# fruit fly cultures molding



## Zero (Nov 10, 2017)

I've been using the following ingredient for my fruit fly media

potato flakes
brewers yeast
powdered sugar
cinnamon 
paprika 
vinegar

I always let everything cool down before coating the top of the media with cinnamon and i've been noticing that green mold has been growing.


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

I don't see any methylparaben in there. It's the fungicidal compound that is commonly used in commercial fly media.

Mark


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## pa.walt (Feb 16, 2004)

think the cinnamon is part of mix not a coating.


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## Zero (Nov 10, 2017)

pa.walt said:


> think the cinnamon is part of mix not a coating.


I do add it to the mix but I was told that covering the top with cinnamon helps with the mold.


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## Zero (Nov 10, 2017)

Encyclia said:


> I don't see any methylparaben in there. It's the fungicidal compound that is commonly used in commercial fly media.
> 
> Mark


does vinegar not act the same as that?


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

I don't believe it's quite as effective, no.


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## Zero (Nov 10, 2017)

Encyclia said:


> I don't believe it's quite as effective, no.


is there a common name for it? i'm searching everywhere and I can't seem to find it for sale.


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

No idea if there is a different name for it. I found it here:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Methyl-P...358171?hash=item43f15f381b:g:NwkAAOSwlndZLf60

but it's pretty pricey and 5 lb. seems like maybe more than you need. Is there a reason you don't just buy commercial medium? This is what I use and that's pretty close to the same price I pay here in the States.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Repashy-...ed-Dragon-Crested-Gecko-Reptile-/112340693138

Mark


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## Zero (Nov 10, 2017)

Encyclia said:


> No idea if there is a different name for it. I found it here:
> 
> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Methyl-P...358171?hash=item43f15f381b:g:NwkAAOSwlndZLf60
> 
> ...


The fruit fly medias available over here are hit and miss the only one that is certain to work is superfly from what i've heard but that media goes for 30 dollars for 500g. The home made fruit fly media i've been using seems to work but i've been noticing mold in my most recent ones. I'm not sure if it has to do with the amount of vinegar i've been adding. What exactly causes mold in the cultures? do you think adding any other ingredients such as spirulina is worth it?

I don't think its legal for it to be sold here in the uk LOL


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## Encyclia (Aug 23, 2013)

I don't know anything about making your own recipe for fly medium. I have great luck with commercial stuff and it's just too easy. Did you look at the link for Repashy I sent you? The 3.3kg jug of Superfly is $55.00 if Ebay is to be believed. That is really reasonable. That will last you a long time if you are just making a single culture a week or something like that. That maybe more than a year's worth for you. The time savings may make up for the cost. It's up to you, though.

Mark


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

For you to get any benefit to the cinnamon as a mold inhibitor you'd have to add enough that it would kill the flies. The blue green mold is likely to be a Penicillium ssp. and will grow at pHs that will kill the flies so again the addition of vinegar doesn't do anything to prevent the common types of molds seen in the cultures unless you get it so low that the flies die (like for some Aspergillus ssp below a pH of 2). 

Basically the cinnamon is only going to make your cultures smell better..... 

As for the presence of the mold, if it is a small amount, the flies will often churn it under dealing with it similarly to what would happen in the wild but you need enough fly larvae for that to happen. In that case you can probably use flies from late in the culture to start new cultures (later in the culture since hopefully the spores wouldn't be common and transferred to the new culture). If it is a heavy growth, you'll probably need a new starter cultures to get mold free cultures provided that the mold isn't originating in somewhere else in your culturing methods. 

As for paprika, your not helping the red color in the frogs very much if at all... its a great source of beta carotene and since the red pigment in frogs is primarily astaxanthin and canthaxanthin neither of which is in paprika your at best going to cause a deepening of yellow which will wash out oranges, greens and possibly reds... 


Repashy as a distributor for their products in the UK and you can get 3 kg of superfly for about 46 pounds https://repashy.co.uk/.... 

At this point and time, there is a lot of bad correlation to causation being used for home made fly medias. A lot of this has been written up repeatedly but people still go for the basic Carolina Biological Supply Company style recipes since they tend to be cheap but the recipes are all pretty much a problem in more than one way as mentioned above. 

some comments 

Ed


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## Zero (Nov 10, 2017)

Ed said:


> For you to get any benefit to the cinnamon as a mold inhibitor you'd have to add enough that it would kill the flies. The blue green mold is likely to be a Penicillium ssp. and will grow at pHs that will kill the flies so again the addition of vinegar doesn't do anything to prevent the common types of molds seen in the cultures unless you get it so low that the flies die (like for some Aspergillus ssp below a pH of 2).
> 
> Basically the cinnamon is only going to make your cultures smell better.....
> 
> ...


Is there an alternative ingredient to enhance the colours of frogs? I read a thread in here that using bakers yeast helps counter the mold in new cultures when using flies that come from mold infested cultures.


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