# Tinctorius - hydei or melanogaster?



## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

So this is a question for everyone working with tinctorius: have you noticed if your frogs prefer melanogaster flies or hydei flies?

I've mostly fed melanogaster to my azureus, and I haven't fed hydei in a long time so I can't really compare the two.

I would imagine that given their tongue structures and that they're specialized to eat smaller prey, that they would prefer melanogaster over hydei. Any thoughts?


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

I can't tell. They seem to inhale both.


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## Rusty_Shackleford (Sep 2, 2010)

I would agree with Kris, they probably would inhale both. I personally feed hydei to my tincs and bigger frogs and melanos to the froglets and smaller frogs. Just what I do.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Frogboy's Giant Reginas take both with gusto.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

My Patricia's love both.


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

I've never used either one. I started out with Turkish Gliders (thought they were the same as melanos for a while!) and that's what I've stuck with. They're somewhere between melanos and hydei in size and all my tincs love them! The babies can handle them right from the start. Even the terribilis don't seem to mind them...but they do like the weekly bean beetle feeding a little better.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I'm pretty sure Turkish gliders are melanogaster. What species do you think they are? Not buzzati, not hydei, then what?


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

You know...I have absolutely no idea! 

I thought they were for the longest time...and then I believe I read something that made me believe they were not...so ???

Sometimes I read too much and I'm at that 43 year old hormone stage where things get confusing! LOL!


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## mydumname (Dec 24, 2004)

I've always understood tg to be melano.

I prefer feeding hydei to the bigger frogs. If not, I feel I run out of melano too quick. But the downside to hydei is they tend to climb and scatter much quicker than my melano. I also use tg for my melano.


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## Mer_ (Sep 11, 2011)

My Patricia eat either, but I prefer to give them melanos just because they produce faster for me. I give them more than if I were to be giving them hydei.


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## frogfreak (Mar 4, 2009)

Tincs will hammer anything...They're pigs! I feed Hydei, gliders and wingless. Springs too. Now that's entertaining!


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## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

Both for sure, but my staple for all my frogs is gliders and wingless, and i feed hydei as a treat every few months. . .


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

frogparty said:


> I'm pretty sure Turkish gliders are melanogaster. What species do you think they are? Not buzzati, not hydei, then what?


Correct, they are melanogaster. 

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

The best to use is whichever species you can culture consistently. If you can do both, then that is fine. Otherwise there are many many people who have reared them on nothing but melanogaster. 

Some comments,

Ed


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## Dizzle21 (Aug 11, 2009)

what's the difference between "apterous" and "wingless"? From what I can tell they seem the same.


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## frogfreak (Mar 4, 2009)

Dizzle21 said:


> what's the difference between "apterous" and "wingless"? From what I can tell they seem the same.


It means the same thing. Aptery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

frogparty said:


> I'm pretty sure Turkish gliders are melanogaster. What species do you think they are? Not buzzati, not hydei, then what?


Interesting! I had no idea either. A distinction is made between them and umm the other melanogasters when people are buying or selling them, and I've never heard them referred to as melanogasters. Well there you go. We learned something 

Maybe we should call them regulars and the ones that move really fast


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## mordoria (Jan 28, 2011)

If it moves, my tincs kill it.


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## rahunt2 (Jan 4, 2009)

I have always fed melanogaster to anything because I struggle with breeding hydei.
I gave Repashy's SuperFly a try for my hydei just to see what would happen and now I cannot get rid of them fast enough, the cultures actually turn solid black with flies. 
Now I feed everyone big enough exclusively hydei most of the time. My frogs gladly eat both species but the larger hydei do seem to be easier for them to track down and eat in large quantity, especially after the vitamin dust has worn off.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

I feed mainly hydei. 12 cultures on Josh's Frogs media can easily feed my 50+ vivaria well. I honestly don't think the tincs are too picky what they eat, as long as it's small.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

zBrinks said:


> I feed mainly hydei. 12 cultures on Josh's Frogs media can easily feed my 50+ vivaria well. I honestly don't think the tincs are too picky what they eat, as long as it's small.


It depends on what you mean by small... I've had good success using ten day old crickets... 

Ed


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

(Writing down...turkish gliders ARE melanos.)

Ha! I remember when I started with bean beetles! They all love them now, but in the beginning they were all extremely leery of them! I actually had a few frogs that would climb up into leaves and onto huts and stare in fear as soon as the beetles hit the ground! Lol!

I've always wanted to try hydei...but the smell is holding me back. I've heard that they can really stink. Is this true?


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## Shinosuke (Aug 10, 2011)

Yea, my hydei's do seem to have a bit of smell to them but really, I only smell it when I open the culture. It's not a great smell, but nowhere near bad or strong enough for me to even consider not using them because of it.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Ed said:


> It depends on what you mean by small... I've had good success using ten day old crickets...
> 
> Ed


 Yup, same here - I order a bunch of 1/8" every month or so to gutload for a couple days, then feed to the frogs.


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