# Hydei Culture issue—Maggot Explosion!



## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

I just got a new hydei culture the other day, and knowing they love to escape, I put it in a larger container just in case. Well, I checked on it just now only to find tons of maggots had oozed out From the vents in the lid. The culture itself just has tons of maggots in it, mostly just dead flies. What happened here!?


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## FroggerFrog (Jan 11, 2021)

I’m 99% sure that is just larvae. It’s the fruit fly cycle. I always have them in my Melos culture. You’ll have a bunch of flies soon!
EDIT: forgot maggot is the larvae stage of a fly.


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## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

FroggerFrog said:


> I’m 99% sure that is just larvae. It’s the fruit fly cycle. I always have them in my Melos culture. You’ll have a bunch of flies soon!


Yes, I meant larva by maggots...but they’re everywhere. Is it normal for them to be this difficult to keep in the container? And then the container is teeming with them and dead flies...


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

No, it isn't normal at all. I see larvae in between the lid and the lip of the cup -- is it possible the lid wasn't on tight? They can't escape through the fabric, and there are pupae inside the larger container, too.

FWIW, mels would be more appropriate for your anthonyi, and easier to culture.


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## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

Socratic Monologue said:


> No, it isn't normal at all. I see larvae in between the lid and the lip of the cup -- is it possible the lid wasn't on tight? They can't escape through the fabric, and there are pupae inside the larger container, too.
> 
> FWIW, mels would be more appropriate for your anthonyi, and easier to culture.


Yes, there are some between the lid and the cup, but I think they got there after I lifted the lid to check on the container. The lid was covered and I didn’t want to crush a bunch when I set the lid back down. Inspecting some more, it looks like they were able to slide under a loose edge of the fabric and just emerged all over from the ventilation spots from there. Has this happened to anyone before?

The breeder I got them from said he was alternating between feeding them melanogaster and hydei, so I was thinking, “oh no, I’ll have to get some hydei too”, hence rushing off to get this culture this week. ...but dealing with the hydei has been horrible, from getting them into a cup for dusting to...this now. I’ll probably just give up and stick to melanogaster. That’s reassuring. Thanks, Socratic.


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## FrogPrince (Sep 20, 2018)

I use a culture cup with a funnel to transfer flies to feed. If you additionally place whatever supplement you use in the culture cup _*before*_ adding flies, it's easy to "swirl" the container to keep the flies from climbing the cup.


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## Coggie (Feb 23, 2019)

I've never had them get out past a fabric lid like that, but I actually have had a bunch of hydei larvae squeeze through the ventilation holes in a plastic lid even though it looked like there was no way the larger larvae could have fit. I had set another culture on top of that one and it seems that that kept the humidity up high enough on top of their culture that there was nothing to discourage their exploration. Hasn't happened again, though, as I've always been careful to keep the lids clear of anything that could retain humidity since then. Maybe your secondary container kept it humid enough for them to think it might be comfortable outside the culture so they kept pushing limits when they found the loose edge?

I also find it interesting that I've never had mels do anything like that, even though the maggots are smaller...


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## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

Coggie said:


> I've never had them get out past a fabric lid like that, but I actually have had a bunch of hydei larvae squeeze through the ventilation holes in a plastic lid even though it looked like there was no way the larger larvae could have fit. I had set another culture on top of that one and it seems that that kept the humidity up high enough on top of their culture that there was nothing to discourage their exploration. Hasn't happened again, though, as I've always been careful to keep the lids clear of anything that could retain humidity since then. Maybe your secondary container kept it humid enough for them to think it might be comfortable outside the culture so they kept pushing limits when they found the loose edge?
> 
> I also find it interesting that I've never had mels do anything like that, even though the maggots are smaller...


Yeah, there must be something up with the lid. I walked out of the pet store and there was a loose fly on top, but I just wiped it off not assuming it had gotten out through the top. Later, noticed a couple more, and the lid just was becoming increasingly covered with larvae. Later still, there were some larvae squeezing through the ventilation holes, so I put it in this larger container. Then, the following day, I found it like this--tons had shoved their way out and it was this mess. You can see they somehow pulled down the edges of the lid (left side of the photo, for instance) and were squeezing through over the fabric and out. They seem to have started before I put it in this secondary container, I just didn’t think it would be this much of a problem...


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## SimonL (Aug 29, 2020)

If you are using a separate piece of fabric then the fabric needs to be held in place between the container and the lid. In this case if I zoom in on the photo there appear to be some massive holes and very visible routes to get past the fabric and through the holes. Ventilation holes don’t need to be that big either. Btw, $12,99 for a pot of flies? Is that the’ normal’ price in the US (assuming that’s where you’re located)?


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## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

SimonL said:


> If you are using a separate piece of fabric then the fabric needs to be held in place between the container and the lid. In this case if I zoom in on the photo there appear to be some massive holes and very visible routes to get past the fabric and through the holes. Ventilation holes don’t need to be that big either. Btw, $12,99 for a pot of flies? Is that the’ normal’ price in the US (assuming that’s where you’re located)?


I’m in a ridiculously gentrified part of the U.S. and have limited options here (Santa Barbara, CA). I suspect most everything is overpriced in that pet store...that’s the lid they gave me with the culture for that price. Apparently, not a very effective one.


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## Broseph (Dec 5, 2011)

Yikes. I don’t understand the people that aren’t seeing a problem here. This is a major failure.

1. For the culture to be swimming with maggots it must have been over seeded with adults when set up.
2. The lid/cup combo may be mismatched judging by all the maggots between them, and/or the lid is broken.
3. The sheer quantity of maggots makes for nearly 100% humidity in a cup, which is too high for pupae, and that’s why they’re trying to escape in the first place.

If you want to salvage as many flies as possible, I would take the lid off and just let them pupate in the larger container (assuming the larger container is escape proof).

Oh, and $13 for a producing culture at a brick and mortar sounds about right to me.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Lovelyk said:


> .but dealing with the hydei has been horrible, from getting them into a cup for dusting to...this now. I’ll probably just give up and stick to melanogaster.


Consider seeking out wingless mels -- they're even easier to deal with than the merely flightless varieties since wingless can't revert to fliers, and they don't hop.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

All new hobbyists should only cx melogaster or small flies. Stores and places that only sell Hydei make this hard.

Maggots are fly larvae. Having a lot is actually a good thing, lol.

The problem here is either too high ambient (Room) humidity and/or lack of lid ventilation. I'd go with both as my guess.

One the larvae seek more oxygen, they travel higher in the cup and actually plug up the holes or whatever gaps they can find and exacerbate the issue.

Make sure you have the correct Fabri-coted lids and that you store the cx's so they get proper ventilation. Do not stack and do not seal away in bins or air tight cabinets.


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## FroggerFrog (Jan 11, 2021)

I’ve seen more people have success with larger prey for Anthonyi like hydei and pinheads but it doesn’t mean you can’t use melos. I use them for my Anthonyi and I don’t see any problem with them.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Such a horrible myth that big frogs need 'big' prey items. Scott M. bred generations of terriblis on nothing but melos. I have F3 A.silverstonei on melanogaster.


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## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

Broseph said:


> Yikes. I don’t understand the people that aren’t seeing a problem here. This is a major failure.
> 
> 1. For the culture to be swimming with maggots it must have been over seeded with adults when set up.
> 2. The lid/cup combo may be mismatched judging by all the maggots between them, and/or the lid is broken.
> ...


They seem to have calmed down, well they’ve gone pupal so it’s no longer teeming with maggots so much. I only had a few flies to feed them today, but hopefully that changes by tomorrow. But yeh, this does definitely look like a messed up lid and over seeded. I thought I was having issues, first time with a hydei culture, and I knew they were notorious for escaping. But maybe it was just a bad batch? Or this pet store selling problematic cultures.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Took another look at the OP just now...

'Knowing that they(Hydei) like to escape" - they don't, really. No cx'ed flies should ever be escaping. I have 45 cx's going at any given time, and nobody is escaping.

"Put them in another container" - ok HERE is the problem. You sealed them up and they couldn't get enough air.

In your defense, the pet shop cup and lid look 'wonky' and substandard. 

The take away here - Flies need ventilation. Don't seal em up.


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## Dragonflylady (Jan 6, 2009)

Lovelyk said:


> I just got a new hydei culture the other day, and knowing they love to escape, I put it in a larger container just in case. Well, I checked on it just now only to find tons of maggots had oozed out From the vents in the lid. The culture itself just has tons of maggots in it, mostly just dead flies. What happened here!?
> View attachment 297847


Sounds like the cup was placed in an airtight container killing flies and the resulting spike in humidity doubled the larvae survival rate.


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## Lovelyk (Feb 7, 2021)

Everyone keeps assuming I “sealed them up” in an airtight second container. The lid on the second container was not air tight or even fully shut on there and they started doing his before I even put them in there. I put them there because they were crowding the top of the lid and a few had already leaked out.

My update is that I replaced the lid on the cup and put all the escapees in the outer container back (well, minus a few larva that became frog snacks). Many are still hanging out close to the top, but they are no longer covering it and escaping. A few new flies (so far they seem to be more chill flies too) have hatched, so I think it’s stabilizing. There are still sooo many larva in there, it must have been way over seeded and just gotten overcrowded. Maybe also the lid was faulty, because the fabric was peeling on several edges when I finally replaced it. So weird, but it seems to be under control. This is nothing like my experience with the melanogaster culture I got from the same place.


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