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Dart Den

Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

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What's wrong with my Fruit Fly cultures???
#1
I buy commercial media and I FOLLOW THE EXACT INSTRUCTIONS!!!

why is there fail? Whhhyyyyy???

No matter what the directions say, no matter what the experts say, Fruit Fly culturing will ALWAYS be 'Mad Science'. So many variables with these living flies.


There is a TON of variables for correct and good FF production, and I'll try to cover them here in order of importance or occurrence:

1. Species of Fly

Melanogaster or 'Turkish glider' is the most stable and productive fly 'strain' to use for beginners or those seeking stability and increased production. 

Hydei - the larger and blacker flies are MUCH harder to deal with - longer pupate and not as large a yield, more prone to mite infestations ect. Do not use these if you are new.

2. Media or Fly food.

If you have a poor media, then you get poor results. If you are new or new- ER, do NOT try to make your own fly food. Buy ready-made and time tested like Rapashy (google it). Often hobbyists will make their own and SELF promote it on the interwebz. Do not go this route if you are new or need help. Buy Repashy. 

3. Moisture of the media

If you live in Arizona, your added water to the media is WAY different than if you live in Ft Myers Florida. If you are making fly cultures in a dry basement in the winter it is gonna take WAY more added water than if it's mid-summer. FF culturing is MAD SCIENCE. You can read labels on the containers all day long but in the end, you have to adjust constantly....CONSTANTLY. It takes work. It is NOT plug and play. 

4. Donor flies or stocking the new cultures.

This is a big one - too many flies and your CX will explode and actually not do well. Too few and the opposite. Using flies from a close to, or over 30 day old cx WILL bring in grain mites. About 30-40 melanagastor flies is what I use. Again, you are going to have to experiment and adjust here because there could be 30 or so different strains of flies across this country and this is 'variable number 4' out of many.

5. Mites

Do not keep cx's past the 30 day mark. If you see a lot of little round white or grey dots moving around the top part of the cx cup, then you have mites. Mites are inevitable - everyone get them unless they lie. They show up at some point often. You just have to deal with them and again...what's the word??? ADJUST. Always use mite paper (google it) and Diatomactious Earth (DE). Keep your cups on a tray of some kind with the mite paper underneath and the DE spread around. NEVER stack your cx cups or keep them anywhere near ANYHING else - keep them in a corner of a room ect.

6. Air and light.

The cx's need ventilation. They need proper fabricoted lids and do not lock them up in a box or tote ect. They need good airflow and light cycles

7. Temperature.

Need close to 75F. Drops or flux are ok but never close to 60 or 80F for very long at all.

Bottom line = Keep at it. Don't give up. You will get there!

ALSO:

also put a location in your advertisement / statement. Doesn't have to be your exact city or town. I can be a nearby city if you are squeamish. A HUGE, sometimes untapped resource in this hobby is our fellow hobbyists. Close by hobbyists can provide WAY cheaper fly cultures and other feeder bugs. The help and assistance from local hobbyists have done nothing short of amazed me over the years. Use it.
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"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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#2
read this thread next:

https://www.dartden.com/thread-2945.html
https://www.facebook.com/dartden/

https://twitter.com/DartDen


"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana".
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