Fruit fly cultures

[SMCNARY]

For those who have not raised fruit fly cultures this is one way,easy and cheep. I started with 1 culture of Hydei and 1 culture of Melanogaster and now have 14 cultures. My friend Lee Ready/TexasRanger gave me 1 of each. Thanks Lee!!!
This will take a few posts

 

[SMCNARY]

 

[SMCNARY]

I transfer mine from 1 culture to a new culture in a big tub, I don't care how good or fast u are there will be some that escape :<)

 

[qdude46]

this may be a dumb question but what is the stuff at the bottom of the cups, the brown stuff

 

[SMCNARY]

Rapshy Superfly,I get mine from LLLReptiles. Follow the directions on the package,mix,let it cool,and go
And no it's not a dumb question as we all have to learn from someone or someplace. When it comes to Chameleons and there care the only DUMB question is the one you don't ask!!!

 

[qdude46]

I plan on breeding pygmies and I'm gonna need fruit flies for the hatchling so I'm gonna start researching fruit flies also how much do ou think you spent total on the hydei and to hatch them

 

[SMCNARY]

You can buy a whole kit for $33.00 from LLLReptiles or u can just order the starter culture and food from them (or any supplier) and get your own deli cups,lids,coffee filters and Excelisor(wood straw). I might have $50.00 in everything but that includes a huge bag of the Rapashy and enough supplies to last me 6 months or more. I got both my starter cultures free!!!

 

[qdude46]

Wow that's not bad, what temp do you store them in, is any heating necessary?

 

[Chameleonmaster]

i put mine at room temp.

 

[Slug]

I recently started breeding fruit flies for our 3 poison dart frogs. It is really easy, and you learn real quick not to pour boiling hot water into a plastic jar...like I did...and will never do again...lots of melted plastic jars and wasted time. Luckily, I hadn't added the Repashy Superfly mix yet, so I didn't waste any of that.

I have had great luck using Gatorade bottles for my cultures with a coffee filter rubber banded over the top as a lid, so far, no escapees until we go to feed the frogs.

I plan on getting a booth at our next reptile show and selling some of the cultures, since we are becoming overrun with empty Gatorade bottles...I gave up all carbonated drinks about 6 months ago, so I traded one addiction for another, soda/energy drinks for Gatorade, but at least I am able to use the mountain of empty bottles for something.

 

[SMCNARY]

Wow that's not bad, what temp do you store them in, is any heating necessary?

No heating needed,mine stay between 60 to 78 due to the night drop in temp in my Cham room. They say around 75 degrees is best but I have had no issues and mine are breeding so fast I need to start another 6-10 cultures on top of the 14 I already have. They all came from 2 cultures,one h & one m variety

 

[SMCNARY]

I recently started breeding fruit flies for our 3 poison dart frogs. It is really easy, and you learn real quick not to pour boiling hot water into a plastic jar...like I did...and will never do again...lots of melted plastic jars and wasted time. Luckily, I hadn't added the Repashy Superfly mix yet, so I didn't waste any of that.

I have had great luck using Gatorade bottles for my cultures with a coffee filter rubber banded over the top as a lid, so far, no escapees until we go to feed the frogs.

I plan on getting a booth at our next reptile show and selling some of the cultures, since we are becoming overrun with empty Gatorade bottles...I gave up all carbonated drinks about 6 months ago, so I traded one addiction for another, soda/energy drinks for Gatorade, but at least I am able to use the mountain of empty bottles for something.

When I read the directions about boiling water and thought about putting it into thin plastic cups it just didn't sound good so I just use hot tap water

 

[AmberNichole]

Mine are kept at room temp. I pour the boiling water right into the fly media, in the "deli" cups. I have never had any issues. If you don't use boiling water, the anti-mold ingredient doesn't work as well as it should, which can result in bad colonies.

 

[Turningdoc]

Biggest key is to discard old cx before 30 days or you will suffer mite attack that could destroy every culture and make you start over!