# Giant Fruit Flies!



## Rick (Apr 10, 2009)

Hello, i have two cultures that i keep on my desk and they both get some sunlight from the window and i have heard that it is important for them to get this so they can produce...something that is very nutritious for the frogs. Well...one culture gets more light than the other and i noticed the one that gets more light has giant fruit flies compared to the other ones. The fruit flies are wingless melongaster. So whats up with this? Anyone know exactly whats going on here?


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

just a side note, light is not a requirement for fruit flies to reproduce well, can you post pics of both cultures?


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## batrachiophyle (May 7, 2009)

sounds like you may have a _D. hydei_ culture, OR one of your _D. melanogaster_ cultures has unwanted company, lol.

i agree, pictures will tell the whole story here.


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## Trey (Sep 10, 2008)

I have two lines of melanogaster that vary greatly in size. I dont know exactly what caused it, but when i noticed that the flies in one culture were larger than the flies in another, I started culturing them seperately and they seem to breed true. Pretty neat.


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## Rick (Apr 10, 2009)

Well the older culture is wingless melongaster which i took flies out of to start the new culture which has the giant flies so i know they are still melongaster. The only variable between the two is the age and the different lighting conditions. I tried to get a picture but you cant tell a difference between the two cultures.


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## DCreptiles (Jan 26, 2009)

lol almost all my cultures get zero sunlight they sit on my rack some on the top and some on the very bottom and they produce heavy.


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## Dragonfly (Dec 5, 2007)

Rick said:


> Well the older culture is wingless melongaster which i took flies out of to start the new culture which has the giant flies so i know they are still melongaster. The only variable between the two is the age and the different lighting conditions. I tried to get a picture but you cant tell a difference between the two cultures.




You actually have your answer in the above: "age". After you have raised your own cultures for a while you will notice if you try to stretch this out that the flies in the later stages of the culture are significantly smaller. The difference can be extremely dramatic. 

Its always better to keep the cultures in production so you don't have to stretch them out and to avoid mites. 

The other thing you should note is that the ff's from the older cultures are from larva which had the least amount of media to feed on.


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## pl259 (Feb 27, 2006)

I've kept my FFs in a dark closet for quite a while now, but I'm considering changing to a lighted setup based on this post from Ed...



> keeping flies in the dark interferes with the ability of the flies to convert carotenoids to retinyl... this is one of the nutrients that seems to be in greater demand in the frogs..
> 
> Ed


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## Mac (Aug 14, 2007)

Dragonfly said:


> The other thing you should note is that the ff's from the older cultures are from larva which had the least amount of media to feed on.


I dont see how this would make a very big difference. Even if there is more media to feed on, unless there is none left, then whats the difference?

Basiclly what im saying is, whats the difference in having enough media, and more than enough? Either way they eat the same amount.


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## Dragonfly (Dec 5, 2007)

The media toward the end of a cultures anticipated lifespan is actually less than you would normally think - when you look at the media in the bottom of a culture (unless you used an excessively huge amount of media) you are going to find media mixed with a higher portion of fly waste, both from the living and including the dead, plus any other trash from age aged culture. When you get byond the expected lifecycle of a month, you can still have good production. It is sometimes the far end of the age which is the age effect. Then too, it may also have to do with which group of the hatches you used to start the new culture versus the group and its age to start another culture. The only time I have ever noticed a real size difference in the melanos or even the hydei is when I let the culture sit beyond reason. And the ultra small I have had are the ones from an ancient culture or 2 that I hadn't tossed out. 

If the newer culture is producing flies that are larger than normal melanos - moving toward the hydei range, this could be a different issue. But light shouldn't make a culture produce flies larger than normal.


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## Dartfan83 (Dec 30, 2008)

on a side note, if you breed thumbs or pums you should always keep the old cultures. tiny froglets love those stunted melanos


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## Rick (Apr 10, 2009)

So they are smaller because their older...ok thanks!


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

Rick
I think you got your answer...

But I'd like to add a pearl if I may. When making a new culture try and use ff's that are only a week or so from the hatch/boom, when the biggest ones have hatched.

Starting cx's with bigger ff's usually leads to more productive cx's and bigger, 'healthier' ff's in general.

Try and avoid waiting until the ff's are smaller.

Different media, and different temps seem to influence this also, but I have not observed a size difference based upon light....although the sunlight may be warming your cultures !


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## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

Exactly what I was going to point out ... well done. 

s


Dartfan83 said:


> on a side note, if you breed thumbs or pums you should always keep the old cultures. tiny froglets love those stunted melanos


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