# breeding Hydei



## chondro1 (Dec 5, 2005)

why do I have such small yields with Hydei?? I use carolina medium in 32 ounce cups and get very little production, but with the small flies i get thousands of flies. What gives??

Mike


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## Dunner97074 (Sep 19, 2004)

I don't know why your yields are low but with Hydei they take longer to produce. I have a boom and bust production of hydei (because I'm lazy and don't make cultures when I should).

I use my own recipe and have more than I could use I have 4 large tanks and over feed during the booming period.

1 very ripe banana
3-4 cups of oatmeal (cheapest brands)
1 cup apple sauce
3 tbsp powdered sugar
1/4-1/2 cup white vinegar
water to adjust consistency

Sprinkle baker's yeast on top (just a pinch)

I get production after 2-3wks and they last 3-4 weeks

I also use big plastic juice containers (recycling already used)

Hope this helps, try a few cultures this way and see if it works for ya. 
Mike


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

Hydei don't do as well on the Carolina mix straight as Mels do. You can play around with the ingredients until you get better production. Or you can try a mix especially made for Hydei.

Another option is to co-culture the Hyde with another line of flies. There are a couple of threads where success has been had with Melanogaster, and I have had really good success co-culturing with Buzzatti.


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

I am having the same problem with my Hydei and this is the second time I have heard that you need a special culture media. 
Does anyone out there have any more recipes for Hydei?

OZ,
What do you mean by co-culture?


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

By co-culture I mean to seed cultures when you start them with 2 species of flies (Hydei and Melanogaster or Buzzatti). The different species can't hybridize - so you will get both of them to grow. The larvae of the other species will keep the medium "mixed" before the hydei larvae start to grow. The net effect is often better hydei yields.

ED's Hydei mix works very well.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Co-culture is putting two species of flies in the same culture. The idea is that the earlier maturing flies will help get the media going so that when the hydei larva hatch, the media is already partly broken down and easy to consume. 

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that hydei prefer real fruit in their media. 

I've raised my hydei on pretty much any ingredient you can think of (for the past several years I haven't had a set media recipe, just what ever found its way into the blender when I made media) and the biggiest thing that has effected my production has been media consistancy and the age of the baker's yeast I use.


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## chondro1 (Dec 5, 2005)

thank you all so much for your replys, Dunner, I'm going to give your recipe a try. thanks again.

Mike


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## DartMan (Nov 29, 2005)

I have a VERY simple recipe AND it produces huge amounts of Hydei's for me!

I combine the following "Dry Goods" into a ZipLoc bag (this will yield you MANY cultures):

8 Cups Potatoe Flakes (store brand is fine) 
1 Cup Powdered Sugar (store brand is fine)
1/2 Cup Brewers Yeast (GNC - with or without Fiber is OK)
______________________________________

In a 32 oz. deli container add 2/3 cups of the Dry Mix above. (I use the plastice deli container tops with vented holes & white fabric)

Boil some Water (2-3 cups) in a pan.

Add 1/4 cup of the Boiled Water to the deli container with Dry Mix, mix thoroughly.

Add 1/4 cup of White Vinegar to deli container, mix thoroughly.

Continue to STIR and SLOWLY add additional hot water to obtain a "smooth & whippy" consistancy similar to real fluffy mashed potatoes.

Let COOL completely.

Add a "sprinkle" of the Dry Granule type Yeast on top (just a pinch).

Add 6-7 Coffee Filters (folded into a triangle/cone shape)

Add 30+/- Hydei FF's

It usually takes my cultures about 2 - 2 1/2 weeks to fully morph out, but it will produce strongly for 4-5 weeks.

Good luck Mike!


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

That is basically the same recipe we all use for FF. But when I use if for Hydei, they die overnight.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

I add grape juice concentrate (the frozen stuff) to my media, and a mushed banana when we have them, and have had great results. Ive started mixing D. hydei with melanogaster (about 30 hydei and 50 melanogaster) per starter culture, and noticed the hydei do even better. These cultures seem to produce about 2x more flies than normal!


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

Well, I think I am going to start spending my money on lottery tickets instead of Hydei. I think I'll have better luck!!! :lol: :lol:


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

Nobody has mention the temperature preferences of hydei. Hydei don't tolerate high temps very well. Try to keep the cultures below 80F and you have better luck. They are slow but should produce a pretty good yield.

Also, I did side by side comparisons of ED's hydei mix and their normal ff mix. Without actually counting flies, both performed equally well for me. Many years ago I did a similar comparison between ED's normal ff mix and the Carolina mix using melangastor. ED's won hands down. Approximately 3X the yield of the Carolina in my test.


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## luka80 (Jun 15, 2006)

I use very simple medium for hydei with great success:

banana + oatmeal + brewers yeast + sometimes little sugar + a few grains of baker`s yeast on the top (not too much!)

I put on the bottom of culture little oatmeal (to absorb moisture) and than add mixture (banana + oatmeal + brewers yeast + sometimes little sugar).

I try a lot of different mediums but this one is my favourite. On this medium i do not have problems with mold.


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

> banana + oatmeal + brewers yeast + sometimes little sugar + a few grains of baker`s yeast on the top (not too much!)


So where's the liquid? There is no moisture in this recipe other than the banana.


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## luka80 (Jun 15, 2006)

You do not need extra moisture. When you smash the banana you get a liquid medium. I add some oatmeal to medium to become more compact. If you add just smashed banana fruit flies will drown because medium will be too liquid.


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## dragonfrog (Feb 16, 2006)

I find that very hard to believe.
Most, if not all, of the recipes given here use at least 3/4 cups of water for every culture. Without enough moisture it will just dry up in one month.


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

It's a proven merhod you just have to have the ratio right or it fails like anything else. More bannanas than oats. There's quite a bit of liquid to a bannana and most of the liquid portion as it is consumed with the solids is excreted by the larvae.


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## Homer (Feb 15, 2004)

DartMan said:


> I have a VERY simple recipe AND it produces huge amounts of Hydei's for me!
> 
> I combine the following "Dry Goods" into a ZipLoc bag (this will yield you MANY cultures):
> 
> ...


I'll vouch for that method, except that I use ¾ cup of liquid to 1/3 cup of dry media. I currently use orange juice or grapefruit juice as the wet portion, mixing to the directions on the can. I try to get my liquid portion to about 80-100 degrees F, as that is optimal for baker's yeast production.

I also "proof the yeast" by adding all my bakers yeast (the amount you would add to all your cultures) to about 8 oz. of 90 degree water with a couple of teaspoons of sugar added. I mix this up, let it sit for 15 minutes (it will form a thick, foamy head somewhat like beer). Then, I pour all that liquid in my OJ or GFJ before mixing up the wet/dry portion. It seems to speed up my hydei production substantially. I used to wait 4 weeks before I got flies, and now I have some that produce as quickly as 2.5 weeks. 

I've never had trouble with production with hydei, but I also think that you need to be extra careful to ensure that you get your flies to start new cultures at the front end of the current culture's production curve. That seems to make a big difference for me—and adding plenty of flies (30 or so) to start a culture.


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