Hello folks, sorry i haven't been posting lately and sorry if I'm repeating a topic. as some of you might know this week is college final exams week and i have a ton to take, therefor i don't have the time i wish to search for a topic similar to mine.
MY issue is with keeping FF repopulating. I have noticed that this past month till now my FF wont or are not repopulating themselves in the containers. I keep them under one of my vivariums stand and they are in my fishroom that stays at about 75F with the door open in the winter.
I'm preparing them with the food from Joshfrogs and the excelsior from them as well if i can pull 2 good feedings from one container that is too much, when i used to feed my frogs twice a day from one container in the summer time.
like i said i'm struggling with this issue and i'm having to start cultures too soon, and having to skip a meal a day.
Best Regards
Juan Damelines
Is the humidity too low. Try misting your cultures. Sounds like they might be drying out
There is no need to feed every day if the frogs are adults. I don't even feed FFs to my young once a day.
Not an answer to the population issue, but it may help to know once or twice a week is fine for adult tincs. Especially when there is micro fauna in the viv.
Juand15 Wrote:Hello folks, sorry i haven't been posting lately and sorry if I'm repeating a topic. as some of you might know this week is college final exams week and i have a ton to take, therefor i don't have the time i wish to search for a topic similar to mine.
MY issue is with keeping FF repopulating. I have noticed that this past month till now my FF wont or are not repopulating themselves in the containers. I keep them under one of my vivariums stand and they are in my fishroom that stays at about 75F with the door open in the winter.
I'm preparing them with the food from Joshfrogs and the excelsior from them as well if i can pull 2 good feedings from one container that is too much, when i used to feed my frogs twice a day from one container in the summer time.
like i said i'm struggling with this issue and i'm having to start cultures too soon, and having to skip a meal a day.
Best Regards
Juan Damelines
Juan, I have previously read some articles that have indicated that FF production can be effected if you are constantly using the youngest generation to make your new cultures. These articles suggested that this approach will produce cultures that produce once or twice and then crash. Their suggestion is that you should occasionally use flies from older cultures to make new cultures b/c these flies (the flies from second or third hatches) possess more resilancy in their genetics. I am dumbing the theory down but that is the theory. Personally, I only use the freshest cultures to make new cultures and I don't have any problems, but I typically only get two or three good hatches from a culutre then I throw them out. Usually by this point they are no longer producing but even if they are, I don't keep cultures longer than 3-4 weeks as it seems to encourage mites. As Rich noted feeding every day is not neccessary. Feeding 2-3x's a week should work, just feed them more at a time...
As already stated:
1. Winter means low humidity and drier cultures. Make the cx's more wet to start
2. Use different flies - older hatches as opposed to brand new flies
3. Try to keep 2 or more different 'strains' of flies / flies obtained from different sources and keep them separate. That way, you are less inclined to have something bad happen to all of your feeder bugs.
4. Culture Bean Beetles ,isopods and Springtails to tide you over and help out until you correct any problems that are bound to occur in any hobbyists production.
pics of your cx's and setup would be really helpful too.
Hello friends!
Want to update you guys on the issue.
I followed the advice given.
1) Made wetter cultures.
2) used older flies
3) have gotten a culture from my personal stock, one from joshfrogs and one from my local friend to prevent something bad to happen to my frogs
4) I was slacking with my other microfauna and found out that they are quite forgiven (got to love bugs) i saved all of my old cultures of springtails and isopods that were neglected due to my tight schedule w school and work (now that im in vacation i can spend more time with my animals)
I also :
warmed up the fishroom a bit more, meaning it was getting cooler at night and i think this had an impact on my cultures. now that i close the door it stays at about 72-74F fish are happy and so are the frogs.
with all that said the cultures started with the advice in mind have been plenty full and i'm no longer worry about starving my frogs.
once again:
dtfleming, RichFrye, cbreon and philsuma thank you for taking the time to acknowledge my post and give in your advice!
Best Regards
Juan D