How often to feed Vinegar Eels

How often to feed Vinegar Eels

Buy Vinegar Eels locally on Craigslist: 

https://newyork.craigslist.org/search/sss?userpostingid=7391919122 

Buy Vinegar Eels on Amazon (paid link): 

https://amzn.to/3IzUYWX

Here you can see my Vinegar Eels cultures on July 28th, 2023

 I keep them on a shelf under my aquariums away from direct sunlight.

 Here you can see the same cultures about one month later, on September 2nd.

 I take some vinegar eels from each culture every month for feeding newborn fish.

 In my previous videos I shared with you 3 different ways of harvesting vinegar eels and how to set up and take care of them.

 Let me give you a close up view on vinegar eels.

 Vinegar eels are 1-2 millimeters long nematodes. 

Perfect feeding size for baby fish. 

This time I want to check if vinegar eels cultures can sustain on one feeding for one season. 

I add slices of fresh apple into each of my well established many months old cultures. 

And I skip adding water this time - it takes more than a year for water level to drop significantly. 

I cover bottles with polyester foam to allow air circulation.

 All is set and ready on September 2nd, 2023. 

December 23rd, 2023. I did not touch these Vinegar Eels cultures for about 3 months.

 All cultures are going strong! 

I don't harvest vinegar eels from these cultures for the sake of the experiment.

 Let's feed vinegar eels with slices of fresh apple. 

The water level dropped about 1 cm in all bottles during the past 3 months. 

Let's add dechlorinated tap water to the level.

 I am going to check on these cultures next Spring. 

March 6th, 2023

 Three winter months went by. 

All vinegar eels cultures alive and going without me doing anything at all. 

The larger bottles with more apple slices and more water volume have a larger population of vinegar eels. 

You can see clusters of vinegar eels above water level in large bottles. 

So, one feeding of apple slices in 3 months works well for vinegar eels. 

All vinegar eels cultures sustained well through the experiment.

 It's time for a new experiment - farming vinegar eels in large quantities :) 

I am going to set up new vinegar eels cultures in 16oz plastic containers. 

The 16oz plastic containers can be put in stocks of 4 on top of each other. 

That is big time space saving for culturing live food. 

I've been culturing Grindal worms, springtails and isopods in similar containers for feeding my pets.

 Recently I got a breeding family of Least Killifish - the smallest fish living in North America. 

Vinegar eels seem to be perfectly sizable food for my Least Killifish. 

Will keep you updated. 

Have fun and happy fish :)