tubifex worms??

[Mocular]

I have mollies and guppies in a 20 gal and i was wondering if I fed Tubifex worms once in a while if it would hurt anything? is it good for them?

[Holly9937]

As long as the fish eat the food in question, a variety in diet is always good!

[Darkblade48]

I personally wouldn't feed live tubifex worms (or frozen ones for that matter), as the tubifex worms are usually cultured in disgusting conditions and can bring a whole variety of pollutants into the aquarium.

[Aqualung]

I personally wouldn't feed live tubifex worms (or frozen ones for that matter), as the tubifex worms are usually cultured in disgusting conditions and can bring a whole variety of pollutants into the aquarium.

What sort of pollutants? I'm aware that they can carry parasites that cause whirling disease, but haven't heard anything of pollutants. I have tubifex that have been living in my substrate for almost a year, and have a jar with some microfex that I've been feeding with no problems. They both came from a fellow hobbyist's fry tank, so I can't imagine the conditions were disgusting. I'm not sure about the methods used for mass production though - off to do more research!