# i had some probelms making cultures



## macro junkie (Mar 26, 2008)

man have i been through heck making these frute flys cultures..iv sorted it now..the problem i was having was not putting enough coffee filters in there..the maggots where all over the lid..not just 1 or 2..100s..it was a right mess,i had to chuck them away..This time i stuffed it with coffy filters and every corner i stuffed it with tissue..this time all the maggots have gone to the tissue,,there is a thin layer of casters on every corner of the tissue and all i see now is 1 or 2 maggots and casters on the lid...if u make your cultures make sure u stuff loads of wads of coffy filters or somthing that the maggots can climb on.or your end uop like me..i must of binned about 7 cultures this past month,,i wasnt putting enough exsesor in there,,and tbh that exsesor for frute flys is rubish..il be sticking with coffy filters and tissue from now on..i might try wads of cotton wool next time~?


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## nympho (Mar 26, 2008)

its annoying the little beggers crawl up the side isnt it. im always concerned when they dry out up there, not escape.

two weeks ago i made a GIANT culture in a big sweety container using 100's of flies. i just used 4 boiled up apples and suger with a bit of yeast. 'millions' of maggots, and strangely no mold or anything. so u dont absolutely need honey or vinigar. i think im getting the hang of fruit flies now


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## asdsdf (Mar 26, 2008)

Probably cause you killed all the germs when you boiled it. Also, I heard that if you kept the culture in light, the maggots won't go up to the top.


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## macro junkie (Mar 26, 2008)

nympho said:


> its annoying the little beggers crawl up the side isnt it. im always concerned when they dry out up there, not escape.two weeks ago i made a GIANT culture in a big sweety container using 100's of flies. i just used 4 boiled up apples and suger with a bit of yeast. 'millions' of maggots, and strangely no mold or anything. so u dont absolutely need honey or vinigar. i think im getting the hang of fruit flies now


i use mash potato powder and small pinch of yeast..i bought 1kg of masa from Canada and i havent even used it yet..whats the point when mash potato and yeast works great.i would like to try it one day tho it might work better.oh i dont get mold but i use small cultures that dont last very long 2-3 weeks at most,this time i used 32 0Z deli cup..if it works out better il order a load from mantis place.


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## Mantis_Whisper (Mar 26, 2008)

asdsdf said:


> Probably cause you killed all the germs when you boiled it. Also, I heard that if you kept the culture in light, the maggots won't go up to the top.


I'll have to try and boil my potatoes next time. I keep getting mold and fungi growths.

I think that's true. I have my cultures next to my sandfish skink tank and there's always a light on, never seen a maggot go more then half an inch past the mash.


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## macro junkie (Mar 26, 2008)

Mantis_Whisper said:


> I'll have to try and boil my potatoes next time.


why dont u use powders mash potato?


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## Rick (Mar 26, 2008)

How tall a container? I use the 32 oz deli cups and they only crawl up about an inch.


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## Mantis_Whisper (Mar 26, 2008)

macro junkie said:


> why dont u use powders mash potato?


I do, but I find that making the stuff from real potatoes works much better. Plus I like to cook.


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## macro junkie (Mar 26, 2008)

Rick said:


> How tall a container? I use the 32 oz deli cups and they only crawl up about an inch.


oh u would probely laugh if i showed u it..il take a pic in sec and upload it,,u buy cultures from this shop called live foods uk and i been using the tubes they use..tbh there not very good.the depth is 1/6 of the size of a 32oz deli cup..so thats probely where im going wrong?i used deli cup this time..only made it last week so no maggots yet but im sure it will be packed soon,

.what do u use in side your deli cup on top of your medium,,coffy filters?if so how much?


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## macro junkie (Mar 26, 2008)

Rick said:


> How tall a container? I use the 32 oz deli cups and they only crawl up about an inch.


i red that you mate your mantids once,,then after few days u mate them again before they lay there 1st ooth is this right?i mated my pecocks again today so thats 2 times iv mated them before she lays her 1st ooth..of course i wont mate her again now untill mayby a few ooths have been laid but please tell me,some people say u only want to mate them once before she laiys her 1st ooth as mating them 2 times can cause the female to reject the sperm..is this right?if so isnt mating them 2 times before she lays her 1st ooth bad?


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## MantidLord (Mar 26, 2008)

Maybe for some sp. I've mated my I. oratoria twice with two different males, before she layed her 1st ooth. Everything came out great. Well...she layed an ooth I mean. Just waiting for them to hatch.


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## Malnra (Mar 26, 2008)

m,ine make it to the lid on the 32ox .. but i am light on excel stuff in them

i use the instant mash potatoe mix with hot water and honey and dash of sugar mix ... i also toss in some wheat germ in there .... makes a nice consistancy, if i take my time that is .. LOL ....


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## OGIGA (Mar 26, 2008)

macro junkie said:


> man have i been through heck making these frute flys cultures..iv sorted it now..the problem i was having was not putting enough coffee filters in there..the maggots where all over the lid..not just 1 or 2..100s..it was a right mess,i had to chuck them away..This time i stuffed it with coffy filters and every corner i stuffed it with tissue..this time all the maggots have gone to the tissue,,there is a thin layer of casters on every corner of the tissue and all i see now is 1 or 2 maggots and casters on the lid...if u make your cultures make sure u stuff loads of wads of coffy filters or somthing that the maggots can climb on.or your end uop like me..i must of binned about 7 cultures this past month,,i wasnt putting enough exsesor in there,,and tbh that exsesor for frute flys is rubish..il be sticking with coffy filters and tissue from now on..i might try wads of cotton wool next time~?


Try my method... instead of coffee filters, cut up a Styrofoam plate (in spirals) and stuff it in there.


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## asdsdf (Mar 26, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> Try my method... instead of coffee filters, cut up a Styrofoam plate (in spirals) and stuff it in there.


Too much work... xD I just get a single paper towel and fold it 4 times and voila! they pupateinside, as well as outside, so they don't need to go to the lid.


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## darkspeed (Mar 27, 2008)

32 oz cups from Becky work the best... as do 1/2 gallon clear rubbermaid storage containers.... they require more work cuz you gotta ventalate them yourself, but for large cultures that produce alot of flies they work great.

I have begun keeping my cultures in an unused minifridge of mine out in the garage... since temps still dip into the 40's at night this is perfect because of the insulation it provides... with just a small flourescent light, I am able to maintain a rather warm temp within the fridge, all the while containing the rather ripe smell produced and with the aid of a single air line run to an aquarium air pump I am still able to keep a constant supply of fresh air going into the fridge. Now I have more casters than I can count, and soon I will have an explosion of flies....


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## asdsdf (Mar 27, 2008)

xD If I could i would, but my hydei have mroe paupae than you.  100 percent paper towel. The medium is wriggling with maggots.


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## nympho (Mar 28, 2008)

you can by masa in uk (sainsburys). but my apple ones are ok without it.


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## darkspeed (Apr 2, 2008)

I just dont know what I am doing wrong?? I have tried several times... but yet it seems my fruit fly cultures always fail for one reason or another. This last round for example, I made 3 black hydei cultures and one yellow hydei culture... and they did very well. The parent flies lived for a good while, until I finally fed them all out to hungry mandibles, the eggs laid all hatched well giving way to hundreds of maggots, which all grew well and as you can see in the pics above, they pupated into at least 500 casters. And then... nada The black hydei never hatched. It has been over 7 days and nada... The yellow hydei are hatching slowly, but the blacks arent at all... in fact, the black hydei casters are starting to turn black. Its like they reached an early termination sequence in their genetic code and just died.

The Temps inside the little fridge were always between 70 and 80, and it seemed to always be humid inside. They had a steady supply of fresh air via the air pump, so I dont see what went ary.

And to make matters worse, my acromantis ooth just hatched today which was kept inside the little fridge in the exact same conditions as the cultures. Any idea what would cause the casters to terminate like that? Has anyone ever encountered this problem?


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## OGIGA (Apr 4, 2008)

Recently, I noticed that some of my melanogaster cultures had a lot of non-hatches because it was too humid inside. I got that taken care of and had better results.


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## darkspeed (Apr 4, 2008)

OGIGA said:


> Recently, I noticed that some of my melanogaster cultures had a lot of non-hatches because it was too humid inside. I got that taken care of and had better results.


Well all three batches were failures. None of the pupae ever hatched. Wierd thing about the flies too. Everywhere in the culture where one of the parent flies died a big spot of brownish green mold appeared. The flies (bought from a secondary supplier since Rebecca was all out) seemed to come with their own mold spores. Though I doubt it had anything to do with the failure its curious that the parents were contaminated like that. The large jar had yellow hydei from Rebecca in it and were kept in identical conditions and they all hatched and are now in a new culture along with 4 other batches I made today from a culture of black hydei and one of melanogasters that I just recieved from Rebecca.


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## bugzilla (Apr 4, 2008)

The 2 cultures I got last week don't seem to be doing too well, all the adults are dead but plenty of maggots. There's also a load of little white bug things in there. What are these?

I transfered the cultures to a pint beaker yesterday and some flies hatched out so maybe things are looking up &lt;_&lt;


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## darkspeed (Apr 4, 2008)

bugzilla said:


> The 2 cultures I got last week don't seem to be doing too well, all the adults are dead but plenty of maggots. There's also a load of little white bug things in there. What are these?I transfered the cultures to a pint beaker yesterday and some flies hatched out so maybe things are looking up &lt;_&lt;


Sounds like you got mites. I would throw them out immediately, before your house gets overrun by them. There really isnt any saving a culture once mites invade.


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## macro junkie (Apr 4, 2008)

HELP!!! my cultutres are so packed with frute flys i have to many flys.. :lol: my culures rock..i got to show u this one i made..the amount of maggots and casters is crazy..its the most iv ever had..potoaote poweder,yeaste and water is what i use and the culture have 1000s and 1000s of flys using a 32oz deli cup and starting with about 60 - 80 flys.i love the start the cultures with a nice aload of flys..room temps 78F

and i dont get any mold.


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## macro junkie (Apr 4, 2008)

DARKSPEED said:


> Sounds like you got mites. I would throw them out immediately, before your house gets overrun by them. There really isnt any saving a culture once mites invade.


every culture has some mites.if its over run with them tho i would bin it..my cultures always have a few mites.When i started making my own cultures the place i got them from"naming no names" allready had mites in them..so every culture i have has mites but theres only a few.by the time it gets over run the cultures ran out..get this then..i fill up a 32 0Z deli cupe 1/4 of the way full with medium.in 2 weeks the maggots have eating 3/4 of it.dam them things can eat when theres loads of them..im amazed at my cultures now.i have a big bag of masa but i havent needed to use it yet.potatoe mash does me fine


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## bugzilla (Apr 4, 2008)

Mites, nice :angry: 

Just ordered another starter culture from another source along with more curly wings and small crickets. Give 'em a varied diet at least


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