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Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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Fruit Fly recipes and ingredients
#1
What do you guys put in, as ingredients, to make your home-made fruit fly cultures ? I am using a mixture of microwaved banana, powdered sugar, rolled oats, and a pinch of yeast. How can I improve this ?
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#2
I use some of the same ingredients as yours. My recipe is based on the "NW Power Mix" that a lot of the breeders here in the North West use.

1 part oats
1 part flax seed
1/2 part brewers yeast
1/2 part powdered or confectionery sugar
microwaved banana (or whatever fruit is around)
vitamins
equal parts water/vinegar
pinch of bakers yeast.

I grind all the dry ingredients up in a food processor. I usually make 5 cultures a week. I boil 2 cups of water put in fruit and then the dry ingredients. Portion out to deli cups and put a pinch of yeast.

Neil
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#3
I use the "power mix" recipe as well and highly recommend it. It Isn't as handy as instant fly food, but you don't have to order it thru the mail either.
Brian T. Sexton
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#4
I use:

1 cup instant mashed potatoes
1 tablespoon confectionery sugar
10-12 dried yeast pellets

I love this mixture. I have never had a failed culture with this mixture.
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#5
My cultures seem to be working well with the banana, oats, powdered sugar and brewers yeast. Recently, hundreds of small larvae have started to grow, so I guess the flies are liking it. Smile
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#6
Hi, please tell me where you get the yeast and any details on it.

I have been using oat meal, banana, applesauce, and a splash of vinegar. Some cultures do great, some don't :oops:

-Frank
[Image: Frank4.jpg] [Image: frank1.jpg]
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#7
i just put a sprinkle of bakers yeast to prevent mold. You can get it in any grocery store.
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#8
For 8 cultures- 32oz deli cups:

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup shifted powdered sugar mixed with
4 cups potato flakes. Then mix in
1/2 - 3/4 cup of brewers yeast from GNC.
Mix all dry goods thoroughly.

I don't store extra media but make a new batch each time.

To the dry mix above add the liquid ingredients:
2 cups apple vinegar
2 cups apple sauce
2 cups of Apple Juice

Mix thoroughly with a hand mixer(important).

Thanks to David or dmatychuk
this is five days old.
[Image: ff7.jpg]
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#9
I see some of the recipes for the fruit flies say just sugar and then some say powdered sugar. Does it matter?

GARY
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#10
I know the commercial mixes use powdered or "confectioners" sugar, and would recommend it based on that.
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#11
ALL ingredients can be found at any local grocery store....

All sugar needs to be POWDERED sugar also called Confectionery Sugar - think powdered donut sugar.

Potato buds / flakes should also be powdered, instead off flakes if possible - a little harder to find.

I like to run my home-made Media thru a small "Magic Bullet" mixer just to be sure everything is "powdery". Fruit Fly larvae yields are much larger when the media is as fine / powdery as possible.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#12
Here's a bunch, some of which I have used over the years. Most are good.Most work very well.

A LOT of it depends on where you live, your house temps, humidity, seasonal factors...altitude (think baking bread in New Mexico for example).

TONS of factors.........have fun being the "Mad Scientist"


Some approximate Prices for bulk foods circa 2010:

Vinegar $2.56 / gallon
Potato Buds $1.50 / pound
Brewer’s Yeast $1.50 / pound (100%dried Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast)
Confection Sugar $.70 / pound


Recipe #1:
8 cups potato flakes
1 cup Icing sugar/powdered sugar
1 cup Brewer’s yeast.
3 teaspoons of methylparaben
1 teaspoon of spirulina
1/4 cup baby dry cereal (banana and or blueberry) Blueberries have a natural mold inhibitor. This is also available at dollar stores.

Mix equal amounts of media with hot water (NO VINEGAR)

I also add some (not packed full) excelsior the next day and then add my flies.

I am getting 25-30 cultures from this with great results.


Recipe #2:
2 cups potato buds
2 cups instant Oats
1 cup confection sugar
1 cup Brewer’s yeast.

Water: vinegar 80:20%

I found spirulina / naturose / paprika/ vitamins all lowered production.




Recipe #3:
• White Vinegar - The cheapest you can find. No need for Heinz here. Bottom shelf, no name.
• Hot tap Water
• White powdered Sugar
• Brewer’s yeast - other types of yeast just don't cut it. Be sure to use brewers! (check your local bulk foods store)
• Instant mashed potato flakes (also bulk foods).
• Fleischman's instant yeast

Recipe #4:
6 cups potato flakes
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup brewer’s yeast.
Mix 1/2 cup of dry mixture and add 2/3 cup of 50/50 vinegar/water. The vinegar is used to inhibit mold and since I was only testing for fruit fly production I stuck with a recipe I know works to produce flies and inhibit mold.


If the media appears to be too dry, I put the Hydei cultures in steralite drawers, which keeps them from drying out.
3 cups of powdered sugar
6 quarts cups potato flakes
3 cups of brewer’s yeast (increase this for Hydei say maybe 1/4 to 1/3)
(optional--1/2 cup spirulina algae to gut-load flies)
1/4 cup Methylparaben
use distilled, hot-almost to boiling point water, when mixing cultures and add 1 part vinegar to four or five parts water

for Melanogaster, I add pinch of baker’s yeast. I make the same amount of cultures as you do. i get some that crash from being so overloaded. i have had days where I can pull out 1/2 cup of just flies even though i fed out day before. I only feed every other day now though.

All cultures are kept at room temp - about 70-72 degrees, in ambient room photoperiod.

Recipe #5:
My basic mix is a modification from the Home made "Carolina Mix" here:

1 cup of powdered sugar
4 teaspoons Methylparaben
8 cups potato flakes
1/2 - 1 cup of brewer’s yeast.



Recipe #6:
8 cups of potato flakes
1 cups of powdered sugar
4 teaspoons Methylparaben
1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast
1/2 cup Soy Isolate 90%

3 parts water
3 parts vinegar
3 parts apple sauce
4 parts oats (ground)
1 part flax seed (ground)
1 part nutritional yeast
1 part red lentils (ground)
1 part honey


My Melanogaster mix is 50/50 vinegar/water. Hydei mix is 25/75 vinegar/water.


If your cultures smell bad, then after you add water to your media, add a tsp or so of honey or possibly cinnimon. Then add the baker's yeast & finally add flies. I think you will be surprised by the lack of odor.


Recipe #7:
Normal Amount:
1 cup of powdered sugar
4 teaspoons Methylparaben
8 cups potato flakes
1/2 - 1 cup of brewer’s yeast.

I then use 1/3 cup medium, and 1/3-1/2 cup 1:1 water:vinegar.


Recipe #8:
1 1/3 cup potato Flakes
2/3 cup Oat bran
1/3-1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
Couple Tablespoons of Brewer’s Yeast
Add some calcium powder
1:1 Water Vinegar



Recipe(s) #9
Number One

Add to a 24oz. or 32oz. container:

1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoons powdered milk
4-6 tablespoons instant mashed potatoes
sprinkle a little baker’s yeast on top


Number Two

Boil:
1 mashed banana (heat kills any hitchhiking eggs or larvae)
1/2 container of grape juice concentrate
14 oz. applesauce
1/8 cup molasses

Mix:
1 cup instant mashed potatoes
1/2 cup brewer’s yeast

Combine:
1 part water
1 part vinegar

Add 6 tablespoons of the boiled mix, 6 tablespoons of the dry mix and 2-4 tablespoons of the water/vinegar. The cultures don't smell great, but not terrible either. This medium produces the most flies of any homemade or commercial medium that I've used but it takes a little work to make.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#13
Michal Wrote:Hello kiwi melon killer it is a nice mixture and you have made it a perfect one and good dish and i liked it and thanks for sharing it here.

THAT's the one you like best ?

Really ? It doesn't even have protein. No brewers yeast. It's actually too simple.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#14
Best advice when you are just starting out in the hobby - buy a ready made commercial media mix (dry). The last thing a new person needs to do, is play mad scientist with all the different recipes above.

Then when you have a year or so and 3-4 vivariums full of frogs.....feel free to go all "mad scientist" and make your own.

Some of my "non traditional" ingredients;

1. Kix, Coco peebles, Honey and Oats and other cereal that goes stale and my GF refuses to eat it.

2. Pasta of any kind that gets old and unused. That funky green pasta crap that tastes like azz that I sneak away from the GF and toss into the master FF media barrel.

Remember....try to blend it all up when dry as it makes for a MUCH more productive media when it's as finely powdered as possible. MUCH bigger fly yields.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#15
Hi. I am new here. I don't have frogs yet, so don't worry...my ignorance isn't going to kill anybody. I just wondered if you can feed the cultures something to "beef up" their nutritional value rather than dusting them??

Thanks, Patricia
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#16
tulip55555 Wrote:Hi. I am new here. I don't have frogs yet, so don't worry...my ignorance isn't going to kill anybody. I just wondered if you can feed the cultures something to "beef up" their nutritional value rather than dusting them??

Thanks, Patricia

Hi Patrica,

That's an excellent question.

The staple food item for this particular exotic animal hobby has, and continues to be, Fruit Flies. There have been great strides in various other feeder insect culturing and variation, but the FF remains the most effective and useful feeder insect for dart frogs, hands down.

That said, the FF is a tiny insect and goes through a very quick life cycle. Unlike crickets and feeder rodents that can and should be effectively "gut-loaded", the fruit fly cannot. The basic ingredients and the many individual recipes found in the above thread are designed to ensure a high and productive yield (lotsa flies), and even though you see several recipes that attempt to insert a vitamin or additional supplement into the media mix, there is no such lasting transfer or compartmentalization of these substances that effectively transfer from the maggot to the adult fly, that the dart frog would directly benefit from.

Recently, Rapashy supplements has sought to include some new substances / vitamins into their commercial fruit fly dry media but I do not think any conclusive testing has been done to this end.

In closing, I would strongly recommend a dusting regime of 3-4 different superfine powdered vitamins and calciums, alternated in a every feeding, or possibly every other feeding manner. There is no way to maintain healthy dart frogs without using a fresh and varied fruit fly dusting regime, IMO.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#17
I have seen the term "gut-loaded", maybe in reference to crickets. I asked because that is what is done with brine shrimp that are fed to fish fry
Thank you very much for such a good explanation. It is great to know exactly why it can't be done rather than just a fast and hard "NO"
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#18
You're quite welcome. Please post often...any questions or issues that you don't see in the forums.

oh...and keep us posted on your first frogs !
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#19
I absolutely will post questions. Thank you.
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#20
I do have another question already...My local fish store sells wingless fruit flies. Could I start a culture with those?
Thanks [again]
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