Discussion for live food enthusiasts

[KentFishFanUK]

Hi guys! 

I'm currently getting more and more into live food culturing (other than hatching baby brine shrimp which I also do of course) for my fish and fry (infusoria, green water, moina, vinegar eels etc) and I've recently discovered a new method for culturing vinegar eels and I was wondering if anyone else had heard or tried it? 

So I have my vinegar eels in the usual raw cider vinegar/water and apple slices mix that all the guides suggest. 

The method I've seen recently is more like the typical micro/banana/walter culturing, done in a wet oats or mash potato medium only instead of using water you use the cider vinegar/water mix that we normally use for vinegar eels. The results I've seen pictures of seems good, much much higher culture density than the usual method and they start crawling up the sides just like the other worms making it really easy to harvest. 

Now I know it loses some of the advantages of the usual method - it's more maintenance, more prone to crashing, maybe more smell etc however the main reason I like vinegar eels is because of their size and the way they congregate at the surface of the water (for my ricefish fry) and the fact they can live a fairly long time in an aquarium so it's harder to overfeed and pollute the water. 

Has anyone else tried this method? If so what I'd love to know is do the vinegar eels, once fed to a tank, still swim near the surface of the water and most importantly - do they still survive a long time? Slightly concerned that using this method could mean the vinegar eels are acclimated to 'terrestial' life and won't survive long in the water thus losing their main benefit (for me anyway). Obviously I'm no biologist and have no idea if it even works that way or if I'm worried for no reason.

Anyone have any thoughts or insight? 

Edit: pic for reference 

Edited July 28, 2022 by KentFishFanUK
Adding pic

[jamieterrin]

Any one ever make an ato brine shrimp feeder?

[_Eric_]

I don’t have any experience, but if you give it a try, please post your results.  Definitely interested.

[Odd Duck]

Yes, to the high density vinegar eel culture.  It works very well!  It’s nearly identical to microworm/banana worm/Walter worm culture except for using 1/2 vinegar for the liquid and topping off with vinegar if the culture gets too dry.  I still maintain a liquid culture as back up since they are so very easy to maintain long term in liquid.  In the high density culture it’s important to restart cultures at least every 4-8 weeks.  For max production for a larger breeding facility, restarting every 2-4 weeks would likely be much better.  The benefit for the higher maintenance is MUCH easier harvesting along with higher production level.  I 100% recommend trying the high density culture method for vinegar eels.

And I’ve never appreciated that vinegar eels swim near the surface after feeding.  They get eaten too fast in most cases, but they disperse enough and my old eyes can’t follow individual worms, so I couldn’t tell you where any extras end up once they disperse and the bulk of them are eaten.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Odd Duck

[modified lung]

On 7/28/2022 at 4:59 AM, jamieterrin said:

Any one ever make an ato brine shrimp feeder?

I thought about hooking a peristaltic pump on a timer to a brine shrimp jar. It would probably need to be cleaned a lot and you'd have to deal with the salt buildup in your tank. I ended up never trying it and don't use brine shrimp anymore though.

[KentFishFanUK]

On 7/28/2022 at 2:51 PM, Odd Duck said:

Yes, to the high density vinegar eel culture.  It works very well!  It’s nearly identical to microworm/banana worm/Walter worm culture except for using 1/2 vinegar for the liquid and topping off with vinegar if the culture gets too dry.  I still maintain a liquid culture as back up since they are so very easy to maintain long term in liquid.  In the high density culture it’s important to restart cultures at least every 4-8 weeks.  For max production for a larger breeding facility, restarting every 2-4 weeks would likely be much better.  The benefit for the higher maintenance is MUCH easier harvesting along with higher production level.  I 100% recommend trying the high density culture method for vinegar eels.

And I’ve never appreciated that vinegar eels swim near the surface after feeding.  They get eaten too fast in most cases, but they disperse enough and my old eyes can’t follow individual worms, so I couldn’t tell you where any extras end up once they disperse and the bulk of them are eaten.

Thank you! I will definitely give it a go then. I have my vinegar eels split between four small cultures that I rotate so have plenty to work with. I'm starting to get more and more fry to feed so would definitely help. 

On 7/28/2022 at 1:43 PM, _Eric_ said:

I don’t have any experience, but if you give it a try, please post your results.  Definitely interested.

Haven't tried it yet but the lady who told me about this method did an experiment for me, she put a bunch in some water in a glass and she's just sent me a video (about 24 hours later) of them all swimming around near the surface, none appear to have died or anything so looks good! 

[EsJay]

Don’t forget about white worms! Adding another live food to the discussion fun. Link to my culture  https://youtu.be/7JAgVcNi098