Culturing fruit flies on apple!

happy1892 · Feb 27, 2012

They are much smaller when they are cultured on apple instead of Josh's Frogs media or Repashy's media! Some people might not know this so I put this here. Agent A told that he cultured his fruit flies on apple so I did it.

The bad thing is that they breed slower. But the culture seems to last longer.

Colorcham427 · Feb 27, 2012

A lot more expensive and less nutritious unless you get apples for free or/and add stuff to the mix.

agent A · Feb 28, 2012

What? more expensive?? I buy an apple from the grocery store for like $3 and then cut it up, put it in a blender with a bit of vinegar, mix it into a sauce, then take half a cup of oatmeal with half a cup of orange juice and mix all that stuff up

i put it in a deli cup and let it set for 4 days then i add fruitflies

with mels i see larvae within a week and hydei naturally take a bit longer

happy1892 · Feb 28, 2012

Brian Aschenbach said:
A lot more expensive and less nutritious unless you get apples for free or/and add stuff to the mix.

But it makes the flies much smaller! For the SuperFly 16 oz BAG (one pound) it is $7.49. They say that that can make 10 cultures. We get apples that are cheap about $50-$1.00 each. I use a lot of rotting apples. I use more than one half of an apple to make a fruit fly culture. It is not a lot more expensive. And it seems like they last longer. The grain mites do not seem to like the apple as much as the other two media. The cultures that were using apple lasted longer too.

happy1892 · Feb 28, 2012

I forgot. You have to pay for the shipping! That is expensive! Brian do you live close to a place that sells fruit fly media?

agent A · Feb 28, 2012

See? Mine last 6-8 weeks with apple, which is a long time

And in the wild they'd naturally eat rotting fruit, not potato based media (potatoes live underground)

Now to solve the small fly problem

happy1892 · Feb 28, 2012

But potatoes are good for them right? I am guessing my apple fruit fly cultures lasted more than 4 weeks.

agent A · Feb 28, 2012

Well many commercial medias r potato based, never had issues with it except:

Dries out easily

Can be expensive

Lasts less than 5 weeks

I'm just trying to figure out a convinient and inexpensive culturing method

happy1892 · Feb 28, 2012

Do potatoes make the fruit flies bigger? What makes the fruit flies bigger?

agent A · Feb 28, 2012

I have no idea

Maybe vitamins??

patrickfraser · Feb 28, 2012

I use 1 Tablespoon of brewers yeast PLUS. Lots of added goodies that make them huge.

agent A · Feb 28, 2012

patrickfraser said:
I use 1 Tablespoon of brewers yeast PLUS. Lots of added goodies that make them huge.

what kinds of goodies? steriods or crack

jk

please inform us

patrickfraser · Feb 28, 2012

This is what I use. http://www.twinlab.com/product/super-rich-yeast-plus-0

happy1892 · Feb 28, 2012

Read this place. They say Drosophila, miniature. And in the picture the little vial says Drosophila melanogaster. So is that a miniature of Drosophila melanogaster?

patrickfraser · Feb 28, 2012

The have different types. "Miniature" being one of them, I believe, for experimental purposes.

happy1892 · Feb 28, 2012

patrickfraser said:
The have different types. "Miniature" being one of them, I believe, for experimental purposes.

Yes. Are they smaller?

patrickfraser · Feb 28, 2012

Maybe it's just for their selling and inventory purposes. If you look under "other info"(?) tab, they list the various characteristics of each.

happy1892 · Feb 28, 2012

Just smaller wings.

Culturing fruit flies on apple!

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