Blue Betta USA -Culturing Vinegar Eels

Culturing Vinegar Eels

The materials you will need are:
1) Bottle with long neck.
2) 1 cup apple cider vinegar.
3) 1 cup water.
4) 1/3 cup apple juice or a few pieces of peeled apple.
5) Filter-floss plug with extraction string.
6) Push stick to slide floss down neck.
7) Syringe to extract eels in water from neck.
8) Spare bottle for extra growing solution.

Mix one cup each of treated water and apple cider vinegar. Add Ľ cup of apple juice as food or a few pieces of fresh apple peeled, but not so much that the flask is filled to the neck. Remove some vinegar-water, if needed, as the eels do need oxygen and the neck of the flask is deliberately too narrow to provide enough surface area. The final population will depend on the amount of surface area available. Any removed will be quickly replaced in a vigorously growing culture. The initial seeding with new eels may take several weeks to build a full air-limited population. After a few weeks, a cloud can be seen below the surface of the solution in the flask. With good eyes (or a magnifier) and a bright back light, millions of tiny worms can be seen squirming in a more-or-less vertical position just below the surface. Pour surplus solution from a separate storage jar (or water if it’s the first time) to bring the surface of the liquid to just within the neck of the flask. Push the floss plug down to barely contact the surface Add water to the neck to fill it to the top. Wait a few hours (overnight is ideal) and the oxygen-starved worms will wriggle up through the floss and swim up into the clear water to get enough air. Now you can suck worms out in clear water to feed your fish. Making ready for the Next Feeding Remove the floss plug by pulling it out with the string. Pour enough liquid out to get a sizeable surface area, again. The excess liquid can be kept in any clean bottle, sealed with a floss plug. The eels will grow in it as well as the bottle. Squeeze liquid out of the floss and replace in the neck to block fumes from reaching the room. Lightly replace the cork, if desired. Store both bottles away from bright light, until you can feed again. This time, you will put the surplus from the spare bottle back into the flask to get the surface up into the neck. Add a bit of water if evaporation calls for it. The initial solution will work for months. If production drops, add a little apple juice. If it gets too cloudy and full of mulm, make up a new batch in a quart jar, seeded with some clean worms, and replace the dirty one with the clean new one as soon as the population appears to be growing ok.