12 Vinegar Eels (Turbatrix aceti aka Anguillula silusiae)
Description
This article is from the Aquaria: Food FAQ, by Oleg Kiselev, Don Wilson, and Steve Bartling.
12 Vinegar Eels (Turbatrix aceti aka Anguillula silusiae)
Information provided by Greg Frazier
Uses:
Food for very small fry, i.e., those that are too small to take
baby brine shrimp (e.g., Rams)
Culturing:
Vinegar eels are small nematodes found in unpasturized cider
vinegar. They live in acidic water and feed on bacteria in
fermenting vinegar. They can survive for extended periods of
time in alkaline water (including tank water!), but they will
not reproduce. As a food for fry, they are extremely easy to
culture, require very little attention or care (i.e., they can
be ignored for months at a time), and can be harvested at a
moments notice. Hold a starter culture up to the light, to be
able to see the worms wriggling in the cider/water mix.
To culture vinegar eels, one needs a container (a 1 gallon
jug/jar/pitcher with a mouth wide enough to stick one's hand
through works well), an apple, cider vinegar and water. Smaller
containers should work OK, but a 1 gallon container provides
more than enough eels for everything short of a professional
hatchery. The cider can be cut by up to 50% with water, but not
more than that. Drop some (peeled) apple cubes into the pitcher
(one only needs a handful of 1" cubes for a 1 gallon culture),
and fill it up with vinegar + water (again, no more than 50%
water). Put half of the starter into the culture. Wait at least
24 hrs to give the bacteria time to get a foothold, and then
put the second half of the starter into the pitcher. In about a
month, a cup dipped into the pitcher should come out cloudy
with wriggling worms. When the mixture starts looking really
cruddy (e.g., 1/2 inch of stuff has accumulated on the bottom;
this should take months) re-culture and start again.
Harvest the eels with two cups and a coffee filter. Dip one cup
into the culture, pour it through the filter into the other
cup, and return the liquid to the culture. Most of the eels
will have passed through the filter, but some will have clung
to it. Pour fresh water though the filter, then invert the
filter and flush the worms into a glass. A filter paper
(available at some drug stores) may also be used. Filter paper
will prevent any eels from getting through, but it also takes
quite a while (10 minutes or longer) for the vinegar get
through as well.
Let the worms purge themselves in the glass for a while before
feeding them to the fry. Also, be careful to rinse the eels
well -- adding vinegar to a small fry hatchery could lower the
pH suddenly (with disastrous consequences!). Vinegar eels are
longer than brine shrimp nauplii, but have a smaller diameter -
fish can handle vinegar eels before they can handle freshly
hatched brine shrimp. In a tank the worms will flow with any
current, but if there is no current they will work their way up
to the surface (a big advantage over microworms).
Sources:
Mail order, aquarium clubs, etc..
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