A few weeks ago I managed to successfully culture hydei from a handful of flies left in a couple of pet store vials. From that I made 2 more cultures one day apart. The older of the 2 had lots of dead flies withing a couple days and no larvae, while the newer did great. I even used some of those flies to start a third culture. One is beginning to hatch new flies, and the newest is starting to pupate. So, myquestions are:
1. How long after flies begin to hatch should I reculture? It's my understanding that the females hatch first and take less time to reach sexual maturity. Anyone know how long after the initial hatching the males emerge?
2. How long after they hatch should I wait to feed? I tried to wait a few days with the original before making another culture so that I'd have males and females, but after 3 days, it was getting really crowded in there, so I did end up feeding some to the frogs. I don't want to end up feeding all the females and still ending up with a skewed sex ratio.
Sorry if it's a silly question, but I haven't been able to find an answer, and the froggies really seem to prefer the hydei to the melanogaster at this point. In fact, they don't even want to bother with the smaller flies anymore.