Worms, Worms, Worms. What's the deal?

[calihawker]

So, I'm sick of going into the lfs and asking "what do you have? black worms? blood worms? tubifex? And every one them swears up and down they know what they have when I'm pretty darn sure they don't have a clue. I know what blackworms look like since I bought them from aquatic foods and they don't look like anything I've seen at any lfs. The lfs I go to frequently, call it lfs1, says they sell blood worms NOT tubifex but occassionaly get black worms (i've never seen them) then I go into another place today, lfs 2, and they say they only have tubifex so I bring some home and whatdayaknow they are exactly the same, no different than the bw from lfs1.

Are bloodworms and tubifex indistinguishable from each other?

Sure wish I knew what I was feeding my fish.

Anyone in the sacramento area want to go in on blackworm orders?



Steve

[calihawker]

I guess I shoulda put this in the foods and nutrition section.

Sorry:o



Steve

[ShinShin]

Each are easily identified without the use of magnification. CBW's are blackish brown and a little bigger in diameter than tubifex. Tubefex are red. They are called bloodworms by some. Both resemble tiny eartworms in structure. Most bloodworms are red and are larvae, not worms and don't really look like a worm as we know worms.
Mat

[DanCBW]

Steve
It varies from region to region through out the country.
Most of the wholesalers and retail stores still call blackworms ( Lumbriculus Variegatus )
tubifex here in California. This just goes back to when a major wholesaler used to import and distribute tubifex from Mexico apx 20-25 years ago before blackworms replaced tubifex. I'm not aware of any tubifex being offered to the stores any longer.
As for why the call them Bloodworms, don't have an answer for that.
In Sacramento you are receiving Blackworms.
Hope this helps.

Dan
http://aquaticfoods.com/CalifCustomers.html

[MostlyDiscus]

I used tubifex worms many many years ago for guppies. At that time we used to let the water run a low rate into the tubifex container 24/7. They are much smaller than CBW(maybe 1/3 to 1/2 size) and red in color. CBW are 1 to 2 inches and are much darker(brown slightly red). Blood worms look like a bigger version of misqutio larve. Hope that helps. Ed