!!! My website has
moved: please update your bookmarks to debunix.net !!!
Vinegar Eels
The newest addition to my collection of critter cultures, these are
supposed to be small enough for even tiny rainbowfish fry. You
can't really see the individual worms without magnification, but they
make the water cloudy when they're doing well. They also have the
advantage of swimming throughout the water column, which is important
for those small fry that live near the surface. But
although
these are supposed to be very
easy to keep--able to survive long
periods of neglect--but they can be killed. They are called
"vinegar" eels but they prefer a 1:1 dilution of vinegar (I use apple
cider vinegar and tap water). They do well with some peeled apple
slices (to avoid bad effects from any sprays on the skin of the apple,
which can kill them) or a teaspoon of applesauce in a pint of culture,
with a small spoonful of sugar stirred in. They're very easy to
keep alive, although they can be killed by (1) unpeeled apples (2)
drying up of the culture (3) mold on an overfed culture (and you can
probably find a few more if you're creative).
Though to the naked eye they appear mostly like specks of dust in the
liquid, up close they're proper worms indeed:
Here they are in their new culture with some fresh cut peeled apples:
And the apples will soon break down into mush like that on the bottom
of the jar. They will stay in this wide-mouthed jar, coverted
with a bit of fabric to keep out the fruit flies:
Jack Heller likes to harvest his by pouring them through a coffee
filter, flipping the filter over into a dish of water, so that the eels
fall into the water, and uses a dropper to feed them
to fry. Another technique is to use a long necked bottle, fill it
with the eel culture partway up the neck, then stuff in a piece of
filter floss, cover with water, and wait a few minutes for the eels to
migrate up into the water (this keeps vinegar out of the tank, but
avoids the need for filters). I will try out both harvest
techniques if I can get them established.
Fortunately, there seem to be plenty of infusoria in
my planted tanks to get the
littlest fish started just fine; I've even had a little pseudomugil
rainbowfish appear spontaneously in one of them.
Return to Live Food Cultures Overview
Return to My Fishroom
Back to Fish Page
Return to Diane's Home Page