# Hydei Media Mix ideas needed



## sports_doc

Hello all, Favor needed...

Looking for suggestions to improve the winter production of Hydei

I use a pretty standard Carolina mix for both hydei and melanos, but in winter, things dry faster, production is soso

Some of the commercial mixes produce much better, leading me to believe there is a formula or secret that works better. I'd buy commercial if it wasnt for the huge expense for the amount of mix I'd need to support my collection. Otherwise I do encourage others with smaller needs to consider some....they do work well.

Anyone have ideas?

Not looking for an elaborate cooked recipe, as I make 25-45 cx's per week. I need a mass produce mix.

If you dont want to divulge any 'secrets' publicly [and I realize that may sadden some inquiring minds] please pm

Thanks in advance

Shawn


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## Julio

i use josh's media, and i actually get the same production in the summer as i would in the winter, however things dry faster in the summer so adding a little more water during summer months works just fine.


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## Jason

I have been experimenting with this.



somecanadianguy said:


> 8 potatoe flakes
> 1 brewers yeast
> 1 icing sugar
> pinches of naturose cal and vitimins , if i have it spirilina
> water
> no chemicals
> sometimes i add instant yeast sometimes i dont
> and yes i lose some to mold but not very many if i wash and boil the jars every time i reuse not just wash em
> normally i use a excelsior or filters but was out of it for a while, makes feeding maggots easier with out it.and i dont mind at all u asking sharing info is what this site is all about and its why im here to learn or help if i can
> craig


Here is why! This was one of his cultures.









The recipe never said how much of what so I use 1/2 cup dry mix and I have been playing around with the water mixture. I found what works best is 75%/25% water/vinegar. I tried just water, but all molded over. The ones with 75%/25% did the best against mold. I tried a 1/2 cup of water/vinager, but was too dry and 1 cup seemed too wet at first, but dried up fast and is producing a good supply of flies.

The next batch I made was 1/2 cup dry mix, 3/4 cup water/vinegar 75%/25%. They are doing great and the fruit fly containers that were on the bottom stack of 2 had maggots crawling all over inside the lid. I guess it was because the container on top kept all the moisture very high. They were also raised at about 72 deg F and in a dark cabinet.

Hope that helps.


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## Julio

i get the same amount of larvae when i add a lot more brewers yeast, that is great though Jason.


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## sports_doc

Icing sugar? You've got me on that one. I generally use confectioners powdered sugar. Same? If it is different, I'll certainly give it a try....

My mix is

2 cups potato buds
2 cups instant Oats
1 cup confec sugar
1 cup Brewers yeast.

water:vinegar 80:20%

I found spirulina/naturose/paprika/vitamins all lowered production.

Anyone try powdered banana? Is it available?

Applesauce helps...

but I am looking for a dry ingredient or mix recipe that I can have mixed up in bulk.

Shawn


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## Jason

Icing sugar/powdered sugar are the same thing I believe, but yea I used the powdered sugar. I don't use the nutrose/spirulina/vitamins either.

Now that you have me thinking.....my daughter loves Graduates for Toddlers.








They ate mini freeze dried fruits. They come in banana pineapple, apple, banana strawberry, sweet corn. Might be worth a shot. I will definitely give it a try next time. I will make cultures tomorrow.

Another idea might be to use baby food rice cereal or oat meal. I think it has more nutrients than plain oat meal. That is also on my list of things to try.


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## nish07

Someone try with a very cheap meal replacement powder. A very little like one half to one tablespoon per culture. I tried it and it seemed to work very well but the stuff I used was expensive. I'm sure there's a very cheap meal replacement out there that's barely fit for human consumption that will do fine for flies. I still haven't been able to find a powder cheap enough to use.

-Nish


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## RPN

Here is the current recipe I am using now. I have purchased FF media from 4 different supppliers and started my own after finding costs were way to high also.

My mix is

8 cups potato flakes
1 cup Icing sugar/powdered sugar
1 cup Brewers yeast.
3 teaspoons of methyl paraben
1 teaspoon of spirulina
1/4 cup baby dry cereal (banana and or blueberry) Blueberries have a natural mold inhibitor. This is also available at dollar stores. Makes things alot cheaper.

mix equal amounts of media with hot water (NO VINEGAR)

I also add some (not packed full) excelisor the next day and then add my flies.

I am getting 25-30 cultures from this with great results.


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## nish07

Baby cereal is a great idea. I was wanting to use something with quite a bit of protein in it.

-Nish




RPN said:


> Here is the current recipe I am using now. I have purchased FF media from 4 different supppliers and started my own after finding costs were way to high also.
> 
> My mix is
> 
> 8 cups potato flakes
> 1 cup Icing sugar/powdered sugar
> 1 cup Brewers yeast.
> 3 teaspoons of methyl paraben
> 1 teaspoon of spirulina
> 1/4 cup baby dry cereal (banana and or blueberry) Blueberries have a natural mold inhibitor. This is also available at dollar stores. Makes things alot cheaper.
> 
> mix equal amounts of media with hot water (NO VINEGAR)
> 
> I also add some (not packed full) excelisor the next day and then add my flies.
> 
> I am getting 25-30 cultures from this with great results.


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## Jason

nish07 said:


> Baby cereal is a great idea. I was wanting to use something with quite a bit of protein in it.
> 
> -Nish


What about soy protein? Guess I will have to try that too.  I got a lot of experimenting to do tomorrow.


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## nish07

Don't use soy. It's high in estrogens and I wouldn't trust it in frogs (especially breeding or developing frogs).

-Nish


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## kyle1745

HUH? This is for FF medium not feeding to the frogs, since its well known FFs can not be gut loaded I don't see how this is a issue.

Take a standard mix, replace the brewers yeast with 50% nutritional yeast and 50% Soy. Works very well and I have used it for some time.


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## kristy55303

this is mix i use and have received very big production like jasons pic and relatively cheap. i store dry ingredients in sterilite bins 

oh and if it is dry i put hydei in sterilite drawers....keeps them from drying out. 
3 cups of powdered sugar 
1/4 cup Methyl paraben 
6 quarts cups potato flakes 
3 cups of brewers yeast( increase this for hydei say maybe 1/4 2 1/3)?
(optional--1/2 cup spirulina algae to gutload flies)i dont do this
use distilled hot almost to boiling point water when mixing cultures and add 1 part vinegar to four or five parts water
25 to 20 percent rate

for melos i add pinch of bakers yeast. i make the same amount of cultures as you do. i get some that crash from being so overloaded. i have had days where i can pull out 1/2 cup of just flies even though i fed out day before. i only feed every other day now though. melos i mist lightly the bakers yeast just a pinch
hydei i mist top lightly 

my experience. just like jasons pictures kept at room temp about 70-72 degrees i believe. kristy


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## kyle1745

I think that mix would rather expensive as it is mainly yeast and sugar. My take on most mixes is that the potatoes are basically the "filler".

My basic mix is a modification from the Home made "Carolina Mix" here:
Fruit Flies-Doyle's Dart Den
1 cup of powdered sugar
4 teaspoons Methyl paraben
8 cups potato flakes
1/2 - 1 cup of brewers yeast. 

My version:
8 cups of potatoe flakes
1 cups of powdered sugar
4 teaspoons Methyl paraben
1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast
1/2 cup Soy Isolate 90%


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## nish07

from	Tor Linbo
to	xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
cc	frognet list <[email protected]>
date	Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 5:17 PM
subject	Re: [Frognet] protein for fruitfully media

On Jul 28, 2008, at 1:27 PM, XXXXX wrote:

how about soy flour?


sorry, I've tried that too. protein % to cost is less efficient than brewers yeast. I also worry about the estrogen mimicking

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe you'll trust a name other than mine. Use it if you want. Soy is high in estrogens.

-Nish



kyle1745 said:


> HUH? This is for FF medium not feeding to the frogs, since its well known FFs can not be gut loaded I don't see how this is a issue.
> 
> Take a standard mix, replace the brewers yeast with 50% nutritional yeast and 50% Soy. Works very well and I have used it for some time.


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## Jason

nish07 said:


> Soy is high in estrogens.


Eeekk, I just did a search on this. Very scary even for humans.

Mothering Magazine Article: Whole Soy Story The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food


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## kyle1745

If you were feeding it to the frogs I could see... but even so if there is concern then stick with just the nutritional yeast. Its a small cost over brewers yeast and if I am not mistaken as a tad higher protein content.


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## sports_doc

Anyone see an issue with using potato powder {Bulk Foods.com} instead of potato flakes? or buds?
Anyone have a particular change they make for Hydei over melanos. Other than adding more Brewers [or nutritional] yeast, which has been suggested before?
I ordered up some dried banana which I will blend to a powder. Some dried honey. And potato powder in bulk to substitute as a trial.

Lots of good recipes listed. Thanks. Most do seem to be a variation on our old standby Carolina Mix. 

Shawn


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## gary1218

sports_doc said:


> Anyone see an issue with using potato powder {Bulk Foods.com} instead of potato flakes? or buds?
> Shawn


I put all my ingredients through a food processor to mix it up well which basically grinds in down to a powder. When I first got into the hobby a few years back and I was searching info on culturing FFs I found a few posts that stated that putting it through the food processor and grinding it down helped their FF production. I haven't done any experimenting to see if that's true or not but I like it because it does mix all the ingredients well. Bottom line is I wouldn't worry about using potato powder.


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## somecanadianguy

sports_doc said:


> Anyone see an issue with using potato powder {Bulk Foods.com} instead of potato flakes? or buds?
> Anyone have a particular change they make for Hydei over melanos. Other than adding more Brewers [or nutritional] yeast, which has been suggested before?
> I ordered up some dried banana which I will blend to a powder. Some dried honey. And potato powder in bulk to substitute as a trial.
> 
> Lots of good recipes listed. Thanks. Most do seem to be a variation on our old standby Carolina Mix.
> 
> Shawn


my mix for both stays the same but i found better results using about a 1/3 less water with hydie cultures because they tend to really make it soupy if i dont.
i also mix very well and it breaks the flakes down a lot so i dont think it would be an issue for a powder pototoe flake , how ever it will change the mix ratio a bit because of density so going by weight instead of volume might be an idea.
craig


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## Jason

sports_doc said:


> Anyone see an issue with using potato powder {Bulk Foods.com} instead of potato flakes? or buds?
> Anyone have a particular change they make for Hydei over melanos. Other than adding more Brewers [or nutritional] yeast, which has been suggested before?


The only change I do other than adding more brewers yeast is I use less vinegar. My melos is 50/50 vin/water. Hydei is 25/75 vin/water.


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## Corpus Callosum

This is my current recipe for both hydei and melanogaster, constantly adding and removing things to see what works better for me so nowhere near settled..

3 parts water
3 parts vinegar
3 parts apple sauce
4 parts oats (ground)
1 part flax seed (ground)
1 part nutritional yeast
1 part red lentils (ground)
1 part honey


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## wimpy

Corpus Callosum said:


> This is my current recipe for both hydei and melanogaster, constantly adding and removing things to see what works better for me so nowhere near settled..
> 
> 3 parts water
> 3 parts vinegar
> 3 parts apple sauce
> 4 parts oats (ground)
> 1 part flax seed (ground)
> 1 part nutritional yeast
> 1 part red lentils (ground)
> 1 part honey



Why did you try the red lentils? As a starch?


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## nish07

Apparently (from corpus himself) they have a bit of protein. I'm going to try whey protein concentrate. Hopefully it doesn't make my cultures stink. (If someone can tell me it will now, let me know please).

-Nish


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## wimpy

sports_doc said:


> Icing sugar? You've got me on that one. I generally use confectioners powdered sugar. Same? If it is different, I'll certainly give it a try....
> 
> My mix is
> 
> 2 cups potato buds
> 2 cups instant Oats
> 1 cup confec sugar
> 1 cup Brewers yeast.
> 
> water:vinegar 80:20%
> 
> I found spirulina/naturose/paprika/vitamins all lowered production.
> 
> Anyone try powdered banana? Is it available?
> 
> Applesauce helps...
> 
> but I am looking for a dry ingredient or mix recipe that I can have mixed up in bulk.
> 
> Shawn


Shawn, do you get more production from using half oats, half potatos compared to all potatos?


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## Corpus Callosum

wimpy said:


> Why did you try the red lentils? As a starch?


My two main reasons are protein and beta-carotene, lentils are high in both of them among other nutrients, but it's just something I'm testing for now.


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## sports_doc

I got the Oats idea from a very good cooked Flax seed recipe. The cooking however was taking me to long for the # of Cx I need to make.

Oats dont rot/smell as bad.

Shawn


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## Corpus Callosum

I've stopped cooking the flax/oats with no negative results. You just have to grind them up into a fine powder beforehand and the resulting mix works just as well (for me at least).


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## frogcal

I used same Carolina mix but I added agar agar powder to it, it helps retain water better. Agar powder can be bought at your local asian store.
Ben


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## kyle1745

I will say that I noticed using the soy, which may just be the increased protein caused my cultures to use much more of the medium than in the past with just brewers yeast. I may have to try with more nutritional yeast to see what results I get. I also want to try grinding it up but have never found a cheap way to do it.


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## sports_doc

Good info!

So, my bulk foods order arrived today.

I'm most curious about using powdered honey in place of some of the sugar.

I also got a large bag of sweetened dried bananas. Ground them up in a food processor to a powder and added them to the mix.

processed the oats to a powder and used the powdered potato flour I bought as well..

The farina....well....the kids and I ate some of that for dinner. Reminded me of when I was a kid and my Italian GM would make me that when I slept over....hummm...MAYBE some will make it to the ff mix...but I doubt it.

I must say the resulting mix [along with Brewers yeast] was cement like....but we will see how it pans out once the larvae get going..

Shawn
​


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## kyle1745

Roughly what was the mix? Im interested in the results. I need to place a order for supplies soon.


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## Jason

sports_doc said:


> I must say the resulting mix [along with Brewers yeast] was cement like....but we will see how it pans out once the larvae get going..
> 
> Shawn


Cement like huh....new background maybe?  Just kidding, let us know how it turns out.


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## Philsuma

Shawn,

I know this may be asking a lot....but....could you try come up with a cost per culture or some other cost/ingredient break down?

I am ready to do the same...pull the trigger on a large bulk order and am always trying to be cognizant of just how much all the fly media stuff costs.

Thanks,

Phil


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## -Jex-

My mix is very simple and produces so many flies I wake up each morning and have to dump flies out or it gets to full and they start killing over fast.
-Potato flakes
-water 
-vinegar
-Protein powder
mix until it looks like applesauce and then let it setup.


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## MrGerbik

I just made my own 2 days ago gonna see how it goes. Got some y east, potato flakes, regular sugar and baby food. Mostly the bannana stuff. I added a bit of water to get it the right consistancy. Baby food was cheap enough. Was on sale for like 4 for 2 dollars or somthing like that


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## sports_doc

Philsuma said:


> Shawn,
> I know this may be asking a lot....but....could you try come up with a cost per culture or some other cost/ingredient break down?
> I am ready to do the same...pull the trigger on a large bulk order and am always trying to be cognizant of just how much all the fly media stuff costs.
> Thanks,
> Phil


eek, that I cant easily do Phil

I can tell you I purchased a good supply of powdered honey, rolled oats, farina, dried bananas, potato flour [and mung beans for the beetles], for 76$ total. Free shipping. Add confectioners sugar, brewers yeast [which can be pricey], and vinegar and I think you can make enough mix for quite a few cx's.

I can try and estimate the 'quarts' of dry mix that all comes too, but I need to eye ball the pile of stuff again b/f I could guess.

------------------------------------

The _cement_ _recipe_ I just used was [approximately], after powdering in a food processor:
1 cup powdered potato flour
1 cup oats, powdered
1 cup bananas, powdered
1 cup brewers yeast.
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup honey powder

I'll let you know in a couple weeks how that works out.

_Soy_...I'll need to locate a source...but I like Kyles observations so I will give that a try also.


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## rmelancon

Do you think the honey powder will serve the same purpose of keeping smell down as suggested by elmoisfive?


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## sports_doc

Not sure.

What has worked for me for _smell_ is:


Less potatoes [ie the cooked flax seed recipe didnt smell]
Less 'extra' media, use minimum necessary, less to rot
Avoid using ff from cx's that got moldy
Add sour dough starter to the recipe
I'll let you know how the honey powder works in a couple weeks


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## melissa68

I just add a little bit of 'liquid' honey to each of my cultures when it has set up. A little goes a long way. 

Didn't even realize there was powdered honey, but it doesn't surprise me. I would be careful not to add too much, could up the sugar content of the culture too much.

Something I have been doing for a while to up my hydei production is setting up the culture and not putting in coffee filters or excelsor (sp?) until the culture is full of maggots. Keeps mold down as well - and that is why I originally started doing that. I got a bad batch of coffee filters & by the time my Hydei started producing they had all molded up. By putting them in later, it eliminated many of the issues I was having with hydei cultures going bad. I also noticed an increase in production. Another benifit - the coffee filters don't decompose as fast and become part of the medium...they actually stay intact & the flies are able to still use them to walk on - vs becoming part of the medium.

Also - making the culture a little moister than the melanos seem to help a bit - especially if you use coffee filters.


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## sports_doc

good tip

I'll run some hydei without adding excelsior until I see maggots.

Shawn


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## nish07

The ammonia smell is what kills me. Acidic substances neutralize the ammonia smell. I'm planning on using molasses as it's very acidic. I'm just going to have to tinker with it to find out how much molasses powder I should be using.

-Nish


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## sports_doc

nish07 said:


> The ammonia smell is what kills me. Acidic substances neutralize the ammonia smell. I'm planning on using molasses as it's very acidic. I'm just going to have to tinker with it to find out how much molasses powder I should be using.
> 
> -Nish


I havent tried Molasses....

but you might consider _sour dough starter_ [do an archive search on recipes, b/c I know we've discussed heavily a couple years ago.] For me it really changes the smell to a more pleasant [if you will..] bakery 'odor'. It wont make you salivate or anything...but...it is at least a step up from rotten potatoes.


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## kyle1745

Any word on how your tests went?


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## nish07

Not yet. I haven't put it together yet. Tried adding some stuff to a premade mix to see how it'd work out and things are fine except for the need for more mold control. I'll post back when I have the whole set of mixes up and have some info to share.

-Nish


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## pl259

I second Melissa's suggestion. I've been waiting to add my coffee filters, until the second week after I've started them.


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## nish07

Initial results indicate brown rice protein isn't working too well. Neither with hydei nor melanogaster. Unfortunately, there were a few messups with putting it together and the variables weren't perfect. It's working ok with whey protein, though. I'm going to continue to try using the brown rice protein till I'm sure it's not helping (including adding it as a ratio of whey protein). The whey protein (concentrate) is not producing a noticeably bad smell (yet). I need to grind the oats and also add a small amount of some starch (potato or corn) to make things more moisture retentive and pudding-like. I hear flax can do the same thing but need to look into the nutritional value of it before I decide if it's worth the money to add it.










Give me three weeks and I'll have an idea of what is working best with what I'm using. So far on the smell, I have no smell. That might get worse as time goes on. If so, I'll work on it.

Also, at this point the price is about equal to some of the commercial medias (if you buy in bulk). It'll be a while of testing before I decide to reduce some ingredients for cost's sake.

-Nish


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## nish07

A friend pointed out that I also need to give the yeast time to adjust. I didn't add yeast to either of the cultures.

-Nish


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## Fishman

Shawn, I know the power outages set your FF cultures WAY back but I was wondering if you have any updates on the trials you are running?

Dan W


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## Julio

have you guys tried adding a hald tea spoon of brewers yeast? it seems to work really well for me with the hydei and produce like crazy!


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## nish07

I use brewer's yeast as do a lot of other people. Protein is apparently (though talks with Ed) the limiting factor in most mixes. Therefor, adding brewers yeast will usually help.

I'm missing a form of cholesterol in my media and am going to add butter unless I can figure out something to add that might not turn rancid. (likely approximately 1 tsp per culture or so (possibly 1/2 depending on how much media I use per culture)

If anyone can think of a better source of cholesterol (besides egg yolks which are very expensive), let me know.

-Nish


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## sports_doc

Julio,
Do you really mean Brewers Yeast? Common ingredient yes, so it made me think you were considering something else.

Cholesterol. Not sure if this is necessary but... ground Flax Seeds should provide plenty of Phytosterols. Other 'nuts' as well... I havent checked if dried whole milk has it. I think most sources of animal product cholesterols would turn rancid.

Shawn


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## sports_doc

kyle1745 said:


> Any word on how your tests went?


Kyle
The ice storm did a number to my ff collection 

I cant say for sure but the initial trials of the 'cement mix' above werent impressive. I think I needed more water. Perhaps apple sauce to keep it moist. Hydei did better then melanogaster. 

For some reason I am losing a lot of maggots in later stages, especially those on the walls of the containers. ?residual soap, or some mix issue or bacteria. Cant say. 

Anyway I will need to start over once I get enough ff going again to feed.

Shawn


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## Newt1

I have been reading this post
has any one come up with a good mix that works
I would like to start making my own mix soon
I make about 6 cultures a week
Or just start with a baic mix
Thanks


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## afterdark

Newt1 said:


> I have been reading this post
> has any one come up with a good mix that works
> I would like to start making my own mix soon
> I make about 6 cultures a week
> Or just start with a baic mix
> Thanks


Hi Newt1, if you've been reading the thread, you should have lots of ideas for recipes already. 
What don't you like about the ones already posted?


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## nish07

Here's the recipe I've settled on for now. I'll probably scale back on some of the ingredients for cost's sake but it works very well.

This media was inspired by Sang's paper from 1956. 

The Quantitative Nutritional Requirements of Drosophila Melanogaster -- SANG 33 (1): 45 -- Journal of Experimental Biology

*Base*

I get quick oats and grind them up before dumping them in a bag inside of a 5 gallon bucket.

*Other ingredients*

In a gallon ziploc bag I mix in:

Fructose (2 cups)
Dextrose (2 cups)
Soy Lecithin granules ground in a blender (2 cups)
Brown Rice Protein Concentrate (1 cup)
Whey Protein Concentrate (1 cup)

-feel free to substitute brewer's yeast for either of the two above sources of protein. The above sources contain more protein per gram, though. I used a little bit in place of the whey protein my last batch (approximately a half a cup)-

Molasses Powder (nearly 1 cup)
Honey Powder (nearly 1 cup)
Corn Starch (nearly 1 cup)
Spirulina (2/3 cup)
Methyl Paraben (approximately 40 percent of a cup)


In the Ziploc bag, I'll leave some air and move the bag around while mixing the fine ingredients. When I go to make a culture, I'll put 1/3 a cup of oats into the culture and one tablespoon of the fine ingredients. After adding around half a cup of near boiling water and stirring, I'll let sit for a couple hours before microwaving three cultures at a time for 3 minutes. 

Microwaving them will cause the corn starch to turn the media into an agar-like substance (slightly harder than pudding). Initially the media seems way too soupy but after letting set for a little while and microwaving it won't be.

This media works well for hydei therefor it works fine for melanogaster as well (I might scale the fine ingredients back for melanos).

I need a little more time to test and fine tune it but I'm happy with it for now. The only thing I'm missing is a source of cholesterol. I considered putting a half pat of butter in each culture but I'm afraid it'll turn rancid.

-Nish

P.S. All of these ingredients can be bought from bulkfood distributors online. If you buy enough, it doesn't cost as much as you'd think.


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## Ed

Hi Nish,

If I remember correctly, yeast should form ergosterol which should be a good precursor for the flies... 

Ed


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## sports_doc

Or you might consider powdered eggs?

[or honestly raw egg mixed in before the microwave/boiling water step]

Interesting recipe. Thanks for posting.

I dont have a source for some of those ingredients, so if you dont mind posting the list again with sources? , that would be great.


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## bruce

As a suggestion you might just try the banana/grape juice/potato flake/brewers yeast/molasses/malto meal recipe* available in search. Although it is a mix of 50% vin/50% water ratio, with the addition of a little honey it seems to break the smell.
To control dryness (my food room runs dry), I put a piece of masking tape over the lid to close some of the holes. 
It can be made in batches of four, and seems to keep well for your Wednesday/Sunday ff starter days, using 1/2 the batch and storing 1/2 the batch.It should give you the number you need of fresh cultures.
They say the increased acidity is bad for hydei but I have never seen a difference between the commercial cultures and this one. 
*I suggest a using a big soup pot for four batches and a Proctor Silex 59735 Immersion Hand Blender for breaking up the bananas.
*Banana costs can be cut down using the "bruised bananas" available at food stores and if needed frozen until used, they actually work better the fresh ones. I buy them in bulk,peel them and freeze in ziploc bags in numbers of 12-16 a bag, just enough for 4 batches of medium.


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## afterdark

sports_doc said:


> I dont have a source for some of those ingredients, so if you dont mind posting the list again with sources? , that would be great.


Hi Shawn,

Everything but the Methyl Paraben is on BulkFoods.com Spices Nuts Chocolates and Candy Online Shopping in various quantities.


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## gary1218

Not sure if anybody wants to start up this thread again and share any new recipes you're having success with. I just started culturing hydei for the first time a few months ago so I thought I would share my experience.

I started out with a commercially made media specifically for hydei. After a few successful cultures I started to experiment with the recipe. With my melos I use orange juice rather then water and I mix in spirulina powder as well. I tried both those with the hydei media with just as much success as without.

Not wanting to have to continually buy a hydei media I next tried my homemade melo recipe. Somewhat to my surprise I got a MUCH better hatchout.









My homemade melo recipe is a very basic recipe - about a 1lb box of potato flakes, 1 cup brewers yeast, 1 cup confectioner's powdered sugar. I put it all through a food processor to mix it well and to make it into a powder. I did notice that the hydei flies do tend to churn the media more so I need to use less water than I do for the melos.

The other interesting thing I found was that the commercially prepared hydei media worked VERY well for the melos.


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## Julio

I use a commercial media, but i use the same for both melano and hydei and i get great results, but with me i think the key is adding more baker's yeast then most people do, the more food they have the more breeding you will get so in terms more flies.


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## Peter Keane

Also remember to use your first hatched flies to start new cultures.. This has helped tremendously down the road for future cultures... Peter Keane


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## Ed

Peter Keane said:


> Also remember to use your first hatched flies to start new cultures.. This has helped tremendously down the road for future cultures... Peter Keane


There are downsides to this as hydei primarily emerge as one sex and this can lead to crashed cultures if the sex ratios are off enough.. and in addition will (not can) select for cultures that will crash once the metabolic wastes get too high. 

Ed


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## Julio

also don't the males take about 10 days to become sexually mature?


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## jubjub47

I use the same recipe for both types of flies and have great success. 

8 cups potato flakes
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup brewers yeast
3 tsp methyl paraben
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon

I mix 1:1 ratio with hot water and with hydei I use just a bit more media than I do with melanos


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## Bcs TX

I use Tim's recipe as well with great success, not only with my Hydei but with my Mels as well.
Plus it does not stink. 

-Beth


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## Julio

jubjub47 said:


> I use the same recipe for both types of flies and have great success.
> 
> 8 cups potato flakes
> 1 cup powdered sugar
> 3/4 cup brewers yeast
> 3 tsp methyl paraben
> 2 tsp paprika
> 1 tsp cinnamon
> 
> I mix 1:1 ratio with hot water and with hydei I use just a bit more media than I do with melanos


Tim,
How many cultures can you make from one batch?


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## jubjub47

That will make 20 or so. I usually multiply it up a few times for a bigger batch though since I make 4-5 cultures a week.


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## snooknfrogs

Besides Carolina is there a good source for methyl paraben? I looked on their website and the only quantity the sell now is a LARGE amount... and it's not cheap!

JP


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## JoshK

snooknfrogs said:


> Besides Carolina is there a good source for methyl paraben? I looked on their website and the only quantity the sell now is a LARGE amount... and it's not cheap!
> 
> JP


 Try Joshs Frogs


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## Brien

Im trying the power mix at doylesdartden as anyone tried this?


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## Dancing frogs

brien said:


> Im trying the power mix at doylesdartden as anyone tried this?


Pretty much been using that for 6 years or so...great results with hydei or melagonaster.


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## ChrisK

Yeah it's pretty good if you get the right consistency, slowly stir in the dry stuff to the boiling liquid to make sure it mixes


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## snooknfrogs

The other thing I'm looking for is a source for brewers yeast. I can get all the bakers yeast in the world but have yet to find a place to buy small amount of brewers yeast. 

Also, I've read in a few threads it's NOT necessary to use bakers yeast in some culture's... I know some people sprinkle some on top of their culture's... which cultures should you use it??

JP


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## Ed

snooknfrogs said:


> Also, I've read in a few threads it's NOT necessary to use bakers yeast in some culture's... I know some people sprinkle some on top of their culture's... which cultures should you use it??
> 
> JP


Baker's yeast is used to lower the incidence of contamination by unwanted microbes.. so technically you can skip it for all cultures but as an additional backup to prevent contamination its worth it (and it makes great springtail food). 

Ed


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## Brien

You can buy brewers yeast at GNC for $10 a pound


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## Ulisesfrb

I'm also experimenting with my first batch of media. One question, has anyone ever used just a little bit of ascorbic acid as the mold inhibitor?? Would it work?? Would it present any problems?? Thanks


Ulises


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## bruce

Perhaps this is obvious, but if "drying out" is keeping the cultures from being productive, why not use clear packing tape over 1/2 the holes, I use the same mix year round with no production problems.


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## Fishman

I just posted this in the yeast thread, but figured it fits well here also:

I use dietary yeast as well. Get it at my local grocery store. When I Googled the two the difference was mostly that dietary yeast is killed brewers yeast. You don't really need the live brewers yeast, as the flies and environment all provide plenty of "wild" yeast to the cultures.


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## Ed

Fishman said:


> I just posted this in the yeast thread, but figured it fits well here also:
> 
> I use dietary yeast as well. Get it at my local grocery store. When I Googled the two the difference was mostly that dietary yeast is killed brewers yeast. You don't really need the live brewers yeast, as the flies and environment all provide plenty of "wild" yeast to the cultures.


Correct, live yeast does not have to be added to the culture however adding it does cut down on the chance of another microbe colonizing the media as it helps the yeast get established as the dominant microbe. 


Ed


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