Worms & flies in vinegar eels culture

[Karen B.]

Hiya fish friends!

Not my proudest moment but I forgot to cover my 4 containers (different kind of bottles like soda, water, etc…) that contain my vinegar eels culture. I’ve had this culture for over a year, there is tons of eels. But I noticed today that there was fruit flies around (and inside), as well as crawling larvae and/or worms.

Can I still use my culture or is it considered contaminated and I should get rid of it all?

I was thinking about using a fine sift (like the one for BBS) and that way the vinegar eels will get through but (hopefully) not the other stuff…?

[Jess]

I really don't know the answer here, but I can tell you what I would do: start a new, pure culture with some vinegar eels you are able to get out of the existing cultures (if you can get just the vinegar eels....otherwise maybe just buy a new batch if you want a pure culture).

But I can say that you can most likely feed the worm larvae to your fish.  I have long been feeding my fish whatever "grows" in 5-gallon buckets of water outside - mosquito larvae and various types of fly larvae - and I've never had any issues.  But I suspect what you want to know is whether those other larvae will kill off your vinegar eels.  That I don't know, but it's impressive that they can live in vinegar cause I kinda thought that was a "special feature" of vinegar eels specifically hahaha.

One thing I've always wanted to do is have an aquarium that's like half-full with some top-feeding fish like killis or hatchetfish and a tight-fitting lid, and release fruit flies or other small flying things in there and watch the fish jump to catch them.  In my head it would work and be very fun...in practice, not so sure LOL. 

[Karen B.]

On 9/27/2022 at 4:15 PM, Jess said:

I really don't know the answer here, but I can tell you what I would do: start a new, pure culture with some vinegar eels you are able to get out of the existing cultures (if you can get just the vinegar eels....otherwise maybe just buy a new batch if you want a pure culture).

But I can say that you can most likely feed the worm larvae to your fish.  I have long been feeding my fish whatever "grows" in 5-gallon buckets of water outside - mosquito larvae and various types of fly larvae - and I've never had any issues.  But I suspect what you want to know is whether those other larvae will kill off your vinegar eels.  That I don't know, but it's impressive that they can live in vinegar cause I kinda thought that was a "special feature" of vinegar eels specifically hahaha.

One thing I've always wanted to do is have an aquarium that's like half-full with some top-feeding fish like killis or hatchetfish and a tight-fitting lid, and release fruit flies or other small flying things in there and watch the fish jump to catch them.  In my head it would work and be very fun...in practice, not so sure LOL. 

Thank you for your answer.

The larva were not in the vinegar, but inside the bubble just on top of the liquid. The flies are dead in the vinegar.

But what you say makes sense - I forgot a lot of va people have that kind of aquarium outside and fish do feed on things that grow or fall in there!

I love your idea of feeding flies in a closed aquariums. I know they are now producing fruit fly without wings to give to fish but it’s not quite the same thing.

You would love my female betta - whenever she get fed, she is more focussed on jumping out of the water and attack my hand then the food. It’s almost a daily occurrence. 😅

[Jess]

OMG yes I would love her!!! You should post a video and tag me.  I love jumping fish hahaha.  

Yeah if it were me I think I'd just start a fresh colony so I don't have to deal with the dead flies in there.  I guess the larva would eventually fly off if you let them?

Do you feed the vinegar eels to your betta?  I've been thinking about starting a vinegar eel colony and maybe another type of worm like microworms...just because I want another source of live foods for my fish throughout the winter when I don't have mosquito larvae.  I hatch baby brine shrimp but some other live food would be good to have (plus for any potential fry if I could get my fish to breed!)  I was told by one seller that all the worms (microworms, walter worms, banana worms, and vinegar eels) would be too small for adult fish...wondering if that's true or not...

[Cleveland M]

@JessYou could go with grindal worms. they are big enough for adults. They sink pretty fast so my hatchets don't get many but all the rest of my fish love them.

 

[Karen B.]

@Jessvinegar eels are so tiny, I don’t think adult fish would bother with them. My betta don’t even like BBS because they are small…

But I have never tried giving vinegar eels to any of my adult fish so can’t say for sure. And mine are so picky - they don’t like artemia, mysis shrimps, etc… I even have to grind some of their dried food otherwise they just spit it out. 

[Jess]

On 9/27/2022 at 8:51 PM, Cleveland M said:

@JessYou could go with grindal worms. they are big enough for adults. They sink pretty fast so my hatchets don't get many but all the rest of my fish love them.

 

If you're in the States, do you know where to find grindal worms?  I don't know anyone near me who sells them...they're a popular food for licorice gouramis so I've wanted to get them for awhile.

[Cleveland M]

I got my starter on E-bay and I see several posted there now also.

[tolstoy21]

It's pretty common to use vinegar in a jar as a fruit fly trap. They won't live in vinegar, nor reproduce in it. But they they can't resist the smell of it and go in looking for a treat, then drown. So it's not unusual to see them on the surface if you left it open.  

As for the worms, dunno. Sounds gross! They probably won't affect anything. But if they are able to reproduce in the vinegar and turn into flies or something, they you're just waiting for an outbreak in your house. This would be annoying for you, but I doubt your fish would care.

Either way, I agreed. Its best to start a new batch from an uncontaminated source.

[Mad Mike]

While checking on some cultures recently, I noticed a black spot floating against the glass of one of my 1/2 gallon jars. On closer inspection I saw a couple similar specks flying around in the jar!! I quickly unscrewed the lid to find that I must have somehow ripped the coffee filters while screwing it on last month. This was one of my experimental cultures... 🍍 rings in 100% 🍍 juice that had been mixed with acetic acid to 5% acidity. Some eels and yeast finished it off and it went on the shelf. The flies flew off, and I removed the dead one. I replaced the coffee filters and screwed the lid back on thinking all was well.... The following day? or possibly later, I looked at this culture again and was surprised by the number of eels above the waterline. I grabbed my favorite vinegar eel toy, a 100X lighted digital magnifier, and leaned in for a look. There were indeed a great number of eels, but what I didn't expect to see was maybe 3 or 4 maggots. One was safe, we'll above the waterline. The others were not so fortunate, each of them absolutely swarmed in eels. I never imagined my humble vinegar eels would, or even could, consume the maggot, but I didn't have time to wait and see. When I was able to get back there, the maggots were nowhere to be found.