# How many fruit fly cultures needed



## ocellaris123 (Jun 13, 2011)

Hello, 

I am new to dart frog keeping (been keeping reef aquariums and hosting cnidarians for the last 10 years), and am in the middle of planting my 4 ft 60 gallon vivarium, which will hopefully be home to either a pair of green and black auratus, pair of blue and black auratus, or a pair of azureus (haven't made up my mind which species I want; suggestions welcome). I have been researching fruit fly cultures, and was wondering how many cultures I will need to get going to just feed a pair of frogs. I am thinking two at any given time, one for feeding, and another for the new culture? Does this sound about right? 

Thanks for any help.


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## majorinsano (Feb 17, 2011)

Two should be fine for a pair. When I first got PDFs I was paranoid of running out of FFs and consistently made way too many cultures. With that said, make sure you have a back up supply if yours crash for unexpected reasons.


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## ocellaris123 (Jun 13, 2011)

Thanks for the reply, I don't want to make too many cultures since I only live in a one bedroom apartment. My local reptile store and petco usually have cultures in case I am desperate, but I will look into having three cultures at a time in case one decides to crash. I'm thinking three would be way too much for just a pair of frogs?


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## brod322 (May 27, 2011)

Yes with three you will probably have plenty left over. But u need to understand if/when you get mites they will spread to all cultures if kept in close proximity. They will eventually kill the production of flies. So you might want to keep them at different ends of your apartment


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## BYHGAB (Jun 13, 2011)

What do mites look like? How do the cultures become infested? How fast can they kill off a culture?


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## james67 (Jun 28, 2008)

3 cultures is a minimum IMO. it ensures that you'll have enough flies, even if one cx isnt producing properly. the key is to make more than you need and you wont find yourself asking around for more. the cultures at petco could easily be eaten in a single sitting by any of the frogs you suggested.

as far as mites go heres a generic picture of a few mites. (not necessarily the ones youll see in a FF culture but close)










james


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## brod322 (May 27, 2011)

Mites some how find there way into cultures and reproduce. The trick is to separate new and old cultures because the longer a culture is kept mites will develope. You have to produce cultures faster than the mites can reproduce. I try to keep mine no longer than 3 weeks.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Unless you are working with aseptic cultures, there are mites in your cultures. The key is to just manage them so they don't boom and affect production. The life cycle of the mite is closer to 30 days so the recommendation is to not keep cultures longer than 30 days. There are other things that can help like keeping them on mite paper. 

As a backup method to control mites I seperate newer cultures from older cultures. 

Ed


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## EvilLost (Jan 10, 2011)

as a beginner myself, i would recommend keeping 2 good size springtail cultures, esp if FF's can be hard to find on short notice in your area. the springs can't be dusted and won't work as permanent feeders, but they are virtually free to maintain and reproduce like crazy and can be fed in large amounts to the frogs in case of emergencies.


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## BYHGAB (Jun 13, 2011)

Are the mites a danger to frogs or plants in my viv?


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## ocellaris123 (Jun 13, 2011)

Thanks everyone for the great advice, will be setting up three cultures and will try to keep the new cultures away from the older ones. Will order the flies and springtails this week from joshsfrogs so I can get comfortable culturing before I get the frogs


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