How to culture Vinegar Eels

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Blog: rndmbits.blogspot.com/2023/08...
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00:00 How to culture Vinegar Eels
00:05 Words of gratitude to my friend Beryl from New York for the snails to feed my newts!
And thank you Beryl for Vinegar Eels!
Beryl gave me a well established culture with enough Vinegar Eels to set many cultures.
00:24 Let's get a couple clean bottles preferably with a long straight bottleneck.
Vinegar Eels live and breed in vinegar - any vinegar for that matter.
Vinegar Eels are totally harmless nematodes safe for pets and people.
Basically I use vinegar with water in proportion 1:1.
Take a closer look at Vinegar Eels.
Vinegar Eels grow up to a couple millimeters the most.
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.
Put the gag in the bottle neck.
Make sure the bottom of the polyester foam touches the liquid.
Let it sit for a couple hours or overnight.
Vinegar Eels will swim up through the polyester gag to the oxygen rich water surface.
02:34 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.
It would take 2-3 weeks for the population of Vinegar Eels to increase noticeably.
03:34 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.
04:10 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!
04:31 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.
Simple like that.
05:02 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.
05:32 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.
06:08 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 :)
06:23 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.
07:03 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.
And Vinegar Eels are the simplest live food to culture.
Have fun and happy fish :)

[@michaelince7998]

Great video! Thanks

[@4me]

My pleasure!

[@vikkirountoit497]

Nice how to video! This looks very easy. I have all my supplies ready to go except the eels. Will ask around locally at shops to see if anyone cultures them in my area.

[@4me]

Thank you! All the best on your journey!

[@MoreChannelNoise]

I got some years ago on ebay but stopped culturing them as I find micro worms easier to harvest

[@4me]

@@MoreChannelNoise I shared 3 ways of harvesting vinegar eels in my previous video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGirm3ugeNV-pKM

[@MoreChannelNoise]

Yes it's not very difficult to harvest but I just find microworms easier to harvest, you just get a cotton bud and wipe the side of the container, done!@@4me

[@4me]

@@MoreChannelNoise That is exactly one of the way I've been harvesting Vinegar eels - just swipe them off the wall 😁

[@johncerezo9777]

can you ship your endler to the philippines i really love your endlers and want to have some

[@4me]

No mate! I only sell locally in New York City. No shipping.

[@AwesomesMan]

Thank you for the video! How long before cultures crash? You have keep making new bottles every once in while and dump out old ones?

[@4me]

Culture of any critters including vinegar eels may crashed for a number of reasons and it's hard to predict when. I did not loose a single culture of vinegar eels in the couple years so far to tell you for sure anything about any signs that may indicate coming crash. I have a video "how often to feed vinegar eels" scheduled for publication on May 14th. That's where I kind of giving answer on your question...but since you asked - here is the gist. I split the old cultures to make the new cultures. Basically doubling the number of cultures once in 3-4 months or so. You may give away/sell/ or dump the old cultures after the new culture gets established. Also, you may want to reuse the nice glass bottles - those could be hard to get by for this purpose. I keep them 😉and you can culture vinegar eels in any small food container just fine.

[@4me]

Also, you may notice through regular observations some different behavior as...as when worms in big numbers try to escape the container. That could be an indication that the crash is coming very soon. I observed such signs in cultures of Grindal worms (and I mentioned it in videos about Grindal worms). Though again, it takes regular observations. And the best thing you can do is to have a couple cultures in case of one of them crashed 😉

[@therandomdude2392]

Oh I'll try this for my fish, is this good for goldfishes?

[@4me]

Goldfish mostly eat plants and whatever critters comes with those plants. Vinegar eels are very small for large goldfish. I can only tell you for sure about fish I feed - Guppies and Endlers love vinegar eels. You may try and see if your goldies like it.

[@albertluther9601]

May I ask where can I find them? Are they coming with apples?

[@4me]

Vinegar eels live in vinegar and may be found in unfiltered vinegar. The best way to go about finding them is probably asking your friends, coworkers and checking local Craigslist postings. Amazon: amzn.to/3Nc6v1m Best regards!

[@albertluther9601]

@@4me thank you! I will search for them