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Vinegar Eels (Turbatrix aceti)

Vinegar Eels (Turbatrix aceti) are <2mm Non-parasitic Nematodes ideal for feeding newly hatched Newt & Salamander larvae (also fish fry). Vinegar Eels are truly aquatic and so live for a long time in an aquarium where they will swim in the water column which makes them easy for the larvae to feed. They have many advantages over similarly sized livefoods such as microworm in that the cultures don't smell and don't need restarting every week.
Culturing Vinegar Eels is very very easy and once set up they require very little care.

For your culture you will need a large glass jar with lid, 250ml of cider vinegar, 250ml of water, an apple & a starter culture:

Pour your water & vinegar into the jar:

Chop your apple into quarters, and add one quater to the jar (eat the rest or feed it to your other feeder insects):

Add the contents of your starter culture to the jar, here I'm starting the fresh culture from an existing culture do this with a pipette collecting a small amount from the middle of the culture so not to pick up any crud from the bottom of the jar:

Pierce a small hole in the centre of the lid and screw on:

Place your culture at room temperature, the vinegar eels culture very quickly and will be harvestable within a week. There are several ways to harvest the culture the easiest I find is to use a pipette to draw out some of the culture media and strain it through a piece of filter paper (as used for coffee) then wash the filter paper into the aquarium. After harvesting from the culture top it up to it's original level with water.