Vinegar Eel Starter Culture

This offering is for a 30 mL baggie of Vinegar Eel starter culture. Vinegar eels are one of the easiest and lowest maintenance live foods we culture and are especially useful as a first food for newly hatched fry.

Vinegar eels are a must have for fish breeders. Cultures can be left on the shelf for months with no feeding or maintenance needed making them an extremely convenient live food to keep on hand. When unexpected fry arrive or you need a tiny live food on short notice an established Vinegar Eel culture is ready when you need it.

Vinegar eels are very similar in size and appearance to microworms, but they have one major advantage: they swim freely throughout the water column, remaining readily available to fry, whereas microworms tend to sink to the bottom.

Vinegar eels reproduce more slowly than microworms, so it is a good idea to establish your culture well in advance of when you expect to need it. Fortunately setting up a culture takes only a few minutes and once established requires no additional maintenance for months at a time.

Culturing Instructions

To start a culture you will need:

• Apple cider vinegar
• Bottled water
• A few small pieces of apple
• Your Vinegar Eel starter culture

Mix 1 part apple cider vinegar and 1 part bottled water in a clean plastic bottle. The bottles that bottled water or apple cider vinegar come in work perfectly well.

For every 100 mL of culture, add approximately one 1 cm cube of fresh apple and then add your Vinegar Eel starter culture. Place the cap loosely on top of the bottle to allow some air exchange.

Keeping the culture in a warm location will encourage faster reproduction. I keep mine on top of the refrigerator in my fish room. The only regular maintenance I perform is adding a little fresh apple approximately once every six months. Cultures can be maintained this way for years without needing to be restarted.

Harvesting

To harvest your Vinegar Eels, simply pour some of the culture through a coffee filter. Rinse the collected eels with fresh water and then feed them directly to your fry.

Pro Tip

Use raw apple cider vinegar with the mother for best results. The vinegar eels will reproduce much fast than if you use pasturized filtered apple cider vinegar.  

Seasonal Shipping Notice

Due to the high temperatures of summer and freezing temperatures of winter we are unable to guarantee live arrival of live cultures during periods of extreme weather. For customers who urgently need a culture and are willing to accept the risk we will continue to ship during those times.

As a general guideline, we recommend shipping live cultures within the following temperature ranges:

Microworms, Infusoria & Vinegar Eels: 1°C–30°C (34°F–86°F)
Grindal Worms: 1°C–27°C (34°F–80°F)
White Worms: 1°C–20°C (34°F–68°F)

Brine Shrimp, Daphnia, Moina and Rotifer eggs can be safely shipped at all temperatures.

Canada shipping only.