Tubifex vs Blackworms

So I went to my local LFS, it's the only one in town. I went in to purchase some live Blackworms, but asked if theye were tubifex. He basically said that they were the same thing. I still bought it since I wanted to try it with my discus. Is there anyway to tell the difference between live tubifex and live Blackworms? If I do have live tubifex I think I'd rather throw it away rather than to feed it to my discus. I'll try to post a photo of the worms later. Thanks for the help!

 

Yes black worms are twice the size. Tubifex worm are all grouped up in a ball when live black worms are free floating. Thing is neither are any good for discus. Both carry many diseases and parasites. Try the freeze dried black worms from simply discus. A much better source for black worms.

 

Yes black worms are twice the size. Tubifex worm are all grouped up in a ball when live black worms are free floating. Thing is neither are any good for discus. Both carry many diseases and parasites. Try the freeze dried black worms from simply discus. A much better source for black worms.

Awesome thank you so much!! So freeze dried is basically the same thing as live right? Would they still bulk up my discus? The reason I ask is because a friend of mine gave me one of their discus and he looks pretty thin compared to my other discus. Thank you

 

Freeze dried or frozen are better. Frozen get treated for parasites. Make sure you hydrate the freeze dried foods.

 

Yes they’ll bulk them up but shouldn’t be the only food. Mine get the black worms daily but also get flake foods and frozen foods like brime shrimp,blood worms and beef heart.

 

Freeze dried or frozen are better. Frozen get treated for parasites. Make sure you hydrate the freeze dried foods.

Ok I'll get freeze dried since it more readily available to me.

Yes they’ll bulk them up but shouldn’t be the only food. Mine get the black worms daily but also get flake foods and frozen foods like brime shrimp,blood worms and beef heart.

Yeah I'm currently feeding my beef heart mix, frozen blood worms, and color bits ( I'm planning on changing this to something else like cobalt flakes, but don't know if my fish would like them) by any chance what flake food do you feed?

 

I mix a bunch of flakes together. Black worm flakes for growth another for color tetra color flakes and nutridiet discus flakes. I pour some of each into a Tupperware mix it up and feed them that. I feed this,mix to all my tanks.

 

I mix a bunch of flakes together. Black worm flakes for growth another for color tetra color flakes and nutridiet discus flakes. I pour some of each into a Tupperware mix it up and feed them that. I feed this,mix to all my tanks.

Interesting, do your fish just eat them? Mine just stare at them and let them sink to the floor. I've tried feeding them right at the morning, but still nothing. Sorry for all the questions by the way.

Just got home, here are the photos of the worms. Should I throw them out? Or use them and risk it?

 

They look like tubifex. Here’s what I know about live worms. Once you’ve been feeding live worms the discus will refuse other foods. I had to starve them to get them to start eating flakes. This was years ago. When discus was new to the hobby and the fish cost more than than now. There was no internet to buy from so you bought from your local pet store. The pet store fed them black worm to bulk them up and keep them eating. But like I said the worms were just bad. You would lose fish regularly. I didn’t realize it was the worms till I went to some discus shows with private breeders and got more info on the fish. At the time the breeders were feeding beefheart. To get mine to start eating the beefheart I bought a pair from a breeder that were used to eating the beefheart. I stopped feeding black worms and after a week or so the old discus upon watching the new eat the beef heart started eating it. Than months later I started with flakes and over time most ate the flakes. But I lost fish doing this. Some never went after the beef heart or flakes. I had to move them into another tank to feed them worms. None of them lived as long as the others.

 

They look like tubifex. Here’s what I know about live worms. Once you’ve been feeding live worms the discus will refuse other foods. I had to starve them to get them to start eating flakes. This was years ago. When discus was new to the hobby and the fish cost more than than now. There was no internet to buy from so you bought from your local pet store. The pet store fed them black worm to bulk them up and keep them eating. But like I said the worms were just bad. You would lose fish regularly. I didn’t realize it was the worms till I went to some discus shows with private breeders and got more info on the fish. At the time the breeders were feeding beefheart. To get mine to start eating the beefheart I bought a pair from a breeder that were used to eating the beefheart. I stopped feeding black worms and after a week or so the old discus upon watching the new eat the beef heart started eating it. Than months later I started with flakes and over time most ate the flakes. But I lost fish doing this. Some never went after the beef heart or flakes. I had to move them into another tank to feed them worms. None of them lived as long as the others.

Alrighty thank you so much! I'll probably just go ahead and purchase freeze dried Blackworms froms Al at simplydiscus. Thanks again!