Vinegar eels

[Sonny Disposition]

Does anyone have any experience raising vinegar eels? I wrote about them several years ago, basically just summarizing what David Snell told me about them. Before I go check my computer for what I wrote, I thought I'd ask around and see if anyone has much experience working with them.

Aside from baby brine shrimp, they're they only thing that I know newly hatched black bandeds will eat. I'm thinking that if a raise a big batch of them, then it will be more time efficient than decanting brine shrimp every day.

Thanks.

[eleontie]

I do have vinegar eels, but do not use them that much. I find Microworms easier to collect ( and maybe more productive).

Recipe : half cider vinegar, half water and a piece of apple. All with a starter culture in an opened bottle( maybe wider opening than a normal bottle). They do well in there for a long time, maintenance free.

To collect :
1.filter in coffee filter and rinse.
2.create a fresh water column at the top of the culture and the eels will migrate to it ( I do that by suspending a pipette at the top of the bottle just the tip touching the culture, fill the pipette with water and leave it for a night or more)

Eugen

[RTRJR]

Mine was pretty much as above (great rainbow fry early food - they are close to the surface critters and so are the vinegar eels - the right food in the right place).

I pushed fairly coarse open-cell foam cylinders into the bottle neck with part in the culture solution. Pull out the sponge and rinse in a beaker of aged water to collect as needed. That greatly simplified relatively small numbers of eels collection daily, Excess is poured back in the culture, or poured through the sponge if you don't want o need the culture topped up. I don't remember who gave me that idea, but it is not mine or new.

[Rick Dotson]

I find that collecting them is a pain and they are very small. I find that microworms are easier to culture but more susceptible to crashing. But vinegar eels are the only culture that you can neglect for months and it will still have a few days of feeding for hungry fry.

I got some at the last PVAS meeting, probably from Eugen.

[eleontie]

Not from Eugen this time. I only keep a small bottle since I do not use them that much.

Eugen

[Sonny Disposition]

Thanks all. The blackbandeds won't eat micro worms. (They're _really_ fussy.) I'm going to neat a boat load of vinegar eels. I'm thinking maybe I'll add some try culturing them in a five gallon bottle, and harvest them with a water column in the bottle neck.