fruit fly cultures...I think I am overloaded now

[kristy55303]

i think now i have too many going lol. but i'll need them for this huge shipment of darts i'm getting in...breeding darts frm reputable breeder and some of sean stewarts line at joshs frogs vents.....but i just counted....i have fifty some going. oops! I had to buy some in a hurry because we had a small tornado and the only thing that got ruined was my ff cultures splattered all over walls....imagine that in a household with a hubby who hates the darts lol...i was scrubbing..had ff in my hair.....it was a mess. thank god for shop vacs and power scrubbers! i also sealed of dart room with sticky tape while doing it. i did a pretty good job cleaning up.....no wandering ff although it took me like 6 hours to clean non-stop....took a shower and ad ff in my hair......gross! lol

[thelifespark]

this is a little late but glad the only thing hurt was the fruit flies. But speaking of ff cultures...I really don't get that whole process...maybe I'll understand better once I get some going myself....but at the moment I can't picture it and on top of that how do you feed them to the darts? I don't see tipping the culture over into the vivas being a good idea. I know there has to be a good way of doing it...obviously...but it's not coming to me.

[kristy55303]

well...here is what i do. i tap all the fruitflies to the top of container. before this i have dusted a large funnel with repcal and herpivite(1:1 ratio) into the funnel and the funnel is on top of a regular ff cup. then i tap the ff to the top of the culture and they slide right into a ff cup easily this way. using a standard big car funnel works best for me. it helps keep the ff at bay. once you get a hang of it...you'll be able to do it without the funnel. thrn swirl and feed. the ff cant climb the walls of the ff cup with the suppliments in them because the suppliment dust prohibits them from doing so .you dont want to over suppliment either so some days i just do it this way without the suppliment. depends on whether you are dealing with adults or froglets etc. everyones opinions on supplimenting differs in this hobby. I do my supplimenting the way pat nabors describes on his site. www.suarian.net. kristy

[thelifespark]

thanks for all the advice I'm sure I'll have more questions once I get going

[kristy55303]

no prob. here to help as much as i know. learning how to culture ff is the 1st step. then the husbandry skills(research), then the proper viv requirements, then the darts.......kristy

[thelifespark]

a lot of work, to say the least....but worth it, I should think!

[kristy55303]

all is definately worth it. dart frogs are addicting, but the main thing is , is you want to be able tp properly care for them, both from a consevation standpoint, and also they are expensive......but completely worth it.

[thelifespark]

I agree, certainly. Which is why I'm taking this slowly, one step at a time. Researching as much as I can and asking questions before I do anything. Then once I set up my viv I'm going to give it a three or four weeks to settle and make sure it's sustainable before I put any darts in. I was hoping to get darts the end of the month for my birthday but I'm willing to wait longer if I have to, in order to make it better for the darts.

[kristy55303]

yes do all you can before purchsing. it is best to seed viv with springtails too. optimal would be waiting after fecals and quarantine to put the darts in the viv of your choice as this will give the viv a chance to settle as well and the microfauna to flourish. kristy

[thelifespark]

my head feels like it's going to burst with all the information I'm getting How long should I quarentine the frogs for?

[kristy55303]

2-3 months is the recommendation. yes lots of research. i replied to your other post about it. kristy

[thelifespark]

Thanks, I saw I'll try to keep all my questions over in that thread so you aren't running about like a chicken with no head (figuratively speaking)

Thanks

[kristy55303]

yes i pm'd you so check your inbox. kristy :wink: