# whatever happened to the golden D. Melagnoster?



## thumbnail (Sep 18, 2005)

Just wondering if anyone knows a source for these and if they are just as prolific as the normal flightless fruitflies? Thankyou for looking,
Michael


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## nburns (May 3, 2005)

My supply is a little low right now but I have had them available in the past. My experience is that they are not as prolific and they seem to be a little more sensitive to heat. If you don't find someone else who has them just keep in touch with me. I am moving next week and so things are a little busy right now.

Nate


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Ah, but *which* golden form? There are actually two that have been released into the hobby as feeders (I'm still trying to get clear pics of these guys and again looking for stock of the mroe uncommon forms of melanogaster for my FF article).

Both "Golden Delicious" (what nate is talking about) and "Mini White" (very limited amount came out of FF specialties) have golden bodies... the main difference (going by the information they were marketed with) is that they are both white-eyed golden forms of melanogaster, but "Mini White" is a flightless form (winged type) while the "Golden Delicious" is a wingless form. Each has the hopping/crawling behavior characteristic of their wing type as far as I can tell, but I've still got to get stock of both to compare them to each other 

I know the Golden Delicious is not as prolific as the flightless strains, and fit the general rule of the closer to the wild type, the closer they reproduce like the wild type... wingless are relatively less productive than flightless forms, and the GD is about the same level to slightly less dependong on your culturing technique... I've definately had GDs give my wingless a good run for their money tho! LOL.

I don't know how prolific the Mini Whites are... flightless have seemed more productive than wingless, but with the other mutations involved in this type, this form may show the same lower productivity as the GDs.


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

I have the golden delicious morph strain mutant whatever we are calling them. Corey I can try and get you a picture but I dont know how capable my camera is.


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)




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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

OOooooooo can I use those on my website? Can I? Can I? I have larvae and pupe pics, but the damn flies themselves haven't turned out for me


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

Yah I mentioned you could, You said you wanted me to get better resolution pics but I never have.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Haha, I will always ask  I want to double check, you never know... you may be territorial over those flies


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## Hakkamike (Aug 19, 2007)

I received some golden delicious fruit flies and they have red eyes??


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## booboo (Jan 22, 2005)

Hmmm that doesnt sounds like "golden delicious" but just wingless melanos.


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## jejton (Sep 3, 2006)

Is there any difference in nutritional value between these strains and others or between any strains ?


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## Hakkamike (Aug 19, 2007)

Oh well live and learn I guess 8) Anyone out ther have any with white eyes they can let go of??


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

True TDs have white eyes.

As for nutrition, it really depends on how picky you are... well one has wings and one doesn't so what about the nutrition in the wings blah blah blah.... within the species the strains have generally the same nutrional make up except for some minor differences. Different species have a greater difference in nutritional make up, more than the strains by far, but not nearly the difference as the different feeder types like between FFs and say, springtails. Type of FFs are like types of lettuce, where types of feeders (FFs, crickets, springtails, beetle larvae, moth larve, etc) are like different food groups lol.


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## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

does anyone know what the flies sold by blackjungle under hydei are really? i don't think they are hydei, cause i got hydei's from someone else and they are twice as big. the BKJL ones are not really bigger than the melano's. sorry to hijack the thread


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## Drew (Nov 9, 2006)

Maybe you got an older culture? I've purchased Hydei from them in the past and never had a problem.


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## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

i just got mine a few months ago, there isn't a problem with them really, they just aren't any bigger than my melano's.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Confirm that they are hydei first (red eyes, black body) and then you'd have to culture them thru another generation to confirm if the body size is just end of culture size or if there actually is an issue. The first hatch of hydei gets the nice large ones, the second hatch (or even the first hatch if a media was not used with hydei's nutritional needs in mind) is usually smaller more like melano size.

Get hydei specific media, start a new culture, and see what size they pupate at. Likely its just a nutritional issue.


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## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

thats probably what it is. i used the same media for i use for the melano's. i don't want to buy media from eds fly meat or anything, so what do i have to add to the hydei to make them stay large and stuff? thanks, and didn't really think of that.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

It depends on what your media is to start with... getting a prepared dry media is the easy way to do it (every major supplier either has a formula that works for hydei, or has a seperate formula that is specially for hydei) but if you're making your own you'd either have to find out what the recipe modifications would be for hydei, or do a hydei specific recipe.


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## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

for the melano's i use potato flakes, corn starch, bakers yeast, agar, and vinegar, what would i need to add to that in order for the hydei to "work"? 

ps- i sent you an email about my website, did you get it?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Huh, I'll check thru my email... maybe I got it when I was traveling for work and accidently marked it "read"....

I'm honestly lazy and use Ed's LOL. I know there were talks about hydei home mixes in one of the threads about FF home brews, here are some threads that talk about it a bit....
Difference between hydei and melano media?
Media


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

IME both the GD and the mini white are torturously slow producers ....

just not worth the trouble unless you can afford to 'watch' a cx or 2 sitting idle and producing barely enough ff's to make the next generation of cx's.

S


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I dunno, while my curlies definately produce more flies, I can get a lid full of GDs going too... not too much less than wingless... and probably the MWs but since they boom at a different time I'm not usually looking at the culture at the right time. I use Ed's media and they've done pretty well for me... at least the GDs have. But if you need the most FFs for your cx then I could see how they could pain you a bit. But then again, wingless probably do to


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