Anyone had problems with tubifex worm?

[unknown_7]

So I bought a bunch of fried dried tubifex worm cubes thinking they, "Hey, there's a tiger barb on the cover, my barbs will love these." I know, bad rationale. I put the cube in the tank against the glass and my tiger barbs...that normally eat anything nibbled at bit that came off, but spat them out.

I figured k, I guess the barbs don't like them, but my convicts would love them. The convicts keep putting it in their mouths and spitting it back out too.

As a last resort, I figured, k, goldfish are like the vacuums of the fish world, they reject nothing. I tried feeding them to common goldfish I had...but they REJECTED it too. They'd put it in their mouth and then spit it back out.

What's the deal? Anyone else experienced the same thing or had luck feeding it to their fish? Any advice?

 

[neilanh]

I find none of my fish like them either. Who knew?

 

[Zagz]

My discus love them. The rest of my fish don't.

 

[Sharkrocket72]

i tried live tubifex worms before with gouramis and they wouldnt touch them, and my gouramis loved to eat.

 

[CatatonicBug]

You might try waiting a while and re-introducing it when they are especially hungry. I went and bought some dried shrimp stuff for my Sevrum and the first time I fed it to him, he did the same thing. I was rather upset that I bought something special and he wouldn't eat it. I waited about a month and tried again, just to see, and now he inhales the stuff!

 

[Sharkrocket72]

I usually feed freeze dried blood worms. No fish has ever refused them! As soon as they hit the water my betta gobbles them down.

 

[Purrbox]

The behavior you're describing, sounds like they're tasting the food. It's a new flavor/consistancy that they aren't sure of so they spit it out. For some fish, like Bettas, it's very common that they'll taste and refuse a food for several days before finally accepting it.

 

[unknown_7]

The behavior you're describing, sounds like they're tasting the food. It's a new flavor/consistancy that they aren't sure of so they spit it out. For some fish, like Bettas, it's very common that they'll taste and refuse a food for several days before finally accepting it.

True I guess. The only objection I would have, would have been the reaction of the feeder goldfish...they eat ANYTHING!!! Yet they refused these. Lol. Boo.

After I gave my barbs the tubifex worms...which they rejected, they got bloodworms for the first time...now they won't eat their flake food. Lol.

 

[JohnPaul]

Sometimes the problem is that these freeze-dried foods are...well...too dried. Kinda like eating sawdust.

You might try taking a small scoop of your tank water, putting it in a small little dish of some sort, and then soaking your freeze-dried food in it for a few minutes to let it re-hydrate. THEN put some of it in the tank.

When I used to do that, I found the fish in general more receptive to the food. That being said, I also found that all of my fish (and I've kept quite a variety) like frozen much better than free-dried, and they like live even more than they like frozen. So if you are in a situation where you can try giving them live or frozen stuff, I can basically guarantee they will respond more positively.