# Here Is My FF Culturing Method...



## jbherpin (Oct 16, 2009)

This is an expansion on a previous thread:

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/be...h-ff-culture-mix-have-before-adding-them.html

And here is a fresh culture awaiting flies(In about 2 secs  )! The other is the producing culture. The downside of TP rolls is that they break down fast(with Hydei only, melanogaster do not take the same toll on the rolls). I will add banana peel scraps, and another piece of TP when it is becoming "logged". 

JBear
















JBear


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Becareful adding banana peel scraps as they can have wild fruitfly eggs on them and it only takes one winged fly to develop in a culture to really screw it up. 

Ed


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## Neontra (Aug 16, 2011)

Ed said:


> Becareful adding banana peel scraps as they can have wild fruitfly eggs on them and it only takes one winged fly to develop in a culture to really screw it up.
> 
> Ed


If a few winged FFs get into a culture is it a problem? In one of my older cultures that at first wasn't sealed correctly, a few winged FFs got in, i've been trying my best to get rid of them during feeding, and my frog has eaten a few of them.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Neontra said:


> If a few winged FFs get into a culture is it a problem? In one of my older cultures that at first wasn't sealed correctly, a few winged FFs got in, i've been trying my best to get rid of them during feeding, and my frog has eaten a few of them.


I believe it would be undesirable. The wingless/flightless phenotype is a recessive one, so if they mated with any of your cultured FFs you'd get a bunch of fliers.


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## ConFuCiuZ (Jul 13, 2011)

Also, the wrong temperature will contribute to the birth of fliers in your cultures. I had a couple of cultures that had bunch of fliers due to warm temps


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

ConFuCiuZ said:


> Also, the wrong temperature will contribute to the birth of fliers in your cultures. I had a couple of cultures that had bunch of fliers due to warm temps


This I'm not too sure about. I believe that the mutations that cause the wingless and flightless mutations are deletion mutations, and if so a change in temperature would not rescue the phenotype. In this scenario I think that you might have gotten some sort of cross-contamination with the wild type flies.


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## ConFuCiuZ (Jul 13, 2011)

hypostatic said:


> This I'm not too sure about. I believe that the mutations that cause the wingless and flightless mutations are deletion mutations, and if so a change in temperature would not rescue the phenotype. In this scenario I think that you might have gotten some sort of cross-contamination with the wild type flies.





> Im gonna explain this three ways because ive found that its a hard subject to explain to nonbiology majors...
> 
> The protein isnt formed in the right configuration for wing use due to a defective gene in the flightless flies. However, that protein forms correctly at higher temperatures, allowing them to fly. The fliers produced from this circumstance are still genetically flightless, so any offspring they produce with other genetically flightless flies would result in flightless flies if their flight proteins are manufactured in lower temps. The wingless fruit flies dont have wings, so that flightless protein mutation doesnt affect them either way. Breaking/fixing the motor of an airplane doesnt matter if the airplane has no wings.
> 
> ...


 by Okapi

Also,
http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/57128-flying-flightless-flies.html


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## ConFuCiuZ (Jul 13, 2011)

It is a possibility. 



> Potential sources of infection include but are not limited to
> 1) a flier getting into the culture
> 2) a flier breeding through the lid or laying eggs into the culture through the lid
> 3) if fruit is used as a media additive, eggs or larva can get into the culture that way. ...
> ...


Source:http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/beginner-discussion/53118-flying-fruit-flys.html


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

If you have fliers in the cultures and the cultures were not exposed to excessively high temperatures, then unless you can individually select the new flies for the next cultures you have to toss the culture as you won't be able to eliminate the fliers. Otherwise you have to deal with having flighted flies through the house. 

Ed


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

I stand corrected then. I also wasn't aware that there were 4 different types of mutants used in the hobby: Frog Forum - Fruit Fly Culturing, Care and Feeding - Everything you need to know about Drosophila

So yeah, it seems that the vestigial mutant is indeed temperature sensitive according to the link. I have wingless flies, and the temperature where they are cultured has risen above 81F several times, and this was not rescued the phenotype of the developing flies.

I'm still pretty sure that the wingless phenotype is caused by a change in the wg gene (although it might not be a deletion as I thought before). I have not found evidence that the wingless phenotype is rescued by temperature, even though the vestigial or flightless mutation is:
Interactive Fly, Drosophila
Interactive Fly, Drosophila


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## ConFuCiuZ (Jul 13, 2011)

Ed said:


> If you have fliers in the cultures and the cultures were not exposed to excessively high temperatures, then unless you can individually select the new flies for the next cultures you have to toss the culture as you won't be able to eliminate the fliers. Otherwise you have to deal with having flighted flies through the house.
> 
> Ed


Yes, it definitively sucks when you open a culture and flies fly out. When i got my fliers, i had them in my closet. I believed that the temp significantly rose;therefore, introducing fliers. I cant seem to have any other reason for my cultures to have fliers.


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## Neontra (Aug 16, 2011)

Ed said:


> If you have fliers in the cultures and the cultures were not exposed to excessively high temperatures, then unless you can individually select the new flies for the next cultures you have to toss the culture as you won't be able to eliminate the fliers. Otherwise you have to deal with having flighted flies through the house.
> 
> Ed


When I started a new culture, I did a incredible job at picking only my melos. Trying my best not to let any fliers out, but I do have a few around the house. I wouldn't say my cultures have been exposed to temps above 78, except for when they were in my drawer. The temps sometimes hit about 82f in there.
What happened is I used one of those deli cups usually used for transporting frogs, so smaller than the usual cup, and it was going to be a backup. I poked to big of a hole(s) in the top, so I covered it in paper towel, but still wasn't sealed. About 50 fliers got in before I could fix the issue, and starting breeding. When I go to feed and when I started my new culture was I put the flies in a glass. I let the ones that flew/jumped high fly away, and inspected for any more. I flicked the remaining fliers out. Seems to be doing good, but are some FFs flying around the house. Also, that's very interesting that if exposed to high temps, they could develop wings in the maggot stage.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Unless you were able to pick out females that have not mated then you cannot be sure that you have removed the fliers.. 
You need to only use unmated females to start the next culture and allow them to only mate with wingless males.. 

Ed


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## WONTON SALLY (Jun 26, 2011)

ConFuCiuZ said:


> Also, the wrong temperature will contribute to the birth of fliers in your cultures. I had a couple of cultures that had bunch of fliers due to warm temps


 
what kind of temps are you refering too?


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## ConFuCiuZ (Jul 13, 2011)

WONTON SALLY said:


> what kind of temps are you refering too?


Umm around the mid 80s. it was during the beggining of the summer.


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

Ed said:


> Unless you were able to pick out females that have not mated then you cannot be sure that you have removed the fliers..
> You need to only use unmated females to start the next culture and allow them to only mate with wingless males..
> 
> Ed


how in the world do you do THAT??? You, and some of the other people on DB constantly amaze me with your depth of knowledge and experience...very intimidating...


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## ConFuCiuZ (Jul 13, 2011)

Judy S said:


> how in the world do you do THAT??? You, and some of the other people on DB constantly amaze me with your depth of knowledge and experience...very intimidating...


I think you can tell by how big the abdomen is. Some are way bigger than others lol  Idk im just assuming loll, or its impossible to tell or Ed is just messing with us lmao


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Judy S said:


> how in the world do you do THAT??? You, and some of the other people on DB constantly amaze me with your depth of knowledge and experience...very intimidating...


 
This explains it. How to work with Drosophila It requires the use of a decent dissecting microscope. 

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

ConFuCiuZ said:


> I think you can tell by how big the abdomen is. Some are way bigger than others lol  Idk im just assuming loll, or its impossible to tell or Ed is just messing with us lmao


Size can be used to sex for males versus females, it doesn't allow for seperation of virgin versus non-virgin females. 

Ed


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

This sounds just about as interesting to have to do as in making baby chicks into capon material....please don't tell me this is in any way practical...or someone just has too much time on their hands or is getting paid to do it...just really gets my brain going...


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Judy S said:


> This sounds just about as interesting to have to do as in making baby chicks into capon material....please don't tell me this is in any way practical...or someone just has too much time on their hands or is getting paid to do it...just really gets my brain going...


 
It is used to either demonstrate how different gene combinations work or to isolate out new mutations. Since the flies can retain sperm for different matings, you wouldn't be able to know how the cross worked out unless you could use unmated females. 

making capons is a little different... 

Ed


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

the whole subject just tickles my brain....


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## WONTON SALLY (Jun 26, 2011)

ConFuCiuZ said:


> Umm around the mid 80s. it was during the beggining of the summer.


 
that's perfect IMO, i run mine at 82-85 degrees. IME anything less just slows them down. i keep my cultures on top of a vertical deep freeze; which aids in the constent temps. i use a I/R temp gun to check temps.


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## Neontra (Aug 16, 2011)

Ed said:


> Unless you were able to pick out females that have not mated then you cannot be sure that you have removed the fliers..
> You need to only use unmated females to start the next culture and allow them to only mate with wingless males..
> 
> Ed


Ill see what happens. If I start to see fliers, i'll buy a new culture.


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