I have been having good luck with culturing my Hydei flies, and my Azureus 3 females love them, so i have been feeding more of the Hydei than the Melanogaster. it seems like my H seem to have a ton of flies at 4 weeks, and i have been told to discard ( freeze) any cultures at 30 days. they are living in my lowest level of the house- a finished basement that stays about 65 degrees. i have not seen any mites, and i keep the cultures on papertowels sprayed with mite spray. is it bad to use 4 week old flies for new cultures? I know Melanogasters develop a little faster than Hydei, which is why i am asking.
also not sure if i have too many cultures going. i don't seem to be using them up in time. should i still keep making cultures each week?
i have 3 Azureus and 3 baby gray tree frogs who also eat the hydei. i have aquarium fish, so i could sprinkle some in there too.
Mites are not that big of a deal unless a human member of your house is allergic and gets itchy -not too common, I'm told.
The reason we don't like mites in the hobby is because the mites interfere, compete and otherwise disrupt an optimum yield of flies and are just plain bothersome. They are not 'deadly' to any animal. They are basically just an inconvenience. They are not 'the devil' in insect form.
The life cycle of the common grain mite is such that if we discard cultures before 4 weeks, we interrupt that. You CAN certainly keep cultures 5,6,8 or even more weeks if you feel like it (dealing with mites or at least, the large possibility of them).
I wholeheartedly recommend maintaining a weekly culture making schedule - it's just easier. My day of the week was/is Sunday. Based on your small amount of flies, I would make either 1 or 2 cultures each week.
I am very surprised to hear you are having good production with temps as low as 65F. Most fruit flies do better with mid to high 70's F.
Thanks. Yes, i have heard that Hydei are not a favorite, but i'm getting a lot of them. ok, i will keep up with weekly cultures.
Hydei are a favorite of mine
FWIW I keep my melanogaster cultures for 4 weeks and my hydei (black and golden) for 6 weeks. I get peak production in weeks 3 and 4 and they slow in 5 and 6. I do keep them in separate sterilite bins containing a layer of Diatomaceous Earth to help keep the mites from cross contaminating cultures.
I have 12 frogs now, i started making 2 mel fly cultures a week. I store them in a sterilite bin. I've read keep them in a bin and someone said if you keep them in a bin it slows fly production is that true.
They need decent airflow. Do not seal them up and choke them out.
I do pretty much what Jim (joneill809) does with Hydei and Melano's. I once had my Hydei crash and only fed Melano's for a while, as they are much quicker to produce, but they are smaller so the frogs take longer to catch a decent number to satisfy their hunger. It's kind of like feeding snacks instead of a meal. Also, since it takes the frogs longer to catch enough there is less supplement left on the fly. So I view Hydei as the main food item and Melano as backup.