Yearly cost for microworms?

Anyone have any idea what the yearly cost for maintaining a microworm culture is? I know that the rolled oats are about four dollars for a forty two ounce container, but I have no clue how much yeast would be, nor how long such a forty two ounce container would last if the microworm cultures were being replaced every 2 weeks.

I culture mine in a media of Rice Krispie Ceral with yeast. I think a large container of yeast ran me around $10 and a large box of Rice Krispie ceral around $4, and I'm currently keeping multiple banana worm, microworm, and fruit fly cultures using the same media and I haven't noticeably depleted the Rice Krispie or the yeast at this point.

I buy a container of no name oatmeal at the dollar store and it lasts around a year. I also sprinkle a few grains of baker's yeast on each culture.

I bought a 40 oz ish container of rolled oats for two dollars and some change and it lasted over a year. I didn't use yeast when I cultured grindal worms. I had four or five tupperware containers with air holes in the lid and coffee filters taped over them to keep the flies out. I made the oatmeal up (initially using the microwave as directed, then later just mixing water and oats and not bothering to heat), put the worms down, put a layer of coffee filter down, and it was harvestable from days 4 to days 10 ish. Harvesting was easy because the worms can crawl up through that layer of coffee filter but the oatmeal can't. Simply scoop the worms off the coffee filter with a spoon and voila! harvested. After a little bit more than a week but a little less than two, I had to restart the culture to maintain optimum production. Because of the biweekly maintenance, which worked out with four or five cultures to weekly maintenance on half of them on my part, culturing microworms was very labor intensive. So I switched to vinegar eels. Vinegar eel maintenance does not exist; they live sustainably in their container and you harvest them when you want. Maintenance is never, ever performed. I therefore like vinegar eels much better than microworms. Basically the same thing, much less work on my part.

How do you harvest vinegar eels?

There are two ways: straining and swimming.

Straining: The first way is to pour some of the culture liquid through a coffee filter. The upside to this method is that it's fast. Pour, twist the coffee filter (if you've ever seen someone make cheese and strain it in the cheesecloth, it's like that), then you're done. Voila. The downside is my spouse was very not enthused with the drips of vinegar on the carpet near the pouring area and how our living room smelled like vinegar once a day every day.

Swimming: The second way is to get a long necked bottle, pour vinegar eel vinegar into the bottom up to the neck, stuff a sponge or a piece of filter floss with a string tied on it down the neck, then pour dechlorinated water up the neck to the top. Wait one day, then collect the water in the long neck with an eye dropper or a turkey baster, then put water directly in fish tank. The upside to this method is that it neither smells nor spills, and it's got no possibility of affecting the pH of your fish tank. The downside is you have to wait a day for the eels to get oxygen starved and swim up to the surface. Also, long necked bottles are hard to find in local stores. I found one via a friend who also breeds vinegar eels, and there are also some on ebay. You could use a test tube or a graduated cylinder, etc.

I now use the swimming method for my husband's benefit (no vinegar smell on the carpet). When I was using the straining method I didn't have any problems with it, though. If you've got your fish room away from your living area, straining works too.

Also, long necked bottles are hard to find in local stores. I found one via a friend who also breeds vinegar eels, and there are also some on ebay. You could use a test tube or a graduated cylinder, etc.

Pragmatic unsophisticated people who don't know any better just use Corona bottles.

Pragmatic unsophisticated people who don't know any better just use Corona bottles.

Wow, I feel stupid. Next beer I drink is becoming my new vinegar eel harvest bottle. The bottle I'm currently using is too narrow for the turkey baster to fit more than an inch or so down. *d'oh*

I suspect you use Corona bottles because they are one of the few clear beer bottles?

My current vinegar eel harvesting bottle is opaque red and it works.

I suspect you use Corona bottles because they are one of the few clear beer bottles?

No !

Because the article I got the idea from had a photo showing the technique being used on Corona bottles.

The magic was not explicitly explained, but we all know it's hazardous to mess with successful recipes.

"The magic was not explicitly explained, but we all know it's hazardous to mess with successful recipes. "
lol! I find that way more funny than I should.
(The entire first year or two of graduate school is spent trying to replicate someone else's techniques)

Pragmatic unsophisticated people who don't know any better just use Corona bottles.

That is funny, that was my first thought when I heard long-necked bottles.