Schuyler Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 On the Live Food Cultures Facebook group there has been a lot of people talking about making vinegar eel culture in a way that's more similar to microworms (with an oatmeal medium). These are the instructions I used as a basis: https://thekillifish.net/vinegar_eel_culture/ http://fishguysplace.com/livefood.html#hdve The sandpaper was from something I read in a book that roughing up the edges makes it easier for worms to climb. I'm using ACO dense poly pads ripped on half for the air hole. Now that I'm posting this is clear to see that the container is not clear which may be annoying for trying to see them climb up. Something else to try may be to get two identical containers and do vinegar in one and oats in the other. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 @Odd Duck I believe said vinegar eels do well on instant potatoes also. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 I might have to give this a shot, I just started a liquid culture (purchased from fishguyplace, he was great) and it's growing wildly. I suppose I should just purchase the started oatmeal version from him as well instead of making my own soup. I wonder how long they go before needing to be refreshed. It's nice that the vinegar version just is... liquid, I guess. But I've only had one for a few weeks so maybe it isn't as easy as it seems long-term. I cultured wingless fruit flies years ago and those never seemed to do as well as the first one I bought from Josh's Frogs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted January 16, 2023 Author Share Posted January 16, 2023 On 1/16/2023 at 8:08 AM, jwcarlson said: I suppose I should just purchase the started oatmeal version from him as well instead of making my own soup. Or you could try both and see how much time the "soup" version saves 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 On 1/16/2023 at 10:22 AM, Schuyler said: Or you could try both and see how much time the "soup" version saves Yes, that would be the plan. I meant making my own culture into the solid stuff from my liquid one. On the linked site it says it can fail sometimes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted January 16, 2023 Author Share Posted January 16, 2023 On 1/16/2023 at 8:23 AM, jwcarlson said: On the linked site it says it can fail sometimes. I was hesitant to share that one because it kinda felt like a sales pitch. It's probably true that it can fail but I'm always skeptical of things that sound like they're trying to sell me something 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 On 1/16/2023 at 7:50 AM, Guppysnail said: @Odd Duck I believe said vinegar eels do well on instant potatoes also. Yeah, @Odd Duck has a good recipe, I have one of her cultures, it’s really low maintenance. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted January 16, 2023 Share Posted January 16, 2023 (edited) On 1/16/2023 at 12:56 PM, Schuyler said: I was hesitant to share that one because it kinda felt like a sales pitch. It's probably true that it can fail but I'm always skeptical of things that sound like they're trying to sell me something Gotcha, I like Paul so I wouldn't have a problem paying him for his vinegar eel soup starter. 🙂 I like that his website is so detailed that you can basically do it yourself. It feels like an earlier internet site and I have some heavy nostalgia for those kind of things! All that said, I feel like if I had my liquid culture in a square container I could easily wipe the eels off the side because even in the glass just there's a "layer" of them that kind of builds up (and I swirl them back in, though I don't know if that's the right thing to do or not now that I think about it). Edited January 16, 2023 by jwcarlson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted January 17, 2023 Share Posted January 17, 2023 I had not seen the “sandpaper to slightly rough up the inside” bit before. I’ll have to try that. The high density cultures last around 4 weeks or so before they start to diminish and need dividing or replenishing. I do need to top off the HDVE cultures with vinegar since my cultures tend to dry out (HD vinegar eels and microworms will both get dry). The liquid VE cultures last for months but don’t have the worm density compared to the oatmeal/potatoes/‘whatever starch you like” in the high density cultures. I keep liquid vinegar eel cultures on hand in case I get lazy and don’t get them restarted soon enough. I’ve not had them fully crash and go bad, per se, but they have dried out on me and died. I do know that when I’ve tried to use up leftover Josh’s Frogs fruit fly mixture only, the cultures didn’t do as well. I’m still trying to use the stuff up since my pea puffers were completely unimpressed by the wingless fruit flies. I mix no more than about 1/4-1/3 fruit fly mix with mostly instant potatoes or cooked oatmeal. 1/2 and 1/2 didn’t do quite as well as using more of plain starch source as media. Same with microworms on the media. Plain old oats or instant potatoes are more reliable. I won’t buy fruit fly media again. Overall, I really like having the HDVE cultures on hand, especially for top dwelling fry. The microworms may be a bit better for bottom dwelling fry since they go down. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted January 21, 2023 Author Share Posted January 21, 2023 There is a slight skin on top of the vinegar but I no longer see anything wiggling in the liquid. Hopefully it just needs more time... On 1/16/2023 at 6:44 PM, Odd Duck said: I had not seen the “sandpaper to slightly rough up the inside” bit before It was from an old book/binder my dad gave me called "Exotic Tropical Fishes". It was in a section on microworms. Now that I think of it, that was written in the 70's or 80's and there's a chance it was saying that for glass containers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted January 30, 2023 Author Share Posted January 30, 2023 Well what do you know... It's working! The vinegar is wriggling like a microworm culture and there are even some starting to climb the sides 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted April 20, 2023 Author Share Posted April 20, 2023 Just started a new culture. This method is so much easier to feed than straining out of vinegar! I'll keep the bottles as backup but I'm definitely not going back to them being my main method 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 Hi I’m new to commenting on this web so I don’t know if I’m commenting to the right person lol, anyways I need a little guide on how to do this, I got a vinegar eel culture on in stand potato and I want to do this pls hello reply fast since I don’t know what to do with the worms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted October 25, 2023 Author Share Posted October 25, 2023 On 10/25/2023 at 9:16 AM, Kev said: Hi I’m new to commenting on this web so I don’t know if I’m commenting to the right person lol, anyways I need a little guide on how to do this, I got a vinegar eel culture on in stand potato and I want to do this pls hello reply fast since I don’t know what to do with the worms I would reach out to the person who sold it they'll probably have a good guide. This website has a pretty in depth guide: http://fishguysplace.com/livefood.html#hdve At a high level, you just make some instant potatoes with 1/3 of the water replaced with vinegar, put that in a small container, sprinkle a pinch of yeast on top, add a bit of the start culture on top of that, and wait for them to multiply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev Posted October 25, 2023 Share Posted October 25, 2023 (edited) Ok thx, I’ll try that. container with or without a lid? I’ll probably end up putting a lid if it smells anyways lol Edited October 25, 2023 by Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted October 25, 2023 Author Share Posted October 25, 2023 You'll want a lid to keep bugs out but you'll want to make an air hole that's covered with cloth or filter floss or something like that. If you look up micro worm culture setups it's basically the same as that. I think aquarium Co-op has one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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