I bought some tubifex tubifex to culture for fishfood. I’m wondering if they only «boogie» when oxygen levels are low? I read they thrive in oxygenated water, but they are also famous for tolerating low oxygen.
I dropped some into a planted walstad vase/jar, and into my planted aquarium. They buried through the sandcap and into the soil layer (i can see them squished against the glass) but they are not boogying! 3 days have they been chilling underground. The photo is from when I first dropped them in, they had not buried yet.
I split the remaining colony into two jars that i do 50% water change on daily (i use water from my aquarium) There is nothing else in these jars for now, these two meatball shaped colonies boogie a lot, when not disturbed by me poking them.
I tried feeding one jar 1/4th spirulina fish food sinking pellet. I have read a lot about that they can eat nearly anything, like boiled vegetables, cow manure and spirulina, but how exactly do they eat them? Do they bury into the food and use their microscopuc mouths to tear into the food like an earthworm, or do they eat biofilm on the decaying matter? i read that the «boogie end» is actually their butt, and that they are headfirst into the substrate. Are they eating the dirt itself?
I have seen at least 5 culturing guides on youtube, and read some encyclopedia pages on them, but everything i read seems very unprecise, and contradictory.
So i’m wondering to those of you who have had them, could you see them eat? can you tell if they are thriving vs dying?
by SkyfishArt