I've been feeding Live Tubifex worms to both my community tank and my bettas for months now and thankfully they never got any disease. I think it depends on where you buy the worms from and how they cultured them. I buy my worms from a small lfs where the guy keeps them in a container with flowing water so they're always in clean water.
The worms I feed them look fresh and clean. I get them from a reputile LFS. They been in business for over 30 years.
I don't worry about feeding them live brine shrimp since there is such a high salinity count warding off any parasites, but the fish prefer live tubifex over the shrimp. The go nuts over the live worms. It's really enjoyable to feed them.
I was just wondering if there is any health hazzards to the fish such as them getting internal parasites. If so, I'll discotinue feeding them what they love so much.
I wouldn't feed them any live food unless you are confident of the quality. It's just like picking up a rock in the yard and putting it in your tank without boiling and cleaning it. You don't know what type parasites or bacteria it may contain.
yes they can.
the only occurances of fish TB in the wild happen where tubifex tubifex live.
there was a PFK article a while ago about the parasites that often appear with tubifex batches.
having said all that I use it at work and home and have never had a problem with it at all.