# cultures



## DendroMan420 (Jul 6, 2010)

I have a couple dart frogs and i havent been feeding them alot lately because i just started 10 fruit fly cultures and i dont have alot of fruitflies right now. Im seeing larvae in a couple cultures but not alot of fruitflies. How long does it take for a culture to be full of fruitflies? I started mine on Oct.24. I also want to know how long can dart frogs go without food? I spoil my frogs with fruitflies everyday but since i dont have alot i feed them a couple dozen.


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## froggiesrule (Oct 8, 2010)

Depends on temp. If you keep yours at 68 F, it will be "D. melanogaster takes roughly two weeks (depending on temperature that cultures are kept at and medium used) to go from egg to maggot to adult fly, and the newly morphed flies can reproduce after 24 hours. D. hydei develops slower and takes roughly one month to go through its life cycle."


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## illinoisfrogs (Apr 16, 2010)

you have a "couple frogs" and started 10 fly cultures? You only need a couple cultures (basically one as a backup source) for a couple frogs!


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

If you are in a pinch, you can try collecting some of the larvae out of your cultures. Some frogs will take those and if they do, then you can feed the flies you do have to some of your other frogs. 

Also, if your new cultures do have larvae developing, then you can go ahead and feed your frogs the flies out of the new cultures.

Finally, never a good idea to see how long they can go without. Put out a thread asking for help. Make sure and state where you are. If you're lucky, perhaps someone in your area can trade you a well producing culture for one of your new ones.
Doug


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## froggiesrule (Oct 8, 2010)

Also, 
I forgot to mention to have other feeders like lesser waxworms, rice flour beetles, bean beetles, etc.


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

You can feed off from your other 5 cultures while the rest boom. You don't really need 10 cultures for a couple of frogs.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

froggiesrule said:


> Also,
> I forgot to mention to have other feeders like lesser waxworms, rice flour beetles, bean beetles, etc.


 
If you have other food sources then you don't have to worry about not feeding the frogs but well fed frogs can easily go without any feedings for a week without any harm... 

Ed


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## DendroMan420 (Jul 6, 2010)

I made 10 cultures because i want to be set with fruit flies for a while, im also gonna start selling cultures. Thanks for the info, i tried feeding larvae to them before and they didnt notice them, ill just feed them the rest of the fruit flies and i should have thousands soon. I have 3 dart frogs at the moment but ill be buying more at the next expo so i want to start making alot of cultures.


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## illinoisfrogs (Apr 16, 2010)

DendroMan420 said:


> I made 10 cultures because i want to be set with fruit flies for a while, im also gonna start selling cultures. Thanks for the info, i tried feeding larvae to them before and they didnt notice them, ill just feed them the rest of the fruit flies and i should have thousands soon. I have 3 dart frogs at the moment but ill be buying more at the next expo so i want to start making alot of cultures.


ok......thanks for the clarification! Yeah, it's amazing how many more you need once you aquire more frogs....I have recently metamorphosed frogs (adding about 25 more to the collection so far), and I'm feeding them flies as fast as they can produce!


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## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

How many adults seeded the new cultures? I generally like to toss in around 50-100 adults and my cultures start poppin around 5 days.


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## illinoisfrogs (Apr 16, 2010)

you must keep them awful warm, mine take from 8-10, depending on the time of year (room temp varies), but never 5......what temp are they kept at?


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## fleshfrombone (Jun 15, 2008)

I keep them up high at around 78 degrees.


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## davecalk (Dec 17, 2008)

DendroMan420 said:


> I made 10 cultures because i want to be set with fruit flies for a while, im also gonna start selling cultures. Thanks for the info, i tried feeding larvae to them before and they didnt notice them, ill just feed them the rest of the fruit flies and i should have thousands soon. I have 3 dart frogs at the moment but ill be buying more at the next expo so i want to start making alot of cultures.


DendroMan420 this confused me just a tad. You are new to frogs and new to making fruit fly cultures, but you are planning on selling cultures? I am not wishing to be negative here, but the last thing on your mind should be the thought of trying to sell cultures or frogs. Spend most of your time trying to learn about your frogs and their needs. After you have their care down cold, after you get to the stage where you can make a culture up in your sleep, only then should you be thinking about making money on breeding frogs or flies. Please focus on the important things, your frogs and their care. You will being doing yourself, your frogs, and your future customers a favor. Welcome to the board and the wonderful world of darts. It is good to have you here.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

fleshfrombone said:


> How many adults seeded the new cultures? I generally like to toss in around 50-100 adults and my cultures start poppin around 5 days.


 
5 Days is not only temperature related but genetic.. these flies are very intolerant of culture conditions after the first emergence. In addition, the rapid growth can result in a fly which does not contain the maximal amount of nutrients. 

see for example http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/42419-genetics-ff-culturing.html

Ed


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## DendroMan420 (Jul 6, 2010)

davecalk said:


> DendroMan420 this confused me just a tad. You are new to frogs and new to making fruit fly cultures, but you are planning on selling cultures? I am not wishing to be negative here, but the last thing on your mind should be the thought of trying to sell cultures or frogs. Spend most of your time trying to learn about your frogs and their needs. After you have their care down cold, after you get to the stage where you can make a culture up in your sleep, only then should you be thinking about making money on breeding frogs or flies. Please focus on the important things, your frogs and their care. You will being doing yourself, your frogs, and your future customers a favor. Welcome to the board and the wonderful world of darts. It is good to have you here.


I think you misunderstood me im not new to frogs or cultures, ive been keeping reptiles and amphibians for 8 years n ive kept other species before like red eyes and other tree frogs. I got my first dart frogs about a year ago and there doing great in their vivarium. The only problem i have with keeping them are fruit flies and thats an issue because theres not many places that sell fruit flies in my area. Theres a pet store that sells cultures but it takes a week or 2 for them to order and another place only sells flying fruitflies which i cant use. Ive been making my own cultures and media for a couple of months now and its going great, they produce alot of fruitflies and the cultures last for a while. I know im gonna be getting more dart frogs so i want to make a lot of cultures so im never out of fruit flies and if i have extra cultures then i can sell them.
Thanks for the help though once the cultures are ready then ill be set. Im seeing a lot of larvae in all cultures but i just want to know, how long does it take for a larvae to become a fruitfly?


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## verybadcow (Aug 6, 2010)

froggiesrule said:


> Depends on temp. If you keep yours at 68 F, it will be "D. melanogaster takes roughly two weeks (depending on temperature that cultures are kept at and medium used) to go from egg to maggot to adult fly, and the newly morphed flies can reproduce after 24 hours. D. hydei develops slower and takes roughly one month to go through its life cycle."


pretty much sums it up. About 2wks for melans and about a month for hydei, atleast with my situation.


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## illinoisfrogs (Apr 16, 2010)

it takes mine around 10 days this time of year. In the summer, when it's warmer, they come out in 8 or 9, from the time you set up the culture, to the time it's exploding with flies.


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## salix (Mar 28, 2008)

I keep my cultures of melano on a shelf above my light fixtures, near the ceiling in my frog room. I find my cultures are booming at day 11 from when they are started.

Deb


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