# Couple of quick fruit fly culturing questions.



## Smurf (Nov 29, 2014)

1) Help me understand how moist it should be. How will I know if it isn't moist enough? Will the flies I put in there die, or will they just not reproduce? I would hate to stare at a culture for 2 weeks that has no chance of reproducing.

I'm just wondering because I bought a culture from Neherp and the media seems pretty wet. I then followed their instructions with their media to make my own cultures and my media doesn't seem nearly as wet.

2) Other than drowning a few flies, what are the dangers of adding water after the culture is started? If they have started laying larvae in the media can this set back the culture? Because my cultures looked dry I poured some water in, which soaked in within a minute.


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

If you follow the instructions that came with the media, you should do just fine. A culture that has already begun to produce will become soupier than a freshly made one so I'm pretty sure you're culture would have been fine without tweaking it at all. The consistency of my media is typically a little thinner than cookie dough and should hold it's shape well if you pat it down with a fork (my personal test).

You can potentially drown adult fruit flies and larvae by adding extra water and that could easily ruin a culture. Depending on how dry you're climate is, you can lightly mist you're culture every time you feed flies out to maintain the moisture content of the culture.

John


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## Smurf (Nov 29, 2014)

Great, thanks for the advice, especially about it becoming soupier over time.

I'm sure you can tell I'm an impatient fellow. Nothing to do but post lots of questions as I prepare for my first frogs.


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

and make more cultures in case it does not work! I have found that the small room in which I keep my frogs, and also the computer, must heat up gradually and dry out the cultures...so only because of this I start with a more moist culture.... I learned the hard way...changed to distilled water because our well must've had something that would not let the cultures develop...another time the media was to warm so it did not produce...so now I have modified the procedure...and you will find the method that works best for you.....practice, practice, practice...it is worth it.


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## RRRavelo (Nov 21, 2007)

You did not say what FFs you are working with. Some reproduce faster and produce greater numbers (melos). The heat during the winter in the North East tends to dry out the cultures more quickly. I find the Melos do a bit better at this time and the Hedei tend to crap put right around this time due to the dryness. I put a 1/2 filled small bucket of water near the cultures when it gets bad.
This is when alternate food sources can save your ass. Some springs and bean beetles,and two or three types of FFs insure that you have something to feed. 
Feast or famine is typical so make more than you need and diversify if you can.


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## Boondoggle (Dec 9, 2007)

You will have to tweak your water ratio to get it just right for your situation. I've found some mixes very forgiving and some demanding in this regard. Too wet and your substrate can break down leaving the flies to drown, too dry and it will minimize your yield and possibly produce mold.

There are a lot of variables (temperature, humidity, type of fly, measuring cups, flakes vs. powder, type of substrate, age of culture) so you need to experiment just a bit with your setup. Use the instructions as a starting point and then keep track of how it ages. We really learned this when demo-ing a specific vendors fruit fly mix as a group. Two people would follow the exact same recipe and in one part of the country it dried out, and in another part it was soup.

One tip though, I find that adding water but NOT stirring tends to make a mix a bit more forgiving. It seems counter-intuitive but the mix seems to absorb the appropriate amount of water, leaving dry mix on the bottom. The larvae end up softening the dry mix over the coming weeks and no one drowns/dries out.


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## LizardLicker (Aug 17, 2012)

I use Repashy media and hot tap water. I don't really have any issues. The biggest factor in production for me has been temp. If I don't keep them around 75F they don't produce nearly as well no matter what the culture is like. 

In the winter I make the mix a little looser than I do in the summer. I also use the no bleach coffee filters instead of excelsior. The filters help absorb some of the moisture if the culture becomes too loose once it starts to produce. 

I have found the consistency doesn't matter as much as temp does. As long as they don't dry out too much or mold they usually work fine. If they get too soupy later on you may be adding too many flies. It doesn't take a lot to get a culture going. 

Good luck.


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

I buy the media from josh's frogs right now and I follow the instructions, my wife says it smells great when I cook it lol the label says you dont have to add yeast but I bought a bunch of small packs of brewers yeast, I avoid exelcior and just use cheap coffee filters ...they explode! just fold 2 coffee filters into a triangle and bend the sharp corner to press into the stuff after sprinkling your yeast, either chuck it into the fridge or let it sit out to cool down naturallly, add a decent amount of flies and boom goes the dynamite lol I make it a culture at a time in 1-2 week intervals depending on how my oldest culture is doing. There are some great threads on diy cultures right here and once I have more species will probably make my own for $ saving reasons, just make sure your cultures are sitting on either mite paper or buy antimite spray in the bird section of your local pet supply and do it on paper towels ...mine are in a 3 shelf rubbermade cart I picked up for about $10 at home depot, the culture media basically resembles oatmeal, not soupy, firm but moist oatmeal. use distilled water, its about $1 a gallon sometimes cheaper, always use distilled or RO never tap water


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## jimmy rustles (Mar 10, 2013)

I just use this: http://www.carpzoom.com/en/product/item/carp-fiesta-groundbaits-13
Its working really good so far, plus its cheap and convenient. I just pour a little tap water over it and mix it until its a bit sticky, not too fluid.


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## Smurf (Nov 29, 2014)

Well, the Neherp culture I bought has already produced thousands of flies/larvae so I am confident this is a good source of media. The media that I bought from them and started still has all the flies I added alive in them. Hopefully I should start to see larvae in a week or so.


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## Erikb3113 (Oct 1, 2008)

My test for proper amount of water is to smack the bottom of the mixed culture on my palm. Im looking for it to settle without flattening completely. If it stays chunky add a bit more water.


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

It would be interesting to test different medias over time, mine can and have lasted for 2 months before so it would be really cool to streamline this knowledge for longer lasting cultures, homemade varieties vs store bought proven stuff, I tend to fill my containers to about 1.5-2" ...does that increase time? Idk but what I do know is that they explode. I feed every other day, my frogs are active and healthy and I always seem to have tons of fruits on hand. Thank the frog gods that I have sources right here in town I can buy already producing cultures of varieties of breeds from! some froggers may not be so lucky and have to order them, worst case scenario I drive 5 miles and spend $10 its good insurance for me but the only time I ever needed to buy them was to get different species of fruits for variety reasons. what I don't have is springs and isos, I usually order them as needed and try to get a few cultures in the early fall months to last me through winter if needed, I have already existing cultures but sometimes they start lagging, don't know what I do wrong there but its probably my old charcoal being the factor. Idk but like I said I buy the josh's frog stuff, boil 2/3 cup of distilled water in a small pot (with lid on) evaporation and all that add my 1/2 cup of mix stir it, scoop it with a spoon into the container (made by placon also in Madison WI) so I might buy a thousand if they can sell them for a good price, sprinkle some bakers yeast (flies seem to love it) drop my coffee filters in, cool it a good hour just out in the open really and add flies/cover ....thousands upon thousands!


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