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HOW TO CULTURE VINEGAR EELS
Requirements
Starter culture
Bottle (plastic or glass) - Must have long neck.
Apple cider vinegar
Apple
Dechlorinated, RO or distilled water
Filter floss
Paper towel & rubber band
Yeast or sugar (not required)
Method
Fill 50% of bottle with water, and 50% with Apple cider vinegar. Fill to the neck of bottle and leave neck unfilled.
Cut apple into slices that can fit inside the opening of bottle. Place approximately 4-8 pieces depending on thickness.
Seed with starter culture.
You can add sugar or yeast to the culture. But we do not use this method.
Cut paper towel, and fold into square. Place over opening of bottle. Secure with rubber band. This prevents pests from entering the culture.
Harvesting
Once culture is established approximately 4 weeks. Culture can be harvested.
Stuff filter floss into neck of bottle, near base of neck.
Fill neck of bottle with Dechlorinated, RO or distilled water. Eels will start to move through the floss into the freshwater.
Harvest eels with pipette from freshwater section of neck of bottle.
Re-Culturing
Cultures will become exhausted if using for daily feedings, or after approximately 6 months. The apple and nutrients will become depleted, and culture may become cloudy.
Remove some of the original culture with eels, and set aside to seed new culture. Use as much of the original culture as possible.
Repeat steps outlined in method and seed new culture with original eels.
Recommendations
We recommend starting minimum of 2 cultures. This allows a backup culture if one crashes, and prevents overharvesting of your main culture. You will require several cultures if you intend for heavy feeding.
Store away from direct sunlight in temperatures approximately 20-29 degrees celsius.
Eels may be difficult to spot due to the small size. They can be found near the top of the bottle closest to the opening. We find they rarely inhabit the bottom of the bottle.
