# How often do you get new bloodline of fruit flies?



## Frogsarefun (Nov 25, 2015)

Just wondering if there is a "rule of thumb", as to how often to bring in new ff?
Mine are 9 months old and still producing well, however some cultures have smaller flies.

Thanks


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## k5MOW (Jun 19, 2015)

Good question look forward to the replies.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

NEVER for me.


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## mwallrath (Mar 8, 2013)

I try to use flies from multiple cultures on hand when setting up new ones to try and boost the genetic mix. Never really sure how much a benefit this is, but figured it could not hurt.


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## erik s (Apr 12, 2010)

gary1218 said:


> NEVER for me.


Years for me!!!


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## MasterOogway (Mar 22, 2011)

mwallrath said:


> I try to use flies from multiple cultures on hand when setting up new ones to try and boost the genetic mix. Never really sure how much a benefit this is, but figured it could not hurt.


I do this too, but probably only every 3rd or 4th time I'm making cultures. Again, no evidence to support that it's actually a benefit, but who knows. Should see if there's a paper out there for it...


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## bsr8129 (Sep 23, 2010)

whenever i have a crash and have to get new ones, several years in-between.


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## FrogTim (Oct 1, 2015)

If you are getting small flies make sure you are starting new cultures with flies from your first production 'boom'.

Older cultures produce smaller flies and if you start new cultures with these you are more likely to get smaller flies.

Before getting new cultures you can try seeding new ones with flies from your quick producing cultures with normal sized flies. If you keep getting low production or smaller flies, it may be time for a new culture.


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

FrogTim said:


> If you are getting small flies make sure you are starting new cultures with flies from your first production 'boom'.
> 
> Older cultures produce smaller flies and if you start new cultures with these you are more likely to get smaller flies.
> 
> Before getting new cultures you can try seeding new ones with flies from your quick producing cultures with normal sized flies. If you keep getting low production or smaller flies, it may be time for a new culture.


This needs to be dissected a bit. Size of the fly is generally correlated to available food for the larvae. So, while older cultures do generally produce smaller flies... it is because there is less food available. Using smaller flies to seed new cultures will not result in smaller flies from the initial boom of the new culture, they should be all normal sized (unless there is something else going on).

Also, you do not want to always start cultures from your first production boom. You want to vary the ages of the flies so as to not start artificially selecting for flies/larvae that boom fast and then are intolerant of conditions of older cultures.


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## Frogsarefun (Nov 25, 2015)

Thanks everyone.
Great information!
So glad to hear that many go for years.
I also think the cooler months have slowed my production a bit.


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## ZookeeperDoug (Jun 5, 2011)

carola1155 said:


> Also, you do not want to always start cultures from your first production boom. You want to vary the ages of the flies so as to not start artificially selecting for flies/larvae that boom fast and then are intolerant of conditions of older cultures.


Glad you mentioned this, I also vary my media usage as well. I use Repashy and Genesis exotics media, alternating one then the other each cycle to avoid selecting for flies that only thrive on one media type. Stricky anecdotally speaking, I've noticed better and more consistent results in terms of culture longevity, media usage, boom, etc. I'm not exactly conducting a scientific study though.


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## srrrio (May 12, 2007)

I don't remember getting any new melanogaster over the last 9 years or so. I've making new cultures from several cultures at different ages for most of that time. 

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/131801-ed-right-fly-cultures-stuck.html


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## FrogTim (Oct 1, 2015)

carola1155 said:


> This needs to be dissected a bit. Size of the fly is generally correlated to available food for the larvae. So, while older cultures do generally produce smaller flies... it is because there is less food available. Using smaller flies to seed new cultures will not result in smaller flies from the initial boom of the new culture, they should be all normal sized (unless there is something else going on).
> 
> Also, you do not want to always start cultures from your first production boom. You want to vary the ages of the flies so as to not start artificially selecting for flies/larvae that boom fast and then are intolerant of conditions of older cultures.


This is interesting info and makes sense. I was taught how to culture flies from biologists who focus on maximizing quantity and genetic health of flies since they produce them for genetic and biological experiments. They don't start cultures with older or smaller flies because they are "less robust". I brought up the issue of different fly ages to which they responded that after the first production "boom" and henceforth there will be flies of all ages in the culture. I didn't ask them about media or lifespan of cultures however. I understand they are culturing flies for a different purpose than ours, but their goals are similar and they sometimes keep cultures going for much longer than we do (4 generations).

I only keep my cultures for a month so they only produce up until I throw them out. I haven't had any issues but will keep your advice in mind.


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

I also mix from multiple cultures when starting a new batch. My flies have been going for at least two years from the original batch I got from another local frogger.


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## Yaki (Jan 15, 2012)

I bought a vital of melos from Petsmart about 3 months ago and have 13 cups going from the original vile. 
Not including the cups I destroyed since I couldn't use all of them.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

Ed just posted a link to this in another thread... it is probably helpful here too.

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


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## spinycheek (Jan 26, 2010)

I've never had to mix in new genetics. I usually make 3 cultures per cycle so I have around 9 going at a time (3 new, 3 mid-aged and 3 old). When making new cultures, I sprinkle in flies from each of the mid-aged cultures in case one culture started to "evolve", it evens it back out. I really like the strain I have, less jumpy and more plump than others I've seen at stores, so I want to maintain it exactly as is. Been doing this for about 10 years with the same strain with only 5 cultures needing to get tossed in all that time, so I'm pretty confident it works and genetics isn't much of an issue.


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## FrogTim (Oct 1, 2015)

How long do you guys let your cultures "go"? And what constitutes a new culture vs old in age? 

I always seed a new culture within a week of my first big boom. 

I usually throw out cultures after one calendar month. Production doesn't really taper off but the cultures start looking nasty. Is this a waste?


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

I think one month is the general consensus on longevity of a culture.


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## slimninj4 (Dec 31, 2013)

My collection smaller than most, 4 tanks. I was going on a year then had a crash, then another, and a third. Was getting Petco flies for a bit and they are going strong now for 4 months. I do switch media from Joshs/NEHerp. I keep 6-8 cultures at a time. making 2 new every week and trashing the oldest.


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

FrogTim said:


> How long do you guys let your cultures "go"? And what constitutes a new culture vs old in age?
> 
> I always seed a new culture within a week of my first big boom.
> 
> I usually throw out cultures after one calendar month. Production doesn't really taper off but the cultures start looking nasty. Is this a waste?



28 Days for me... though I usually separate and hang on to my hydei for a few more days

A write-up of my method is below... I still follow pretty much this exact routine. Only differences is that I've just switched to DE instead of mite spray and I now culture hydei in addition to the melanogastor. 2 cultures of each feeds ~45 adult frogs and anywhere from 20-40 froglets usually.

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/beginner-discussion/157274-toms-fly-culturing-routine-storage.html


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## TheCoop (Oct 24, 2012)

I was culturing Hydei in the mid 90's due to my expanding population of baby Veileds as well as Carpets, at that time i was producing 6-700+ offspring a year. I would post some up on Kingsnake as well as the sadly missed yahoo groups when i had excess, i was contacted multiple time by Fruit fly producing company's asking me to mail them fly's bare with no media. I now wonder why they were doing this.

I refused due to not understanding postal regulations in regards to them at the time! Oh the memories!


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