Vinegar Eels

Most recent update October 19, 2004: changes/additions are marked with ***
Previously updated: October 9, 2004

Vinegar eel (VE) culture media is a mix of apple cider vinegar and water. Various ratios have been used successfully. I have been using a 50:50 mix and use water that has been treated with water conditioner for aquariums.

Pretty much just mix some new culture solution and add some with VE in it, adding a dropperful of eels would probably work fine too, the more eels you start with the quicker the culture will populate. When I've started new cultures I've just split an existing one--pour some in the new container, then top both off with fresh 50/50 mix.

Apple chunks and apple juice are what I've seen most often recommended to feed a culture. Mine came with instructions to feed sugar biweekly. I usually use pieces of apple since that should last the longest between feedings & it's easier to tell when to add more.

If you mean lasting before "crashing" like a lot of the other worm cultures tend to do, I don't think that's an issue with VE. A culture left alone for a long time might eventually starve itself out, or dry up but they are extremely resistant to going bad & withstand a lot of neglect. I'm sure I've forgotten about mine for at least 3 wks & probably longer with no ill effect. The original starter culture I bought in March or April is still doing fine in the 500 mL water bottle it came in and so far none of the other cultures I've started have crashed either.

If you mean for feeding...no personal experience so your fellow member would be a better person to ask. I haven't yet had any fry small enough to neeed such a tiny food so I've only been using them to provide variety and not tracking how much I've used. The research I've done suggests that a starting point is 1 gallon of culture should be enough for 150 fry for 10 days as the primary food source, thus 1 gal for 75 fry for 20 days, or 2 gal for 150 fry for 20 days, or 2 gal for 300 fry for 10 days, etc. I'd recommend multiple cultures, 4+, so that they could be harvested in rotation. Of course, more culture would provide for more fry and/or longer feeding periods and, with enough culture, reproduction should balance the harvesting to be sustainable indefinitely...LOL, that might end up requiring a LOT of culture though!

Currently, I have mostly smaller cultures going and don't need to harvest VEs in large quantities. The following describes the method I'm currently using for harvesting. Check out discount stores for cruets or other slim-necked bottles. When our local dollar store has cruets like the one in the pics they sell for 2 for $1 :)

Vinegar cruet from a discount store and a wad of filter floss tied with fishing line and the other end of the line fastened to a square of plastic craft canvas. The fishing line is to get the floss plug out later & the plastic is so you don't loose then end of the line in the bottle. You can use anything that's too big to fit into the neck of the bottle instead of craft canvas.

Pour your VE culture into the bottle until it reaches the bottom of the narrow neck.

*** Wet the floss plug first and place it in the neck of the bottle until it just touches the VE culture. If you don't wet it first it will wick up the culture as soon as it touches the liquid. Fill the neck up with treated (fish-safe) water. Then just let the bottle sit until the eels make their way up through the floss.

Here's a close-up of the VE culture. All those cloudy bits are vinegar eels.

Here's the water-filled neck of the bottle only minutes after setting up the culture. You can see the white specks of eels that are already starting to make their way up through the floss.

Here's a pic taken 9 hours later--obviously I'm a little bleary-eyed first thing in the morning and shouldn't be attempting to take pics before coffee, but you can see that the water is now cloudy with eels ready to be sucked up with an eye dropper and fed to fry.

I haven't tried that one yet, so far I haven't set any VE up in a container that I could reach into easily. (In case my page isn't clear, I don't keep the culture in those narrow-neck bottles, just pour it in there for harvesting.) The scrubbie method is probably the easiest one. Although, if you're feeding a small tank, I'd keep a close eye on water conditions since you'll also be adding a small amount of vinegar with every feeding. With larger tanks it shouldn't matter.

For containers, like fish, the more surface area the better, in a tall skinny bottle they will concentrate near the surface. I like to keep them in a mostly cover container to minimize evaporation and help keep the concentration of the culture solution the same--VEs seem to be very forgiving of their conditions though. I got a couple containers at Dollarama that I think will work good. They hold about a gallon and have a snap on lid. The lid has a strap handle that will leave a couple small slits for air holes once it's removed.

I read as much as I could about VE when I got them (I had to order mine from out of town). Here's a summary of methods:

Scrubbie method:
- probably the easiest one
- may not be as effective if the culture isn't heavily populated (speculation only, keep in mind I haven't tried it)
- will introduce small amounts of vinegar into the fry tank
- provides harvested VEs at a moments notice

Narrow-necked bottle, the method I describe:
- supposed to end up with the VE in virtually pure water...I haven't tested but the water above does stay perfectly clear so I think very little vinegar gets through
- easy to set up
- takes some time before enough VE migrate up to harvest, but with a good culture enough will in a few hrs to start harvesting (faster than brine shrimp hatching)
- once there's a bunch in the top water timing isn't critical. I have frequently left a harvest setup sit for 24 hrs with no ill-effect and have also harvested a bottle taking small amounts over about 2 days.
- using an eyedropper facilitates spot feeding

(Coffee) filter paper:
- I suspect results vary widely with what kind of filter paper you use, I tried it once and would never bother with it again, YMMV

Scratched sides of container so worms climb:
- I haven't tried it but it sounds like a good method if you need VE regularly.
- Should be minimal vinegar introduced to the fry tank
- apparently the VE don't always climb reliably

Test tube on a string method (uses centrifugal force to make them clump):
- never tried it, sounds like the 'fussiest' of the methods to me but it could be easier than it sounds