Vinegar Eel Problem

[Ltygress]

I bred some bettas a couple of years ago and had a few active vinegar eel cultures going for them. In June 2014 I had to move and a lot of items went into storage. I kept one culture in a very old gallon-sized glass olive oil jar with a long neck and 1/2" opening.

At one point, my brother threw something into that part of my storage unit and crushed the jar. However, that jar sat in a plastic bucket, which caught most of the vinegar.

Now it's over 14 months later, and I was able to pull everything back out of storage. I don't have any bettas yet (I gave mine to my niece) but would like to get my cultures going again.

However, I see no vinegar eels in the old solution. It's dirty with some debris in it, but I can watch a while and see no wriggling movement.

Can vinegar eel larvae go dormant? Is it possible that there are any left? Should I wait five weeks to see if any do live, and turn into adult "worms"? Or should I just go ahead and purchase a new starter culture?

I was just hoping to avoid the $5.95 postage for a $5 starter culture. I always dislike ordering something that costs less than the shipping, but no locals raise them either.

 

[betta fish]

Hi, I pretty much neglected a culture and had the same thing happen. I couldn't see any living worms, still I made up a fresh batch of 50/50 apple cider vinegar to water and poured what was left of my old culture into this and kept it in a warm dark place. Sure enough after a couple of weeks I started to notice a few worms, then more and more, it took a while to get it back up again but now it is nice and mature so it is definitely worth trying to salvage what you have 

 

[fish48]

 i find the best way is to keep them in golden syrup they breed very fast . it's best to keep at least 2 Cultures 
 
 

 

[CthulhuReborn]

I did this a long time ago and it didn't work for me I might try it again I forgot how creepy they look lol

 

[Wildbetta]

I always say it is worth a try to restart the old one just to see what happens.   It might work out but IMO it is probably gone.  
 
I understand how you feel about the shipping issue.  Paying more to get something sent to you than the item itself costs is always a drag.  However I have come to terms with the fact that sometimes that is how it has to be.     Are you positive no one in your surrounding area keeps them?  If you don't mind me asking, where are you located? (if you feel the need -- you can send me a PM with this info)  I might know betta breeder connections (depending on the area) that might have cultures of these handy.  

 

[betta fish]

 i find the best way is to keep them in golden syrup they breed very fast . it's best to keep at least 2 Cultures 
 
 

Interesting, what is the recipe for this? I have only heard of keeping them in apple cider vinegar with either a slice of apple or somefruit juice, do you just add some syrup to the vinegar? shame the op doesn't live in the UK or I would gladly send you some

 

[Ltygress]

Wildbetta, I am in Griffin, GA.
Betta fish, definitely not. But thanks for the offer.

As of right now I have renewed the solution because I already have both vinegar and apples on hand. I know it can take up to five weeks for them to reach the adult stage of life, so I'll cross my fingers!

 

[fish48]

Vinegar Eels:
A good first food for new born fry, although many people culture them in wine vinegar, it can also be cultured with golden syrup. The way I culture them to put one teaspoon of golden syrup into a boiled cup of water and stir leave to cool down, pour into a  bottle and leave for 24 hours, then add some of your vinegar eels from old culture. They will multiply very fast and should be ready to use in a few weeks, when held up to a light you can see many thousands swimming near the surface of the bottle. The best way to catch them is to hold a piece of filter wool just below the surface of water for about 20 seconds, the vinegar eels will swim and get trapped, simply lift out to drain off for a few seconds, then its ready to feed to the fish.
 
i have cultured them this way for more then 5 years there is no need to feed them i restart new cultures
every 6 months. 

 

[Ltygress]

I think a lot of that depends on the PH of your water source too. Vinegar eels can live in plain water as long as it is on the acidic side. So if your tap water is acidic, they can probably live in that - as long as there is a food source. I am assuming the golden syrup provides that. Vinegar eels feed on bacteria, so probably anything that produces bacteria (which means any organism that is dead and/or decaying) would work.

Once I get a a good culture, if I haven't gotten fish yet, I'll experiment with various items and let you all know. I also own parrots, so maybe their waste could become a food source for them...

*idea explosion*

For the U.S. side, golden syrup is sold on Amazon.