Moldy fruit flies?

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How does the culture smell, moldy or very "chemically"? SuperPet (or is it PetCo?) sells small vials of ffs with a bright green (brighter than yours!) medium, which I assume has a lot of mold inhibitor in it. It is also possible that the medium contains milk whey -- high protein -- with spirulina in it. I have produced media which look a lot like yours but have discontinued its use because of the expense.

 
:eek: Looks like an unusual amount of mold to me. A little bit won't hurt the cultures, but that one may be unusual, r there any good looking flies in there? Phil, I use milk whey in my cultures, they have tiny bit of mold sometimes, but otherwise look good and they produce a lot of flies, but I also have brewers yeast in them and milk.
 
Do the others look like that? If not I would say it is something wrong. Often they use a blue media. Also, what in the heck is all that stuff shoved in there? Why do people do that?

 
Ive noticed that without good enough ventilation mold always shows up, so sometimes if I just add a few pinholes it can help stop it before it gets to bad. The cultures I see at the petshop in those vials with caps on them always have mold in them but the mold goes away within a couple days once you take the cap off. I raise all my own ff now but before I would buy them from petco and they always had a little mold in there but it was never a problem, the good thing about it though is if you point out the mold it will get you a nice discount on the ff culture :p

 
Rick said:
Do the others look like that? If not I would say it is something wrong. Often they use a blue media. Also, what in the heck is all that stuff shoved in there? Why do people do that?
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The others are hydei, but they do not look like that, also those are coffee filters.

 
Emile said:
I have such bad luck when it comes to fruit flies :(
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Best thing to do is get a batch going then buy your own medium (easier than making your own) and make your own cultures. I did this for years. I found it to be a very simple and easy process. I made hundreds of batches in 32 oz deli cups which started from one tiny vial of flies. Also, you don't need all those coffee filters in there. Maybe one but that's it.

 
Rick said:
Best thing to do is get a batch going then buy your own medium (easier than making your own) and make your own cultures. I did this for years. I found it to be a very simple and easy process. I made hundreds of batches in 32 oz deli cups which started from one tiny vial of flies. Also, you don't need all those coffee filters in there. Maybe one but that's it.
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Yeah i thought there was too many in there, the guy who i bought them from put them in :( I might try and take out, but i will release too many hydei that are clinging to the lid

 
Emile said:
Yeah i thought there was too many in there, the guy who i bought them from put them in :( I might try and take out, but i will release too many hydei that are clinging to the lid
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I wouldn't do it now but if you make cultures off those you don't need it. I see a lot of people that just cram stuff in there when all you really need is a little bit. I don't use anything in mine.

 
Rick said:
I wouldn't do it now but if you make cultures off those you don't need it. I see a lot of people that just cram stuff in there when all you really need is a little bit. I don't use anything in mine.
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ok i will make some new cultures once i receive my order from mantisplace.com! Thanks Rick

 
Emile said:
ok i will make some new cultures once i receive my order from mantisplace.com! Thanks Rick
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I hope you don't think you have to buy a new culture everytime one dries out. Get yourself a bag of medium and some containers and you can make your own. Just add the medium, pinch of yeast, and water. Take some flies from your current culture and put them in there. Within a couple weeks it should be full. Fruit flies are easy.

 
those cups are a bit small for raising fruitflies. Like you say they will all escape when you open it.

I use sweet jars or tall ice cream tubs to raise mine with a little cup filled with medium in them.

I would recommend that once you get your next cup, try and transfer as many flies to your bigger container with the medium in it.

Flies will still escape but not as many and a slight tap to the container before opening makes the flies fall down.

There are lots of recipes to use as a medium but the one I use these days is as follows.

I add about 3 parts boiled mashed potato, 3 parts oats and 1 part cider vinegar (this prevents any mould and even feeds the flies). Then I add a few slices of orange (about 1 part again, orange is the best fruit to use as it is acidic and naturally inhibits mould too) and add water, mixing it all up to create a sloppy paste but not too sloppy. It should be damp looking but not so wet that it turns into quicksand for flies.

Once that is done I get a very small cup of warm water and add a bit of sugar. On my yeast tin it says 1 tablespoon to 150ml of water. If you use 150ml it says to add 1 tablespoon of yeast. Just follow the instructions of your yeast tin and let the yeast activate itself for 10 minutes, then add a few drops of this yeast mixture onto the medium. The yeast will soon start multiplying on the medium and will feed the flies.

Some people add a bit of sugar to their medium also.

In my opinion it is best to activate the yeast before adding it to the medium.

 
Blackmelo said:
those cups are a bit small for raising fruitflies. Like you say they will all escape when you open it. I use sweet jars or tall ice cream tubs to raise mine with a little cup filled with medium in them.

I would recommend that once you get your next cup, try and transfer as many flies to your bigger container with the medium in it.

Flies will still escape but not as many and a slight tap to the container before opening makes the flies fall down.

There are lots of recipes to use as a medium but the one I use these days is as follows.

I add about 3 parts boiled mashed potato, 3 parts oats and 1 part cider vinegar (this prevents any mould and even feeds the flies). Then I add a few slices of orange (about 1 part again, orange is the best fruit to use as it is acidic and naturally inhibits mould too) and add water, mixing it all up to create a sloppy paste but not too sloppy. It should be damp looking but not so wet that it turns into quicksand for flies.

Once that is done I get a very small cup of warm water and add a bit of sugar. On my yeast tin it says 1 tablespoon to 150ml of water. If you use 150ml it says to add 1 tablespoon of yeast. Just follow the instructions of your yeast tin and let the yeast activate itself for 10 minutes, then add a few drops of this yeast mixture onto the medium. The yeast will soon start multiplying on the medium and will feed the flies.

Some people add a bit of sugar to their medium also.

In my opinion it is best to activate the yeast before adding it to the medium.
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No they are not. They are a perfect size. He does need to cut a hole in the side and plug it with a foam plug though. That way he can dump out the flies using a funnel into the mantid enclosure. Sure, you can make your own medium but I highly recommend purchasing commercially made medium. A large bag costs me less than $20 and lasts forever. It also comes with mold inhibitor and doesn't smell.

 
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Rick said:
No they are not. They are a perfect size. She does need to cut a hole in the side and plug it with a foam plug though. That way she can dump out the flies using a funnel into the mantid enclosure. Sure, you can make your own medium but I highly recommend purchasing commercially made medium. A large bag costs me less than $20 and lasts forever. It also comes with mold inhibitor and doesn't smell.
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Lol everyone thinks i am a girl :( but thank you for the info rick

 
Emile said:
Lol everyone thinks i am a girl :( but thank you for the info rick
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Emile, une femme? Zut alors! It would give a whole new meaning to that old Jacques Brel song, "Le Moribond", though!

Don't feel bad. I once had a student who thought that Rainer Maria Rilke was a woman!

We are an insular furking bunch in the U.S!

 
Rick said:
No they are not. They are a perfect size. He does need to cut a hole in the side and plug it with a foam plug though. That way he can dump out the flies using a funnel into the mantid enclosure. Sure, you can make your own medium but I highly recommend purchasing commercially made medium. A large bag costs me less than $20 and lasts forever. It also comes with mold inhibitor and doesn't smell.
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I agree completely with all of the above.

For my colonies, I took some aquarium tubing (not sure of the diameter, but it's the same as the little mini holes in the fruit fly lids) cut away some of the lid to expose a hole, put the tube in and hot glued the tubing on. Then I just plug the tubing. Starting new cultures is easy; I just connect two tubes from an existing colony to a new container and let the flies crawl across the bridge to the promised land.

The commercial medium I've found is astounding. It doesn't smell; well, actually, it smells like cinnamon!

 
Zephyr said:
I agree completely with all of the above.For my colonies, I took some aquarium tubing (not sure of the diameter, but it's the same as the little mini holes in the fruit fly lids) cut away some of the lid to expose a hole, put the tube in and hot glued the tubing on. Then I just plug the tubing. Starting new cultures is easy; I just connect two tubes from an existing colony to a new container and let the flies crawl across the bridge to the promised land.

The commercial medium I've found is astounding. It doesn't smell; well, actually, it smells like cinnamon!
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Hmmm... Interesting idea with the aquarium tubing, lol! Hey, sounds like Josh's Frogs' ff medium. ;) I couldn't help it... the first time I mixed up a batch, I had to taste it! :p Wasn't too bad, really... :lol:

 

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