Vinegar Eel Culture

[rockfisher]

So I want to start a vinegar eel culture. I have read the Coop info on starting one. I want to know if you have used that method and if so, how long can you harvest from a jar. It says for a few days day?  After those few days can you let the culture grow again and harvest more in that 6 month period?

 

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/vinegar-eels

Edited April 1, 2023 by rockfisher

[jwcarlson]

I bought a culture from Fish Guy's Place and followed his instructions. 50/50 ACV/water.  5 or 6 apple slices.  They multiply quickly in my limited experience.  I have two going, going to set up another one here shortly in a quart deli cup.  I suck them out with a pipette, put them in a coffee strainer, rinse, and then rinse them into wherever I am feeding.  They are a bit of a pain to feed. 

[smm333]

I watched Cory's video on how to set them up. I have 2 going in wine bottles. I keep the necks full of fresh water. They have been going for months with no problem. I use a pipette to suck them out from the fresh water and add directly to my strawberry rasbora tank. They swarm them! 

[rockfisher]

On 4/1/2023 at 12:11 PM, jwcarlson said:

I bought a culture from Fish Guy's Place and followed his instructions. 50/50 ACV/water.  5 or 6 apple slices.  They multiply quickly in my limited experience.  I have two going, going to set up another one here shortly in a quart deli cup.  I suck them out with a pipette, put them in a coffee strainer, rinse, and then rinse them into wherever I am feeding.  They are a bit of a pain to feed. 

Thank you.  A friend gave me some to feed as first food for my angel fry.that seemed like I had much higher survival rates of fry I was going to try it for the next hatch in 4 to 5 weeks. I only take the slates every 4-5 weeks. If the parents raise some in the middle that’s great. Now that I have 4 extra pairs, 6 total I want to cut down on losses.
 

On 4/1/2023 at 1:59 PM, smm333 said:

I watched Cory's video on how to set them up. I have 2 going in wine bottles. I keep the necks full of fresh water. They have been going for months with no problem. I use a pipette to suck them out from the fresh water and add directly to my strawberry rasbora tank. They swarm them! 

I watched it or read it on the website. So how long do you keep the fresh water in the neck. It seemed like you were only supposed To keep the fresh water in a few days at a time or the culture would start dying off. Is this correct? 

[Odd Duck]

You can also grow what people are calling a “high density” culture of vinegar eels.  Essentially just like microworms but using 1/2 apple cider vinegar as the liquid in the culture.  They climb up the sides of the culture just like microworms but they don’t tend to climb as high in my experience.  Vinegar eels work very well for early feed since they live longer in water - up to a week compared to 6-12 hours for microworms.  They also tend to stay at the water’s surface so they are extra valuable for top water fry.  I keep a couple bottles of liquid culture as back up on the vinegar eels.  You can essentially ignore them for months at a time and they’re fine, so you always have them as a restart if the high density culture fails or dries up, plus for emergency feeding for unexpected fry.  You can get cultures fairly dense even in liquid cultures, and I’ve pulled feedings from liquid cultures for many days in a row without depleting them excessively.  Vinegar eel cultures tend to be quite forgiving but don’t seem quite as fast growing as some other worms even though the numbers say they should be.

[rockfisher]

On 4/1/2023 at 7:08 PM, Odd Duck said:

You can also grow what people are calling a “high density” culture of vinegar eels.  Essentially just like microworms but using 1/2 apple cider vinegar as the liquid in the culture.  They climb up the sides of the culture just like microworms but they don’t tend to climb as high in my experience.  Vinegar eels work very well for early feed since they live longer in water - up to a week compared to 6-12 hours for microworms.  They also tend to stay at the water’s surface so they are extra valuable for top water fry.  I keep a couple bottles of liquid culture as back up on the vinegar eels.  You can essentially ignore them for months at a time and they’re fine, so you always have them as a restart if the high density culture fails or dries up, plus for emergency feeding for unexpected fry.  You can get cultures fairly dense even in liquid cultures, and I’ve pulled feedings from liquid cultures for many days in a row without depleting them excessively.  Vinegar eel cultures tend to be quite forgiving but don’t seem quite as fast growing as some other worms even though the numbers say they should be.

The baby brine work but with them a 4 hour window seems to what I have to work with. After that they are just to bigg for some of the fry. I haven’t worried much before this but I have been selling a lot more so if I can have more survive each hatch I would be able to sell a few more. 

[smm333]

On 4/1/2023 at 3:44 PM, rockfisher said:

Thank you.  A friend gave me some to feed as first food for my angel fry.that seemed like I had much higher survival rates of fry I was going to try it for the next hatch in 4 to 5 weeks. I only take the slates every 4-5 weeks. If the parents raise some in the middle that’s great. Now that I have 4 extra pairs, 6 total I want to cut down on losses.
 

I watched it or read it on the website. So how long do you keep the fresh water in the neck. It seemed like you were only supposed To keep the fresh water in a few days at a time or the culture would start dying off. Is this correct? 

I just add more fresh water to the neck as needed. Mine are going strong. I left them for awhile when I didn't have fish that would eat them, and they were still thriving when I checked them to give to the rasboras!