A Detailed Guide to Collecting and Storing Tubifex Worms

    The breeding season changes of tubifex worms are not as obvious as those of fish feed organisms. Their bodies are slender and thread-like, bright red or deep red in color, and they live year-round in the mud bottoms of natural waters that are especially rich in organic matter. Part of the body burrows into the bottom mud, while most of the body keeps trembling ceaselessly in the water layer. When there is the slightest sound nearby, it can startle them into retracting their entire bodies into the mud, and only after the sound disappears do they extend out of the mud again and resume trembling. When collecting tubifex worms, you should bring back some mud clumps along with them and put them into a bucket. When you need to take out the worms, cover the bucket tightly, and after a few hours, open the lid and you will see the tubifex worms floating and gathering on the surface of the mud slurry. The collected tubifex worms must be rinsed clean with fresh water before being fed to fish. During the storage period after taking them out, the water needs to be changed 2 to 3 times a day. In spring, autumn, and winter, they can survive for about 1 week. If during storage you find that the worm bodies have become lighter in color and are separating from one another, and their wriggling has noticeably weakened, this indicates that oxygen in the water is insufficient and the worms' constitution is weakening, with the danger of rapid death and rotting; the water should be changed immediately to save them. In the hot summer, shallow containers for storing tubifex worms should be placed under a tap with a small stream of running water continuously rinsing them, so that they can be kept for a longer time.