Tubifex worm (Tubifex tubifex) care guide

Group
Other invertebrates
Other names
Sludge worm, Sewage worm, Tubifex
Family
Naididae (Tubificinae)
Origin
Lakes and rivers on several continents, including Britain; bottom sediments, often where organic pollution is high
Water
freshwater
Maximum size
20 cm
Temperature
4–24°C
Care level
beginner

Care

Tubifex is a thin, red, segmented freshwater worm best known as live fish food. Individuals can reach about 20 cm but most are a few centimetres. The genus probably contains several species that are hard to tell apart. It occurs naturally in British waters as well as elsewhere. Habitat: it lives head-down in the bottom mud of lakes and rivers, waving its tail in the water to take in oxygen. It is rich in haemoglobin, tolerates very low oxygen, and is often most common where organic pollution, including sewage, is heavy, which few other animals can stand. It can survive drought and food shortage by forming a protective cyst. As live food: fish love Tubifex, but live worms collected from polluted water can carry harmful bacteria and parasites. Tubifex is the host of the parasite that causes whirling disease in trout and salmon. Use cleaned, farmed or frozen and freeze-dried Tubifex, rinse live worms in several changes of cold water for a few days before feeding, and never collect them from sewage outlets. Do not let uneaten worms colonise a gravel bed. Keeping a culture: live worms keep best in a shallow tray of cold, slowly running or regularly changed water, or in a fridge in a shallow container of water changed daily. Copper: copper-based medicines and some plant fertilisers are toxic to shrimp, snails and most invertebrates. Never dose copper in a tank holding this animal, and check fertiliser and medicine labels before use. Sources: Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubifextubifex). Checked October 2026.

Diet

Swallows fine sediment, digesting bacteria and organic matter and absorbing nutrients through its body wall. Prefers silt and clay-sized particles. In a culture, a little fish food or organic-rich mud is enough.

Breeding

Breeds in organic-rich sediment, laying cocoons of about 12 embryos each, around 38 cocoons per breeding period. In laboratory cultures cocoons were laid in roughly three-month cycles at 17 °C, and more organic matter in the sediment gave more embryos per cocoon. It is fertile over a wide range of temperatures (about 0.5–30 °C). Culturing is possible in shallow trays of mud with slow water flow, but most keepers buy cleaned or frozen worms.

Compatibility and tank mates

Kept as food rather than as a tank inhabitant. Eaten eagerly by almost all fish; may survive and burrow in a sand or gravel bed, where it is harmless but can indicate excess organic waste.

Last updated 8 October 2026. Community-edited care guide on Aquatic-Auctions.

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