# PUMILIO FOOD EMERGENCY!



## mbrutger (May 23, 2004)

HELP! ALL my cultures have crashed! There is some sort of fungus in them. My pumilio are already looking a little skinny (they crashed two days ago and i thought my order of fruitflies was going to be comming today, but they didn't) My order of ffs may possibly be here Monday and the local Petsmart MAY be getting some in on Monday. What do i do?


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

Pinheads? If not, go get a thin screened net. Go to a local feild and just run it through the grass over and over, but make sure they don't use pesticides there. You might not find a whole lot since it's winter but you might get something. Also, put something in the wanted section saying where you live and if anyone lives near you if you can get some bugs.

Jordan


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## mbrutger (May 23, 2004)

In MN? I don't think i'll be able to find many bugs considering we have about a foot of snow (That's all we've gotten so far this year!) I managed to get a hold of a *small* thing of springtails, and they ate them readily, so maybe they'll be ok. How long can they go without food?


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

...I don't think sweepings will get you much up here...last week we barely had high temps above zero.

I don't know where in minnesota you are, but twin cities reptile and leaping lizards in the twin cities regularly carry pinheads.

Try calling them, and see what they've got, every now and then they have flys at twin cities reptile as well.

In the future I would recomend having some springtails and or flour beetle cultures going...the flour beetles are the perfect standby for this type of situation...set them up, and if you don't want to deal with them, just leave them there, when you need them they will be there.


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

You can get bugs by sweeping in the winter. Some insects overwinter just in the leaf litter and spiders become active at the slightest warming. Last week I watched a spider crawling across the snow in Montana. You won't get much, but probably will get something. The killer is snow because it prevents you from sweeping down into the grass litter. But if you can get to a field with no snow, sweep a lot and then bring it inside to warm up. You will probably get at least a few things crawling around.

Another thing you can do, provided you can find some soil that isn't frozen, is to put a bunch of loamy soil in a burlese funnel and collect the soil arthropods from within. Again, you won't get too much in the winter but the soil bugs are affected by cold less than the above ground stuff. Good luck!

One last thought. Do you have a school or university nearby that might have some ff or rice flour beetles in a science lab? They are usually very happy to give a few away.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

You may also be able to find some smaller meal worms local too. Call some local pet stores.


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2005)

Wow, I guess I wasn't thinking about insects out in the winter I have done quite a bit of winter trout fishing here in Iowa and on nice days,(when the temps are above 32) I have watched midges hatching and bet one could catch them in a sweep net very easily.They are a tiny species of insect similar to mosquitoes and if conditons are right they can be in swarms in the winter with a slight warmup.
Good luck and I hope you figure out why the cultures crashed and learn from it.I'm not wanting to be a hard [email protected]# but one has to have control over their food supply and have backups.
Mark W.


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

Mark Wilson said:


> Wow, I guess I wasn't thinking about insects out in the winter  Mark W.


Well I'm not saying we could fatten our frogs up on winter meadow sweeps but in a crisis you will probably be able to get something for them to eat. Yet another thing to try is to bring in some chunks of rotting wood from a forest and let them warm up. Things will probably start crawling. I learned to appreciate how bugs handle the cold as a poor undergrad research grunt. I helped collect sweep net samples in the summer and we would throw them in the freezer until I had time to sort and ID them in the winter. After several months in the freezer, it wasn't uncommon for some of the critters to start crawling across the sorting tray after they warmed up.


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## *GREASER* (Apr 11, 2004)

Im a trout fisherman my self and now that Mr. Wilson brings it up Midges would be awsome! Ill have to bring my field sweeping net with me next time and a jar.


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## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

mbrutger said:


> In MN? I don't think i'll be able to find many bugs considering we have about a foot of snow (That's all we've gotten so far this year!) I managed to get a hold of a *small* thing of springtails, and they ate them readily, so maybe they'll be ok. How long can they go without food?


Frogs can go quite a long time without food. There are frogs that hibernate or estivate for months at a time. People forget that they are ectothermic, so they don't have to waste energy on keeping a constant body temperature. Many captive darts get fat if fed all they want to eat every day. My azureus were starting to look like little butterballs before I changed the feeding schedule. I generally feed my darts every other day or every three days. When I do feed them, there's lots of flies. That way they really hunt down the food that escaped the first feeding instead of just sitting and waiting for more.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Careful with that though as the some do not hunt as much as you may think, so it maybe better to have food always around.



Arklier said:


> mbrutger said:
> 
> 
> > In MN? I don't think i'll be able to find many bugs considering we have about a foot of snow (That's all we've gotten so far this year!) I managed to get a hold of a *small* thing of springtails, and they ate them readily, so maybe they'll be ok. How long can they go without food?
> ...


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## JWerner (Feb 17, 2004)

Insect supply company - Eds and USPS Express Mail. You'd have them the next day.


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

JWerner said:


> Insect supply company - Eds and USPS Express Mail. You'd have them the next day.


That's true for about 4 days of the week...If I remember correctly, he posted this on a saturday, he was expecting his order of flies on friday, but didn't get them. In most cases, even if he had placed his order elsewhere on friday, after figuring out the delivery wouldn't show (late in the day), he still would't have them till monday anyways. (without having to pay an arm and a leg)

So Matt, were the FF's still alive when you got them?


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## JWerner (Feb 17, 2004)

He is going to have a better chance at getting something in the mail than going outside int he snow. Paying an arm and a leg at one point or another is something all dart owners should be prepared to do. Spending $50.00 on a couple of cultures to be delivered the next day is a drop in the bucket when you consider the cost of frogs, tanks, food, plants etc. Where there is a will there is a way and getting on the phone is the best way and you connect on a personal level rather than an impersonal Email.


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

...Very true (all of it)
So is there any hard data out there how long a typical pdf can survive relatively stress free (no real consequences) without food?
I know there are lots of variables here, such as how warm the tanks are, how well fed they usually are, how big the tank is (and how much micro-fauna it can support) etc.

I think I know my frogs pretty well, and I think (never have, or had to, skipped more than a day) most of mine could go for at least 4 days without feeding without consequences...I bet they could survive for quite a bit longer than that, (I try to keep a colony of springtails living in every viv) but would indeed be stressful...If not for the frogs...definatly for the keeper! :lol: 

I hope no one finds this as a personal attack, but I can't understand someone owning frogs worth over $100 bucks a piece and not having at least one backup food source.
Later,


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

Dancing frogs said:


> ...Very true (all of it)
> So is there any hard data out there how long a typical pdf can survive relatively stress free (no real consequences) without food?
> I know there are lots of variables here, such as how warm the tanks are, how well fed they usually are, how big the tank is (and how much micro-fauna it can support) etc.
> 
> ...


Assuming the frogs are well fed beforehand, most should be able to go a week without food in an emergency.

And yes, backup foods are a must. Springtails and rice flour beetles are so insanely easy to culture even when neglected that I think they should be kept on hand for such occassions even if you rarely use them.


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