Vinegar Eel Harvesting for your fish. This works.

This shows the easiest way I have found to harvest vinegar eels. This works. Finally you can provide a really small food to fry that are swimming in the water. Microworms are great for bottom feeders. But swimmers need vinegar eels until they are big enough for baby brine shrimp.

[@kylomeekthosakafilthycasua5208]

just used your fruit fly culture method the other day. will be trying this next. Thanks for the great informative videos.

[@animalyze7120]

Great video. I always grew cultures of infusoria for my Angel's and Betta's fry. They worked wonders, gonna try this method as these appear to be much more meatier than infusoria and should feed fry very well. Thanks for this!

[@GUYANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA]

Very interesting.... I use coffee filters , couple of cups to sepreate, and pour the apple cider vingar threw the coffee filter to collect the eels then put the coffee filter into a cup of clean water and have tons of food for super small fry

[@dawnruhl8405]

thank you. you make it very simple. I need that

[@supershark151]

Great trip with the fishing line . Just had to make a new culture cuz the filter got stuck.

[@freshfalcon3996]

Informative and helpful. Thank you.

[@PatriotCoinRings]

+David Ramsey I've been raising Vinegar Eels for many years now and that's the first time I've seen them collected that way. Looks like a bit more time and work but very interesting so thank you for the tip. I'm going to give that a try because all though there's still obvious separation, I'm curious how much the pH changed in the upper column of water (if at all). Obviously something to consider seeing as though the liquid is being transferred directly into your aquarium. Very interesting idea though, thank you Dave!

[@learnmylaw]

Interesting

[@MikeKollin]

When you pour in water to top it off, is that tank water or Conditioned water with some kind of water conditioner for the heavy metals, ammonia, chloramine? Thanks again sir!!

[@julianmorgan8454]

Hi David - thanks for this very useful video. I just got my culture in the post today so looking forward to putting method this into practice in a while. The info leaflet I got with the culture reckons it takes a couple of weeks . . . how long do you leave a new culture before you harvest? As you say these vinegar eels are perfect for smaller fry but will larger fry (that could eat BBS) still eat them? Do adult fish eat them - I mean typical community tank adults from rummy-nose tetra sort of size up to angelfish? I'm guessing that your nano fish adults like the smaller tetras and rasboras would love them but the larger the fish the less interested they'll be? Nutritionally do you know how they compare to BBS? Thanks

[@djrramsey]

+Julian Morgan smaller mouth fish will nibble on them. I don't thing large angel fish would find the food to be worth the expense of eating. Watch the culture every week or so at fist. Wait until there are clearly a lot of eels in the water. Always get several bottles going so if you overfeed harvest one bottle you still have plenty for later.

[@CrowntailHalfmoon]

Can you use a 7ml pipette to suck up vinegar eels at the surface of several cultures and them put in a bottle as recommended. The vinegar liquid (1/3 high )is very small and not as much in video. After u add water (2/3) high on top the narrow neck to collect the eels? Would the small amounts of vinegar liquid remain separately from pure water without putting the floss and have eels migrate to surface? Once u collect eels from water column do u need to rinse them before feeding small fry?

[@djrramsey]

the water above the divider you put in will not have any vinegar in it. The pipette will work fine.

[@beezee05]

Great video. Taking mine a lot longer to get to the clean water. I’m at about 4 hours and just starting to see a few now. But loads are still below the poly fill that I’m using.

[@djrramsey]

some showing up means a bazillion are in the poly. They will show up.

[@beezee05]

David Ramsey Thanks David.

[@beezee05]

David Ramsey I’m wondering if I didn’t put enough polyfill hence giving them too much oxygen. I thought if I packed it too tightly they wouldn’t get through. Would this factor into how quickly they get through to the water? I really need a significant number in the next few hours.

[@djrramsey]

As long as you have water on top of the poly fill they will have to pass through it to get to the top. Do you have some starting to show up? One reason I have so many harvest bottles is so I can have several going at the same time. I have multiple batches of BGR right now, so I am adding a new harvest bottle every day. You can actually have all of the vinegar eels pass through to the water and have none left in the vinegar mixture.

[@beezee05]

David Ramsey There are some showing up yes. But not enough to harvest and feed a spawn of betta that started free swimming this morning. So I’m getting antsy. Loads are still under the polyfill. As you say likely a bazillion in there making their way up. I have enough culture to go with the coffee filler method for tonight. I’ll give it another couple of hours. Really appreciate your input.

[@tvideo1189]

You get many more eels if you put a light source on the water portion of the bottle, the eels are attracted to light.

[@MoreChannelNoise]

Thanks especially for the string tip, I would have been to stupid to think of that.

[@djrramsey]

The string makes it all so easy. I was too stupid to think of it myself. Saw it somewhere or someone told me about it. Don't know. But way to simple an idea for me to think of.

[@parrotbill9072]

So where do you get the vinigar eels to start with? Do you buy them or find them in nayurr?

[@GrowAndEatThis]

Supposedly vinegar eels can be found in organic apple cider vinegar. I have checked many many bottles and never found any. Maybe it will work better for you. Otherwise, you have to get a starter culture from someone who has them.

[@parrotbill9072]

@@GrowAndEatThis Thanks, at this time it will be a little late for the pending hatch of my Bettas to have a culture sent to me. I just put some potatoe in the ground to collect mini worms, but even that takes 7 day to collect, and another 7 days for the culture to mature. Hopefully I can use Brine Shrimp culture to save these fry and will be better prepare for the next hatch with the proper culture. Sending off for vinigar eel culture today. Thank you for the input, just bought my first pair of Bettas 4 days ago from the store and had no idea they would go to work so quickly. Oh well this is a learning experience, we all make mistakes at first to do better next time.

[@marthanewsome6375]

I used pure apple cider and apple and split a culture in two and less than a week I have heaps of worms.

[@GrowAndEatThis]

I will have to try the apple cider and no water and see if it helps speed them up when I really need some more quickly.

[@MikeKollin]

Mine are over 30 days old. How do I keep them alive longer? do I need to add water or vinegar or more apple? Thanks sir!!

[@djrramsey]

+Mike Kollin After you have harvested, pour that smaller container back into the original container. The regular container will last a very long time. I start new big containers maybe once a year so they have fresh everything, water, vinegar and apple slice.

[@MikeKollin]

+David Ramsey Wow! So I don't need to add or do anything for about a year? Cool... Thank you sir!!

[@djrramsey]

+Mike Kollin They will live in the bottle until it all evaporates. A piece of apple will last until it disappears.

[@MikeKollin]

Thanks, I appreciate that... If I put another few pieces of apple in there and add more vinegar, etc. will they stay alive or should i start another one?

[@khonthainaidc]

Dear David I have some question? After subculture from the one I bought, 1.do I need to add more apple slice or apple cider vinegar after a month or months later? 2. After subculture how long it take for me to harvest? How often I can harvest? I usually can have at microworm 1-2 a day. Vinegar eel is very new to me. 3. Can we use apple cider without mother (which is cheaper)? Love your video, great trick about tied the floss with fishing line. I did try to make starter culture myself with apple cider vinegar plus apple slice and sit it for 2 months, no culture (method coming from fish room talk in fishlore.com) 😅😅😅 so I bought one, it will come next week. By the way, I have a tank full of guppies, we love them, kids would be looking at them everyday. Thank you.

[@djrramsey]

1. I rarely add more apple to a culture once it is going. 2 How long to harvest depends on the size of the start out culture. Couple of months is probably average for me. I keep 5-6 1/2 gallon to 1 gallon cultures going all the time. 3. Do not have to have the mother. But it still needs to be a good product. Check to see what the acidity is. I find the apple cider vinegar from the monster box store does not do well for me. Too watered down.

[@pungr]

what am I doing wrong? I put the cotton in the neck of the bottle and pour the fresh water on top of it. A few minutes later, the cotton has absorbed all the fresh water...

[@djrramsey]

Maybe too much cotton. But add more water. The vinegar eels have to be able to swim through the cotton ( so not packed) and get into the fresh water above. In theory, since the apple cider vinegar solution is heavier than the water, then you technically do not need the cotton or sponge material at all. But getting the water on top without disturbing and mixing with the solution on the bottom is why you have some kind of cotton. sponge, filter material in between.

[@healthyhens5160]

There nothing oldman