# Need a new feeder.



## nish07 (Mar 16, 2008)

Which one and why?

I currently have an incubator setup that stays at a constant 78-80 degrees in temp with room for either of the two choices above. I've heard the pros of greater waxmoth larvae but rice flour beetle larvae look good too. I need something that won't take up 'too' much space and be relatively easy to manage.

-Nish


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## afterdark (Jan 16, 2007)

I voted other and my suggestion would be bean weevils. They honestly couldn't be any easier to culture. Dry beans + 20 or so weevils + one month = a ton of feeders. You can just top the cultures with new beans and you're good to go!

Here's a link to recent discussion on them: http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/34005-weevil-feeding-day-pic-heavy.html


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## nish07 (Mar 16, 2008)

Hey Afterdark,

Thanks for the response but no more voting for bean weevils please. I have them and culture them. You're right they're the easiest thing to culture but I need something for smaller frogs.

-Nish



afterdark said:


> I voted other and my suggestion would be bean weevils. They honestly couldn't be any easier to culture. Dry beans + 20 or so weevils + one month = a ton of feeders. You can just top the cultures with new beans and you're good to go!
> 
> Here's a link to recent discussion on them: http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/34005-weevil-feeding-day-pic-heavy.html


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

RFB larvae are a chore to harvest in my opinion- sifting through the flour media, discarding exoskeletons, etc. 

What species are you trying to supplement feed?


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## wimpy (Dec 14, 2006)

I agree with Jason, CFB are a pain to separate and not worth what little trouble they are to culture. I keep three cultures going and I always tell myself that I'm going to chuck them out but I never do. I haven't fed out of them in a couple of years. I just keep adding flour and they keep going. If you want them Nish, you can have them at the next meeting. Let me know.


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

By the way, I'm not trying to discourage you from culturing RFB, just offering up real-world experience in culturing them. They are very easy to culture, but potentially difficult to harvest effectively. As only the larvae are accepted by PDFs in my experience, the trick is figuring out the generation time under your conditions to get more or less 'pure' cultures that only have larvae and not pupae, exoskeletons or adults. Ed has written on this a couple of times in the past here on the forum, I'll see if I can dig up the old thread- or perhaps he'll chime in here.

Ultimately, you need to have several containers of RFB cultures going at the same time, in different stages of development ( I use 3). Once you figure it out according to your culturing conditions, it's simply a matter of adjusting the transfer to different containers.


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## nish07 (Mar 16, 2008)

I have mostly thumbs. I have a couple larger dendrobates that I feed hydeis and melanos to. I also have the bean weevils but my leucs don't like them. My auratus are still juvenile but scarf down hydeis where the leucs would balk at them during that stage of development. They might eat them but I'm holding off for a few till they're larger. 

I have a lot of pumilio and some lamasi and variabilis on the way so I want something outside of flies that will help them put on weight and at the same time give them more nutritional diversity. For a while I was keeping fruit at feeding stations which would produce larvae. This seemed to work but I worry about getting them their vits if they've stuffed themselves on ff larva and won't eat the dusted food I throw in the tank before they groom the dust off.


-Nish

P.S. How do I go about getting an escudo to stop eating springs and start eating melanos. I'm afraid to move him to an area without springs but I need to make sure he's eating his flies. His color is very drab so he's not getting naturose and every time I see him he's picking up springs while old ffs are running everywhere.


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Do you have white woodlice yet?

As for the escudo, put it in a heavily seeded (springtails and white woodlice) tank, preferably a large (10 gallons or more per frog).
Feed end of culture melagonaster (they are smaller towards the end of a culture's usefulness, and in many cases, the culture is also producing mites by then).
If the frog(s) don't eat the flies, consider it feeding the tank, more specificly, the microfauna, which in turn feeds the frog.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

I'm going to be honest-- I'm not impressed with bean weevils. They seem hard for my frogs to eat. They always make a funny face when trying to swallow. My mantellas can consume a ton of roach nymphs before they can down a single weevil.

Rice flour larvae are still a good food IMO, but most goes to waste because they don't move enough to stimulate attention. I really only use them for tincs as they're the only frog I have that will not let most of it go to waste.

I have rice flour larvae, bean weevils, roaches, springtails, and greater waxworms. Remember Nish, I have also used lesser waxworms. 

Hands down, greater waxworms are a better choice than bean weevils or rice flour larvae. While my adult mantellas aren't interested in them, my baby mantellas eat those more readily than the bean weevils.

The only catch is that they eventually grow to a size to where you can't use them for thumbs. But if you're planning on Amereega, Phyllobates, or E. anthonyi, it's one of the best foods you can offer them.


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## flyingkip (Jan 9, 2005)

Here in europe we have pea aphids & bean aphids.
They aren't that hard to culture onces you manage to create a steady supply of pea/bean plants.

It's just a matter of having a good timetable of setting up new plants each week. 

THey are excellent food and the frogs love it. Some people even claim that it has a enormous effect on the eggs and froglets from all kind of species.

Any of you guys culturing these?

grtz,
Thomas


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## Kevin1234 (Oct 12, 2008)

I vote for termite culturing and mealworms  Mealworms are a piece of cake and very easy. Termites are nice but I think they are slow....but good one just to set and forget. 

I choose these because I have a skinny pumilio that refuses to eat fruit flies.... and these 2 food sources are what he is eating. 

Superworms to but there a bit more involved....and they seem to squiggle faster than the mealys 


Kevin


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

While I don't culture them there are people in the US that do culture the pea aphids for use. I think there is a care sheet in the frognet archives on how to do it for those who are interested. 

Ed


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## Bcs TX (Sep 13, 2008)

What about Hydei maggots? My juvie auratus love them, I ran out of excelsior and used brown cone coffee filters which just melted and had a ton of them on the sides of the container, I just scraped them off with a throw away plastic knife and scraped them into a milk cap.\

My mother really thinks I am gross.


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## frograck (May 1, 2005)

I voted for greater wax moths.
They are as easy to culture as a RFB. With Both you just add adults to a container of media and wait. 
They are also both difficult to harvest, but I find RFB slightly more frustrating to harvest. 
In my experience (mantellas) the RFB larvae do not move enough to get eaten, but the waxmoth larvae squirm and crawl like crazy. My adult mantella love them(waxworms). My adult goldens will eat waxworms almost 1cm long!! But I try to offer smaller ones.

It helps if you have a larger herp (I have crested geckos) to feed out the larvae that get large to. 

I'm not sure if waxworms are worth it as a thumbnail food though. It is tough to harvest small enough ones. 

Dwarf tropical woodlice FTW!!!


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