# FF cultures: Major mold after only 6 days!



## cliner (Oct 31, 2007)

I've never really has issues with mold. I might see some near the end of a culture, but last week I made 5 cultures using the same bag of medium(Josh's) that I had been using for my previous cultures and the mold is insane. I covers almost the enitre surface of the new cultures. The culture they were seeded with did not have any signs of mold. Anyone know why this happened? 

Thanks,

Cliner


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## Blue_Pumilio (Feb 22, 2009)

Do you use a mold inhibitor or vinegar? 



cliner said:


> I've never really has issues with mold. I might see some near the end of a culture, but last week I made 5 cultures using the same bag of medium(Josh's) that I had been using for my previous cultures and the mold is insane. I covers almost the enitre surface of the new cultures. The culture they were seeded with did not have any signs of mold. Anyone know why this happened?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Cliner


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## cliner (Oct 31, 2007)

Josh say he includes mold inhibator in his mix so I don't use vinegar. I think I'll start using it again.


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## kgb (Aug 2, 2011)

Sprinkle cinnamon on top of the media. Natural mold inhibitor, and smells much better than vinegar...


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## BrianWI (Feb 4, 2012)

I have the hydei formula from Joshes, smells like cinnamon is already in it. I dunno what the difference is in the mel. formulation, but they are booming in it. Never had mold, but haven't had much experience in it.

However, you could just be in a time of year spores are coming into play, a Spring thing. I know here lately as the snow melts, if I make rice it will have HUGE plumes of mold in it after only a couple days. Really fine looking, but big POOFS. Other times of year I don't get it.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

I would get rid of all the current infected cultures (as in, outside the house), and disinfect all the surfaces near where the cultures are kept. The flies in the current cultures are most likely all carrying the mold spores, so I would not reuse them. I would also advise to not keep the cultures near any potential sources of contamination from mold spores, such as kitchen sinks, open windows, trash cans, and frog vivs.

An additional way of avoiding fungal contaminations is by adding a competitive mold to your cultures which can out-compete the unwanted mold. Yeast is a commonly used example.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

I have also seen this happen if you let them set for 24 hours or more before spiking with a sprinkle of yeast and your flies. You know, if you get distracted and don't finish them till the next day.


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## frogmanroth (May 23, 2006)

Don't use flies from moldy cultures also, seed with 200 or more flies this really gets the media going.

And I would add some vinager next time also. 

IMO I would get some new cultures from somebody locally. Put all the old ones some where else in your house and clean the crap out of where ever they were.


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## Shinosuke (Aug 10, 2011)

When making a recent batch of hydei I accidentally left the freshly made culture sitting out for most of a day before I remembered to add flies, close the lid, and put it away. Within a couple days it had a bunch of mold. A couple days later, once the maggots were really moving, the mold was all gone. Culture's still fine.
I'm still a pretty big newb but based on that experience I'd recommend putting the cultures in a different area than the rest and seeing if the mold goes away after a couple days, once the maggots get going.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

I'd also like to add that I've left yeast-seeded cultures sit for a few days before adding the FFs without much bad mold problems. I add the yeast immediately after preparing the media and adding it to the culture container.

Fun facts:
One way yeasts inhibit other molds is by their production of ethanol, a toxic byproduct (that humans like to consume for fun).
There is a Drosophila mutant called "cheapdate" that needs to ingest less ethanol than wild type flies to become inebriated.
Drosophila can actually use the ethanol that yeasts make as a medicine: certain parasitic wasps lay their eggs in Drosophila larvae, and when the larvae sense that they've become infected they ingest more ethanol than usual, and the extra alcohol in their systems kills the parasitic wasp larvae.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

First off I think we should figure out if it is a mold and not an overgrowth of yeast.. 

To the OP, is it fuzzy or slimy? 


Ed


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## cliner (Oct 31, 2007)

I haven't add yeat in months as per Josh's reccomendation. It started out white and fuzzy mold now its more blue/green. 3 out of 5 cultures have maggots up the sides now. I moved the culture to an new location and I'm running a test with one culture with just cinnamon, one with vinegar and one with yeast. I will seed them from another culture but will seed a test batch with my current cultures. This one will contain cinnamon, vinegar and yeast.

I'm been raising flies for 5 years and I have never seen anything close to this kind of mold problem. Thanks for all the advice.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Sounds like molds.. what are you using as a substrate other than the media? Are you using excelsior or coffee filters? Typically sudden out breaks are often tracked back to a contaminated substrate in the medias sold by various vendors. 

Ed


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

If you are recycling cups and lids make sure you thoroughly sterilize by soaking in bleach. This could be part of the problem.


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