Raising Vinegar Eels
by Bob Maichle
From the Monthly Bulletin of the Hamilton Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
Vinegar eels are among of the easiest and most inexpensive of all live foods to raise.
I have one culture that has been going for just over three years with no attention at all.
Now, I don't recommend ignoring your live food cultures, but I think this shows just how
durable these little creatures are. If you have time between raising fish with extremely
small fry, the culture will be there when you need it. I have fed vinegar eels to
killifish, rainbows, anabantids, livebearers, cichlids, and catfish fry.
To raise vinegar eels you need a glass container. I use quart spaghetti sauce jars, but
any size will do. I know of one person who uses gallon drum fish bowls. Save the lids; I
leave the lid on loosely to keep dust and insects out of the culture. The ingredients for
the culture are apple cider vinegar, aged tap water (do not use aquarium water), a start
from another culture, and a small piece of apple (optional). I use a 50/50 blend of the
cider and aged tap water. If you have very hard tap water, you will need 60% vinegar. Be
sure to use undistilled apple cider vinegar because no other vinegar will work as well. It
takes two to three weeks at room temperature out of direct sunlight for the culture to
product enough eels to begin feeding them to your fish.
When the culture is ready to harvest, you will need a small clear glass, a small
funnel, a coffee filter, and an empty jar. Pour 70% of the culture through a coffee filter
(folded twice it fits perfectly in the small funnel I use) into the empty jar. The coffee
filter will catch the adult vinegar eels. Allow the filter to drain well then turn it
upside down into the clear glass which is filled with aged tap water. If you hold the
glass up to the light, or shine a flashlight through the glass, you will see thousands of
eels. These can be poured directly into your tank. I swish the coffee filter out in a tank
containing adult killifish or livebearers. The culture that went through the coffee filter
still contains eels that were too small to be caught by the filter. These can be divided
up to start new cultures, or added back to the original one.
If you have spawned fish with small fry and had difficulty raising them, this is one
food that will prove successful. Feeding live food to your fish from the beginning will
speed up the rate of growth and improve their health and vitality.
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