Bought some Fly Pupae

[ChameleonAlley]

And I put them in a 10 gallon aquarium on top of the paper towels they came with, and nothing has happened yet. It's been a day since I received them. Am I supposed to do something special to help them hatch like add heat or something? Any help would be really appreciated.

 

[Lancecham]

give them a few days. A majority of them will hatch at the same time.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

At room temperature they can take up to a week to hatch.
How many did you get?
How are you going to get the flies out of the 10 gallon to feed off? (they can fly!)
I usually only let about a teaspoon hatch at a time ... otherwise you have way too many at once.

-Brad

 

[ChameleonAlley]

Wow, I really appreciate both of your replies. I got 10 grams. I put them all in the aquarium and was just talking it over with my wife of how we would get them out of the aquarium. I was thinking of crossing that road once they hatched, lol! I didn't know that you could just hatch a few at a time. That's what I need to do. Should I put the rest in the fridge? Do fly larvae go bad? Good to know it can take a few days. I wasn't sure what to do with them except stick them in an enclosed place.

 

[ChameleonAlley]

How do you all keep your fly set ups?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

I keep them in the refrigerator.
1 tsp at a time in a deli cup (with a lid) at room temperature.
You can stick the deli cup into the freezer for 30 seconds or so, to slow the flies down.
Dump some into the chameleon enclosure and close the door ... they re-animate quickly.

-Brad

 

[nick barta]

Put them in containers that are small enough to do in the refrigerator. When they hatch, put the container in the refrigerator, and they will stop moving. Grab what you want FAST and put it in the cage of the Cham. Another way is to take some of the unhatched pupae out of the refrigerated container and put some in the cage where they won't get wet, they will hatch out right where you want them.

The housefly pupae don't survive in the fridge for more than a couple of weeks, and you will know when you have kept them in too long, the hatch rate goes down. Blue Bottle flies are about 3 times bigger than the house fly, and keep in the refrigerator much longer. You can buy them at mantisplace.com.

Nick

 

[ChameleonAlley]

thank you so much for this info both of you. After I write this, I'm going to the aquarium to collect all of the pupae. Damn, I'm glad you all helped me, I was about to have a #$% ton of flies in an aquarium. Thank you very much for the info. I'll put a small amount in a cup to hatch at room temp and keep the rest in the fridge.

On that note, how do you regulate it when you need flies? None of mine have hatched yet. Say your chameleon needs to eat and you put some fly eggs out. It could be days before they hatch?

Oh, and thank you for the freezer trick. Awesome trick.

 

[Chameleonboy]

thank you so much for this info both of you. After I write this, I'm going to the aquarium to collect all of the pupae. Damn, I'm glad you all helped me, I was about to have a #$% ton of flies in an aquarium. Thank you very much for the info. I'll put a small amount in a cup to hatch at room temp and keep the rest in the fridge.

On that note, how do you regulate it when you need flies? None of mine have hatched yet. Say your chameleon needs to eat and you put some fly eggs out. It could be days before they hatch?

Oh, and thank you for the freezer trick. Awesome trick.

lol supply and demand my friend. You have to be on top of it, if you want to have a constant supply of flies I would take a batch out every other day and keep it going constantly. Hey why don't you update your location in your profile so we know where you are?

-Clemonde

 

[Todnedo]

Flies, like any feeder need to be gutloaded before being fed to you chams. Properly fed they will live 3-4 weeks.

 

[ChameleonAlley]

Just updated my location. Thanks for the switching method. That's what I'll do, so I've always got them ready.

Hey Steve, Kevin here. When we were talking, if I remember right, did you say you gutload them with honey?

 

[warpdrive]

there are a few ways you can do this so bare this in mind.

the last time I ordered flys I just put them all in a deli container to hatch in my warm (76F-78F) bedroom.

they need to be gutloaded...

mix together 1 soft boild egg, 1 tablespoon honey, 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt (think calcium), and enough cruched up cereal (multi grain chereos or kashi heart to heart-the kind that looks like chereos) to make it a little thick.

when the flys hatch just put them in the fridge for a min or two, then take them out and smear a little bit of the gutload on the top side...
it will drip down a bit and the flys will re-animate and eat the stuff like crazy.
feed every day as it drys up inside the countainer.

put them back in the fridge before you want to feed them off, and then just dump a few in the bottom of the cage.

Harry

 

[ChameleonAlley]

there are a few ways you can do this so bare this in mind.

the last time I ordered flys I just put them all in a deli container to hatch in my warm (76F-78F) bedroom.

they need to be gutloaded...

mix together 1 soft boild egg, 1 tablespoon honey, 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt (think calcium), and enough cruched up cereal (multi grain chereos or kashi heart to heart-the kind that looks like chereos) to make it a little thick.

when the flys hatch just put them in the fridge for a min or two, then take them out and smear a little bit of the gutload on the top side...
it will drip down a bit and the flys will re-animate and eat the stuff like crazy.
feed every day as it drys up inside the countainer.

put them back in the fridge before you want to feed them off, and then just dump a few in the bottom of the cage.

Harry

Perfect. Thank you so much.