[reptiven]

i also Dendrocare it's could be buy it in Black Jungle at Poison Dart Frogs Poison Arrow Frogs Dart Frogs & Exotic Tropical and Carnivorous Plants with Terrarium & Vivarium Supplies by Black Jungle Terrarium Supply

[reptiven]

So i´ve been waiting for Marty´s recipe to try it but he has not show up so anyone else want´s to share recipes???

[Hilde]

Originally Posted by reptiven

So i´ve been waiting for Marty´s recipe to try it but he has not show up so anyone else want´s to share recipes???

I haven't cultured fruit flies for many years, but when I did, I tried many different recipes. The one Marty posted in the original post is just as good as any of the ones I tried. It's not an exact science, measurements don't have to be precise, so the way he wrote it up should be enough to make your own.

Just for fun though, I did write up one of my experiences with a particularly troublesome batch. I wouldn't recommend this version, I'm posting the link more as a warning than a testimonial. You can read about it at this site (not my website) HUMOR-Fruitfly Party!

[reptiven]

it's less risk to use a measure than try and lost everything at least in my case because in Venezuela you don't find theses flightless Drosophilas

[reptiven]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... .............

[MauricesExoticPets]

If you have dried potato flakes, powdered milk, sugar and water you can pretty much not fail at culturing melanogaster.

The fact of the matter is that you can just about poop in a cup and breed them. They are that easy to breed.

Another fact is that weather does have a marked effect on the exact measurements involved in culturing fruitflies. High humidity dictates less water or a slight alteration of the ingredient ratios.

Also, if your boiling the water the exact temperature will alter how much moisture evaporates when you combine the ingredients. This alters the final product and is fixed with more or less water or a slight alteration of the ingredient ratios.

Also keep in mind that the ingredients you have access to may not be the exact ones available anywhere else in the world, dictating further alteration of the exact ratios.

Melanogaster will breed on just potato and sugar, its the main media of at least one company here in the USA, they will breed on soaked ground lentils and nothing else (personal experience), they will breed on soaked brewers yeast and nothing else (kind of expensive but hey it works).

Just don't let them get too hot or too cold.

If you would like on my next batch I will do a slew of formulas and post pictures of how they move along.

Maurice Pudlo

[Williamsi_Fan]

Hey Folks I am new to the fruit fly breeding. I tried all the reciepes that I could find. I thought I was doing good until I tried the one posted here. Wow, now I realize that I wasn't doing that good. The only thing I tried diferent then what was posted is that I added nutrional yeast instead of brewers yeast. My thoughts were that if its nutrional then it would be good for both fruit flies and my gecko's. I have both Meg's and Hydia. Pictures of both below.

I just purchased a USB Microscope and started looking at the cultures at different stages and found some surprises. I found some old cultures that had developed mites. It seems to me that as the culture dries out mites will develop. I haven't found any mites in newer cultures and I also looked at a soil samples from each viv and didn't find any matching mites in them.

[MauricesExoticPets]

Mites are easier to control in D. melanogaster cultures because this type of fly produces slightly faster than the life cycle of the common mite that is found to attack FF cultures.

If you are able to purchase a product called "fly nap" you can select 100% mite free flies to start new cultures, this is a very labor intensive process but produces superior results.

If the product is not available to you; try the dust and sieve method: lightly dust with ultra fine calcium powder and sieve the dust away in a very fine mesh screen. The mites will go with the calcium, this method is less than optimal but does cut down on mite outbreaks considerably even when starting from a very bad situation.

Once your cultures are mite free, keeping them that way is far easier than correcting the issue once it has developed.

Mixing media prior to culturing and keeping it frozen at well below zero degrees F for several months can help with the issue as well.

A faster way to eliminate mites from ready to use culture media is to C02 purge the container and vacuum pack it prior to freezing, this is not 100% but very nearly so.

Heating the media to 130 deg F will do the trick as well, this can be accomplished by boiling the fluid portion of the mixture, just make sure to allow it to cool prior to adding active yeast and flies.

Preventing recontamination is done with a number of methods, water moats, mite paper, etc.

I suggest that you keep your culture age at less than 30 days old, this helps to prevent serious outbreaks of mites. Just use less media, maybe 1/3 cup and not 1/2 cup.

Also, when feeding off flies; it is best to tap out the number you expect to feed off into a culture cup of fresh media, the flies will be more nutrient filled this way than when fed directly from an older culture contaminated with fly and larva waste.

Best of luck,

Maurice Pudlo

[MauricesExoticPets]

Repashy has a fruitfly media available, I'm going to give it a shot along side my formulation. Cost wise I think the Repashy is not all that bad, a little pricy but given the time and fuel it takes to pick up ingredients etc. I might just come out ahead.

I will report back on how it works out. Maybe even a side by side photo shoot.

Maurice Pudlo

[MauricesExoticPets]

I have a single culture started as per the instructions.

My first impression of the media is regarding the wording on the package that claims 'instant', this is not quite the word I would have chosen considering the instructions state to allow the culture to set a few hours to fully absorb the water, a few hours is not my idea of instant.

Regardless, the media seems to be of high quality and clearly contains all the nifty ingredients repashy is known for. Thus far I believe this is the best aspect of the media considering its cost.

The media is powdered, I'm very happy about this method of media preparation as I have done this as well with more complex formulations that have ingredients that are able to settle in the bottom of a flake based mixture. This was a good decision on his part.

The ingredients seem to fully absorb water after the first few hours, yet the media is still able to flow when the culture is tilted. This is not a particularly bothersome quality for the home culturest, but cultures made in accordance with the instructions are not instantly ready for shipment if that is their lot in life.

Based on my initial culture I may adjust water content down slightly to compensate for the above mentioned issue with too fluid media.

The media has no particular smell, its not overly yeasty or sugary, there are hints of the special ingredients when in powdered form, they all but go away when mixed. So far on day three the culture remains neutral in scent.

The flies I used in this culture are D. Melanogaster, thus far I have yet to notice larva, but the females seem to be doing quite well and males are copulating regularly. Swollen with eggs seems to be a good sign that production will be on par with my expectations.

I believe this media is too wet initially to use coffee filters as a surface area enhancer. My choice of Excelsior is sturdy while wet, does absorb some fluid, and looks nice.

Should production match my needs, I do not see an issue with using this media for culturing flies.

The ingredients suggest that feeding off larva will be an option as well.

Maurice Pudlo