Fry Food - Vinegar Eels By Geoff Allen
A food which is ideal for all sizes of young fry in the first week is the Turbatrix aceti (Vinegar Eel). These minute little eels seem to be so quick, easy and clean when kept, it is nearly too good to be true.
The next time you’re out shopping buy a goonie of plonk, just over half the quantity of the goonie in Cider Vinegar, an apple and a small bag of sugar.
The short term advantage of starting a Vinegar Eel culture is downing the plonk, so you can use the bottle and eating the left overs of the apple.
If you don't drink alcohol, the next time you go to the tip to drop your re-cycable bottles off, have a look in the bins for an empty goonie and ask someone if you can have it.
Thoroughly wash the goonie in warm salt water and rinse well with warm to hot water. Place equal amounts of water and vinegar, having enough left over for a top up when the culture starts to evaporate, six two centimetre squares of apple and two teaspoons of sugar into the clean goonie. Now is the time to add your starter culture, which you've aquired from someone who has a culture, (ask around the Society for a culture, a few people have them). Once this is in the bottle all you have to do is wait. Check your culture in about four hours, the eels should settle towards the top of the bottle, mark the lower edge of the eels with a texta and date it.
This is the hard part, sit back for a couple of days to a week and check it again. If it is growing, mark and date it again. If it isn't growing, don't be to disappointed, just check it again in a week and if it has grown it's o.k. If it still hasn't grown, ask for another culture and start at the checking and marking stage.
I've discovered, through talking with others, that some cultures take off and increase almost straight away and others take up to two to three months to take, but I know that all the trouble, which is little, is well worth it.
After all this is done, all you have to do is feed it to those newly hatched fry. To do this, you acquire a piece of nylon from a nylon coffee filter or something similar and put this in the mouth of the goonie with a little piece of it hanging on the outside of it, making sure it won't fall in. When you are ready to feed your fry, get a small jar or glass and place some tank water or green water ill it (if available) but watch that it doesn't contain any cyclops or hydra - this will give them a choice of food. Take the piece of nylon out of the goonie and place it into your handy glass, dunk it a few times and just watch the amount of eels that will be rinsed off into the water, this amount will amaze you. But be careful not to over use your culture and dry it up. Rinse off only the amount you require for that feeding.