think you can try live brine shrimps sure they loves it but a bit expensive and not every lfs have it. For dry foods case i think got to train them so takes up time. Try using a pincer like those they use to plant hairglass or plants type, getting their attention first then release the foods in the water and wait for them to eat. That's what i normally do. Hopefully they eat.

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## Reginald Ho

Ok thanks for the tip bro. Btw, i'm a bro too leh. Haha.

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## kramsa

Live tubifex can be a disease carrier.

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## exotic_idiot

> Live tubifex can be a disease carrier


Agree, That's why we should never feed live tubifex to our beloved fishes if you do care about them. Try Bro reginald method of using only the best. Like Hiraku, The pack with white aluminium foil seems to be the cleanest. Or you can try flakes, heard that the brand tetra pro colour not bad??? And na is having a discount now!!! less than a red note!!!




> Ok thanks for the tip bro. Btw, i'm a bro too leh. Haha.


Haha :Laughing: , So bro reginald sorry for my mix up heheee, my wife still thought i chatting with girls in the forum and got jealous... At least i still know she's concern about me.

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## Reginald Ho

Haha.. seriously, so far i've not known any girls who's into planted tank, fish keeping, etc... think it's more of a guy thing. My wife always complain that i spend too much time/money with the tank then with her and the kids!!

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## exotic_idiot

> Haha.. seriously, so far i've not known any girls who's into planted tank, fish keeping, etc... think it's more of a guy thing. My wife always complain that i spend too much time/money with the tank then with her and the kids!!


Me too... Haha... Women nag too much.~~!!! One of the bros whom i got to know through AQ says that it's better that we guys spend $$$ and time on fishkeeping and planted tank then spend it on other girls right???
Just open the door, i be there watching my fish then not around?

I'm now training my apisto to eat flakes seems like they do accept it.

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