old tech food... but it's amazing how much everyone loves freeze dried tubeflex...

[Magnum Man]

I don't feed them often, and when I do, I cut the cubes into pencil lead sized strips, and pretty much every fish I have goes bonkers for them...
with my skinny new Yellow Fin Red Hook Silver Dollar (Myloplus Arnoldi), I've been looking for foods it will eat past the initial feeding frenzy, and he is eating them heartily... even the bigger electric blue's love them... the African Tetras also go crazy for them... the South American Tetras, don't like to eat from the surface, but gobble them up, once they start floating around the tank... even the Hillstream's aggressively eat them, if the Panda Garras leave any for them...
I don't know how long freeze dried tubeflex cubes have been in the hobby, but I remember them, when I had fish as a kid...

 

[MaloK]

Freeze-drying technology was discovered in the early 1900 and saw significant improvement during WW2.

So it would be pretty safe to say that between 1950-60 it became more accessible and cost-effective for commercial purposes.

 

[GaryE]

I used to buy tubifex cubes when I was getting into my teens, as my Corys loved them. So they were an established, easily available food by 1972.
What I wish we still had was freeze dried black mosquito larvae. That made killie keeping so easy, but vanished by 2000. To me, freeze dried daphnia and artemia are useless foods, unless you want expensive roughage. But tubifex (also called sludge worms, sewage worms or Tubifex tubifex, although there are 13 identified species of them) are good food freeze dried. I'd mistrust them live as they do like to live in moving water near sewage.
I used to know a Russian guy who collected them in nature in his homeland, but was constantly frustrated by the fact none of us would go out with him to look for them.

 

[emeraldking]

I've noticed that frozen tubifex is not exactly appreciated by most of my fish. It's got to move before they'll chase it. So, if they get tubifex, they should be alive.

 

[BigDog]

My fish, shrimp and plecos go crazy over this stuff

 

[Magnum Man]

pelleted Mosquito larvae... ( there are several brands all pelleted )

100g Dried Mosquito Larva Betta Fighting Fish Food Tokyu | eBay

Made in Thailand with high-quality ingredients, this food is suitable for all water types and contains the main ingredient of mosquito larva. Perfect for Betta fish, this food will keep them healthy and happy.

www.ebay.com

and there are several brands of wet larvae ( I'm a bit nervous of these )

https://www.amazon.com/D-P-Mosquito-Tropical-Enhancer-Breeding/dp/B08Y7V4NCZ/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.KbPATvTOnAZ06GGN65y739Metj-7oWiOcSmuWXHQA0_AfT3GXN3gLBCAuyc8CCyXeKvCU8kkMUO0fxHQgQcM3pAkw7nj2deoWLpLJ9g01rU-D1DBd4zmq9hJaYt3cA4ju93yOTa3erkbtnPIiqzqAp5XYI7enemeiU2XEiNQjtQ0rbCqD0WdttYJCem7wwUnAP9Bvw07FmDoFr6V8-yqV96XTtVuQBdgM6hgh0P2LzQ3ErCMhA3Prfnrbi8cTCP7B09MiZ78JMKJTtogxgm-aL9PG8xMhnuaZSYMpkMl6UpvSY425wL1qN4RXd7-6fGyP0jjEiU2Pp3Fg8UKiFh9setkKSnZe-bCkYvJ4RBxDtAE0vk8Ru3wvuraxHLKsvXMW-RbL81uZeut4_7zkEoS-mqdLkSf1ZgTBG-pFfaruis3N_fPAU7ZlKgmqb-DonNt.PqcWOdJk_agYiSaaIcHlNwCaKiy7_o8WMbb_Ncf3PKQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=mosquito%2Blarvae%2Bfish%2Bfood&qid=1741375286&sr=8-6&th=1

but all the dried black mosquito larvae links are actually black soldier fly larvae...