# Do not feed Wingless Melo's and Winged Melo's at the same time!



## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

I've been feeding both wingless melo's and vestigial winged melo's to my frogs recently. Because I keep a nice sized chunk of banana in each viv, the flies are usually able to reproduce in the viv to a small extent. I recently got my first hatching of these flies and you know what... they are fliers. Now when I open my vivs I have to deal with a ton of flying fruit flies. The frogs sure do love jumping after these guys but it's annoying me. So here's your warning... don't do this!


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## Topete (Sep 27, 2009)

Mitch said:


> I've been feeding both wingless melo's and vestigial winged melo's to my frogs recently. Because I keep a nice sized chunk of banana in each viv, the flies are usually able to reproduce in the viv to a small extent. I recently got my first hatching of these flies and you know what... they are fliers. Now when I open my vivs I have to deal with a ton of flying fruit flies. The frogs sure do love jumping after these guys but it's annoying me. So here's your warning... don't do this!


perhaps you had stray fruit fly's get in you viv...
i do the same and haven't had this issue, none the less it is quite interesting.. do you see them fly (develop wings in the culture cup?) for me my wingless look like ants due to their lack of wings.. perhaps you need a new culture?


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

Topete said:


> perhaps you had stray fruit fly's get in you viv...
> i do the same and haven't had this issue, none the less it is quite interesting.. do you see them fly (develop wings in the culture cup?) for me my wingless look like ants due to their lack of wings.. perhaps you need a new culture?


There are no fliers in the cups as both types are kept separate. I only have fliers in the vivs, not the culture cups. The only other way this could be happening is if there is a reproducing population of wild ff in the vivs, but I doubt that.


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## itskris (Jan 5, 2011)

They become fliers when they reproduce in warmer climates.


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

itskris said:


> They become fliers when they reproduce in warmer climates.


I believe temps must be 80+ in order for the gene to revert back to original form (normal, working wings). Temps in the vivs do not reach this.


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## VenomR00 (Apr 23, 2010)

No you are correct Mitch in your assumption that the two cross breed. I had the same situation happen. Even if you use two different cultures from two different sources being the same breed of flies they are genetically different can can complete one and another and bam you got fliers.


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## Ulisesfrb (Dec 8, 2008)

Maybe you could do a culture with a mix of these to find out if that is what really happened.


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

Ulisesfrb said:


> Maybe you could do a culture with a mix of these to find out if that is what really happened.


Maybe... I don't want another face full 'o fliers though!


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Mitch is absolutely right. Cross them and you will get fliers every time.


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## Steve25 (Jan 29, 2010)

It happened to me, but wasn't annoying. It made my frogs have to work to eat lol


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## VenomR00 (Apr 23, 2010)

if you get flyers just stick in the fridge for a few minutes and then tfeed. They wont be able to fly and it will be easy to dust and feed before they get a chance to fly


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## bakaichi (Jun 27, 2009)

ya im pretty sure those are offpring form cross breeding between wing & non winged.

I made a culture couple month ago combininng the 2 , and it all turn flyers


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## Dragonfly (Dec 5, 2007)

Just a simple FYI, bananas are notorious for being a source of normal ffs. You might wants to use slices of strawberries instead. Also, if your frogs are older or already eating well, just do away with the fruit.


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

Dragonfly said:


> Just a simple FYI, bananas are notorious for being a source of normal ffs. You might wants to use slices of strawberries instead. Also, if your frogs are older or already eating well, just do away with the fruit.


I actually used strawberry for a good month then switched to banana because that's what I had in my house. The whole strawberry got decomposed and only the seeds were left, and a few actually sprouted. They are still very tiny seedlings though. 

Why would I do away with the fruit?


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

Let the healthy frogs hunt.


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

dmartin72 said:


> Let the healthy frogs hunt.


Aren't the larvae a nice supplement to their diet? This is definitely the easiest way to get them to eat larvae.


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

The easiest way, I have found to get them to eat larvae, is to put in micro cultures, tilted at an angle that are teeming with them. I let a bunch crawl out and remove the culture after a day or two. The larvae are great for an occasional snack.

If you use fruit in your tank all the time, you'll be feeding fatty larvae all time and creating an all you can eat buffet...lazy frog. This is great for a skinny or weak frog or for frogs in smaller quarantine tubs that you don't want to stress out with excess FF's. If you accidentally put in too many FF's, they will head for that piece of fruit instead of crawling all over the frog, which can cause death. Besides, I like to encourage them to hunt. Like I said, the buffet style serves it's purpose by helping to occasionally fatten up frogs and can help trigger breeding. I've heard that most of our frogs are usually too heavy anyway. Without the fruit, they at least have to run after it...a little bit.

David


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

dmartin72 said:


> The easiest way, I have found to get them to eat larvae, is to put in micro cultures, tilted at an angle that are teeming with them. I let a bunch crawl out and remove the culture after a day or two. The larvae are great for an occasional snack.
> 
> If you use fruit in your tank all the time, you'll be feeding fatty larvae all time and creating an all you can eat buffet...lazy frog. This is great for a skinny or weak frog or for frogs in smaller quarantine tubs that you don't want to stress out with excess FF's. If you accidentally put in too many FF's, they will head for that piece of fruit instead of crawling all over the frog, which can cause death. Besides, I like to encourage them to hunt. Like I said, the buffet style serves it's purpose by helping to occasionally fatten up frogs and can help trigger breeding. I've heard that most of our frogs are usually too heavy anyway. Without the fruit, they at least have to run after it...a little bit.
> 
> David


Good info David. Maybe this will be the last round of fruit I put in my vivs.


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## Woodsman (Jan 3, 2008)

I have always been a great fan of using fruit for feeding stations and to supplement the frog's diet with the ff maggots. Maybe the "fatty frog syndrome" occurs in other species, but I have not seen this in my collection of Tinctorius.

Richard.


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

Your frogs arent' fat Richard...just "big boned".


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## Baltimore Bryan (Sep 6, 2006)

Yes I had always cultured flightless fruit flies, which could kind of "hop around" but could not fly. Then I bought some wingless ones thinking they were the same and added them in for a new culture. I had a while with cultures of almost all flying fruit flies, it was awful. I had to keep the vacuum next to the cultures and suck up any extra escapees every time I fed. It took a long time to get all of the fliers worked out of the cultures.
Bryan


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