# Feeding Fruit Fly Larva



## Ira (Jan 17, 2007)

I have heard some people talk about feeding fruit fly larva, before they pupate. I would like to try this with a particualry finiky frog i have, but wanted to get some advice on how to isolate and feed the larva from a fruit fly culture before i actually attempt it. So, any suggestions on efficient ways to seperate the larva from the culture?


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## evolvstll (Feb 17, 2007)

I usually feed Hydei larva. As the larva are covering the sides I take a plastic spoon and put them in a petri dish to place in the tank. Most of my frogs are used to taking food items out of the petri dish like RFB's and spingtails.


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

There's no real easy way to do it. Only two ways I've of heard so far.
One way to do it is use a spoon and take a soft, larvea heavy portion and then use a strainer with a peice of fine nylon mesh (or something simlar) and rinse the media from the larvae.
The problem w/ this is it often ruins what could have been a productive culture for later use.
Or you can set up a culture well stocked w/ breeders let them do their work for about a week then start feeding the adults back out. Put the culture in a well warmed spot as soon as the begin venturing outside the media use a utinsil to carefully scrape them from the sides. 

The problem w/ this is you have to be really careful not to damage them.

Or in some cases cultures get such a boom that you can get a little lazy and just set the entire culture in the viv and due to the humidity and heat they will extract themselves. That's the only way I ever do it (usually inadvertantly) unless in a rare emergency.


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## Marty71 (Nov 9, 2006)

I've never really done this on purpose, but if you have a culture where the media is very moist the larvae will crawl up the sides and make their way onto the underside of the lid. When this happens I take that lid off, throw it in a tank with all the larvae, and replace it with a new lid. The frogs love it....


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Or you can set up several smaller cultures in addition to your normal ones (like in something the size of a baby food jar) and when they begin to produce larva place the entire small culture into the enclosure. Just tilt it so the frogs have easy access. 
Another benefit to doing this is that you can skip adding a piece of fruit to the tank to keep the adults down with the frogs. 

Ed


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

Ed said:


> Or you can set up several smaller cultures in addition to your normal ones (like in something the size of a baby food jar) and when they begin to produce larva place the entire small culture into the enclosure. Just tilt it so the frogs have easy access.
> Another benefit to doing this is that you can skip adding a piece of fruit to the tank to keep the adults down with the frogs.
> 
> Ed


It never ceases to amaze me how great minds think alike :lol: 

I use the small plastic deli cups a lot of us use to raise tads in. I cut a hole in the top and glued on a piece of the fine plastic needle point mesh, #14 I think. It's too fine for the FFs and/or larvae to crawl out of but it allows for a little air circulation. I put about a TBS of media in, a few FFs a wait a week.

I'm thinking of sprinkling in a little NatuRose powder for the tara imis  

I'll try a get a pic of the cup with mesh when I get home tonight from work.


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

There is a very easy way to culture and collect just FF larvae.

Instead of trying to scoop out medium from a deep-bottomed FF culture - I set up "larvae cultures" in 100mm petri dishes. I place about a tbs of medium in the petri dish, add the appropriate amount of water - and then dump in about 20-40 flies (I don't add any baker's yeast). The flies usually don't live too long - but long enough to breed and lay eggs. Then 5-7 days later - I take the dishes, and wash out the medium and larvae into a strainer. I wash the medium off of the larvae - and use a spoon to place them in the tanks. This method has worked great for me and is extremely easy.

A couple of mistakes you don't want to make (I have learned from experience):

1) Don't let the cultures go too long. As the larvae grow larger - they want to crawl up the sides - but there's not much room to crawl in the petri dish. If you forget about them - you will find a bunch of pupae on the sides of and all around your cultures.

2) When rinsing the medium off of the larvae - make sure it is lukewarm. A shot of hot water will quickly make waste of a whole cultures worth of larvae. I actually tend to rinse with cooler water, and then do a quick rinse with lukewarm-warm water to get them active before feeding.


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## Ira (Jan 17, 2007)

thanks for the tips guys, i will try some of these out.


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

I do the petri dish method but just throw it inside the viv when ready. Thanks for the tips Oz, I'll have to try washing the media off them next!


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## Peter Keane (Jun 11, 2005)

I only feed hydei larvae out to my growing tincs and phyllobates.. I do this by putting a culture in which I am intending to just harvest the larvae very little medium 1/8" tops when the hydei lay the eggs in the culture and I can see visible tracks from the larvae and they seem to congregate in one spot .. I then introduce that culture to a little heat by placing them over a light I then throw in some pre split straws and up the straws they climb and in a day or three I have so much larvae on these straws I just toss a few of these in each of the frogs vivs and before the straw hits the ground these frogs are all over this... this works for about a week .. once the larvae start to pupate on the sides of the container I let them hatch for my next batch... Peter Keane


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