How To Culture Vinegar Eels

Words of gratitude to my friend Beryl from New York for the snails to feed my newts!

Buy Vinegar Eels live culture locally: 

https://newyork.craigslist.org/search/sss?userpostingid=7424875577

 or buy Vinegar Eels on amazon (paid link): 

https://amzn.to/3Nc6v1m

And thank you Beryl for Vinegar Eels!

Beryl gave me a well established culture with enough Vinegar Eels to set many cultures.

Let's get a couple clean bottles preferably with a long straight bottleneck.

Put a couple slices of clean fresh apples in each bottle.

Vinegar Eels live and breed in vinegar - any vinegar for that matter.

Fill 1/2 of the bottle with vinegar - apple vinegar in this example.

Vinegar Eels are totally harmless nematodes safe for pets and people.

Add dechlorinated tap water.

Basically I use vinegar with water in proportion 1:1.

I remember using much less vinegar as a kid for setting up cultures.

Well, vinegar is cheap to buy and simple to make at home.

Cover the bottles with cloth - I use polyester foam to prevent insects from getting in the culture.

Take a closer look at Vinegar Eels.

This is a very dense population of Vinegar Eels.

Vinegar Eels grow up to a couple millimeters the most.

Very tiny they are.

The culture came in a very nice glass bottle with a cap - I have to return the bottle.

So let's move the culture in a...disposable plastic bottle I found at my kitchen.

Any container will do for that purpose.

Though, bottles with straight necks are the best for harvesting Vinegar Eels.

Transfer the culture in the new bottle.

I use polyester foam to make a gag that should fit loosely in the neck of the bottle.

Secure the gag with a piece of fishing line.

The gag can be used for preventing insects from getting in and for harvesting Vinegar Eels.

Put the gag in the bottle neck.

Make sure the bottom of the polyester foam touches the liquid.

Gently add dechlorinated tap water to cover the polyester foam.

 Let it sit for a couple hours or overnight.

Vinegar Eels will swim up through the polyester gag to the oxygen rich water surface.

Here you can see it the next morning.

There are huge amounts of Vinegar Eels above the gag.

The polyester foam prevents water from mixing with vinegar.

Use a pipette or a turkey baster to collect Vinegar Eels with water above the gag.

Transfer collected Vinegar Eels into the prepared bottles with apples.

That's how I seeded new cultures - clean setup.

Remember to cover the bottles to prevent fruit flies from getting in.

Fresh apples float the first couple days.

Make sure apples are fully covered with the liquid to prevent mold growing on the top.

I keep the culture in the living room next to my aquariums away from direct sunlight.

It would take 2-3 weeks for the population of Vinegar Eels to increase noticeably.

In the meantime I can harvest Vinegar Eels from the old culture to feed my fish.

I have a separate video showing 3 ways of harvesting Vinegar Eels.

Please check it for more details.

And look - my adult and fry Blue Star Endlers love Vinegar Eels!

Though, the tiny sized Vinegar Eels make better live food for feeding fish fry.

Vinegar Eels stay alive in water for many hours.

They always tend to swim up to the water surface - where fish will get them.

Two days later the apple slices start sinking down.

And in the following days I noticed clusters of Vinegar Eels gathered above the water level.

That is a very interesting behavior we can take advantage of!

Yeah, check my other video about it :)

Here you can see about 3 weeks old culture.

The liquid is already saturated with Vinegar Eels.

And the population of Vinegar Eels in the larger bottle is even more dense.

I add slices of fresh apples into each culture once a month or so.

And...that's all that takes Vinegar Eels cultures going.

Simple like that.

Polyester foam attached to a stick (a mouth swab in this example) is more convenient to work with for me than with fishing line.

Even small culture like this one yields enough Vinegar Eels to feed a half dozen fry for a week.

And it takes about 2-3 weeks for a new culture to grow significantly enough for feeding fish.

There is another way to set up a new culture of Vinegar Eels - simply split the old culture.

Put slices of apples into a new clean container.

Add liquid with Vinegar Eels from the old culture into the new container.

Any portion of old liquid you take from the old culture needs to be replaced with tap water.

Add tap water to the new culture to the level as well.

Cover the containers with polyester foam or some cloth to keep insects away.

Here you can see the cultures in 3 days.

All goes as it should without me using the store bought vinegar this time.

Basically - I am making vinegar in this way for my Vinegar Eels :)

In this example I'm setting up a culture in a 16oz food container.

The larger volume containers yield more Vinegar Eels.

Taking care of Vinegar Eels cultures in large containers is all the same as in small bottles.

Just add slices of apples once a month or so.

Here you can see about 3 weeks old culture in the container.

It's already a well established culture!

The shape of the container makes the only difference for harvesting Vinegar Eels.

Check my previous video for details about harvesting Vinegar Eels.

Vinegar Eels are one of the best live foods for fish fry.

They are very nutritious.

Here you can see Endlers fry in about one month of every other day feeding with Vinegar Eels.

Live Vinegar Eels food promotes growth of healthy fish fry.

My fish pets deserve the best food I can get for them.

Fish go into a frenzy after Vinegar Eels :)

And Vinegar Eels are the simplest live food to culture.

Have fun and happy fish :)