Fruit flies question for rookie

[Orlauskas]

Hello everybody, so lets see how we done... just got Repashy fruit fly media today. So on bottom repashy + starch ( I touched that was adviced ? ) and some water, than wood wool and leave true night, yes?

[Orlauskas]

Hello milion of users where are you?

[Truffs1178]

You sure like to get an answer fast do you.

That should be fine and they should grow and breed fast. The repashy stuff is a complete diet for fruit flys and larvae and nothing else is required although instead of using water to make that paste you could squeeze some orange juice into the mixture. Water is fine as well though it's just the orange juice can give the flys extra nutritional value...plus they love oranges so they probably like it more anyway.
Instead of topping up the cultures media with fresh repashy stuff when it gets low you should completely clean and replace the media if you can catch all the flies. This is because the maggot and fly's waste gets in it and bacteria, fungus and mites may appear. The lifespan is about two weeks for these little guys so if you save all the flies they will repopulate the culture in a matter of days. If you are planning on using this culture as your main food source then you could make a much larger breeding tank for them because trust me the small culture tubs the stores give you get dirty and overpopulated really fast. A secure plastic box with fasteners is good, just cut a large section off the lid and stick netting on to cover it. If you do make a larger breeding container make sure it's VERY well ventilated with insect mesh. These methods certainly work for successfully breeding fruit flys and although some may disagree with how I do it they can't prove it wrong. Trust me if you do it all right you should have more fruit flys than you will ever need.

Edit: You could also add some slightly moist cotton wool balls. They appear to lay eggs in there. Just a suggestion.

[Orlauskas]

Thanks Jack you like always not leaving be alone appreciate that . Will have 10 cups like that, they are from USA ordered two more cultures of flies from local shop, they should be 850ml and hope with a lot of flies .
Guy who gave me this flies told to recreate everything every week, what you think about that? And move all colony, I want to make about three colonyes I think, as will feed 5 dart frogs who hopefully coming in 3Th of November. Do you know it will be some kind of show in Doncaster than? You can join us if you want ant can . So I understand your advices and will use orange juice next time like I suggest best from real fruit, just squeeze it , yeah? I put some wood wool (believe it that stuff) , so should be alright for laying eggs. My first culture which on photo, have a lot of worms and larvae inside , so they will be fruit flies one day too ? (what a silly question but I know you dont mind) . Do you have culture of them as well?

[Truffs1178]

I certainly don't think its necessary to change the media every week. I'd say every two weeks because there's no chance for the flies to reproduce in a week so you will run out. Yes just squeeze the oranges and get juice into the mixture. Sorry I don't know anything about a show in Doncaster. I live further north near the Scottish border so I wouldn't know anything about any Doncaster shows. Thanks for the offer though It's my birthday in November so I may get something from some show though but it will probably be another spider or tarantula. Yes I do have a culture of fruit flys too. It's not for dart frogs though. I use my fruit flys for feeding my baby praying mantids and my baby tarantulas and yes those larvae will be flys one day too.

[Orlauskas]

Nice one and how you doing with flies? Never get infected by mites ? As I have twice .

[Orlauskas]

Posted Today, 12:33 AM
Hello guys, yeah yeah...its me again .

Just wondering... what you use on fruit flies before feeding your frogs? Just a Repashy Calcium or something else? Spoke with one lady, who was a breeder before and she showed me one book, where it says :

Quote

Ca:P 3:1 ir vitamin A:E3 – 350 I.U. (D3) : 1 mg E ir 1000 – 2500 I.U. vitamin A each vitamin E mg .

WOW .... that sounds like a laboratory thing... I believe you all doing different way somehow .

[Truffs1178]

The supplements I use are Exo Terra calcium+d3 and Exo Terra multivitamin.

[flybyferns]

PDF - FF dusting:

I use Repashy complete daily
Repashy Vit A once a month for -- adult ( breeding age)

[Orlauskas]

I see )) ok , thx for that . Today got two more culture, but this flies much bigger than that what I have from before .
Just wondering how quick they reproduce?

[Truffs1178]

Very quickly. There will be more and more every day. Have you ever thought of giving the frogs bean weevils or tiny locusts? They like them as well. It's good to mix up their diet.

[Orlauskas]

As far checking every day and in time of few days no extra ones appear thats way I am confused.. What strange thing about new cultures, that flies sits on top, where is lid , do not walk around.
Yes, I would like to heve them, can you give more info please? -

[Truffs1178]

The flies first need to lay eggs which then turn into larvae. Once the first larvae pupate and then turn into flies then more and more will keep appearing everyday. They do like to spend all their time at the top at the lid so don't worry about that. Here are some links to get those other insects from. There may be cheaper places like on ebay but I'm not sure, these are just to give you an idea of what they look like and if you can't find anywhere else that sells them cheaper then buy them from the sites that I linked.

Exotic Pets - Amphibian, Reptile and Invert UK exotic pet shop

Livefoods Direct Ltd - Britain's Foremost Supplier Of Livefoods

Livefoods By Post - Reptile Food, livefoods, reptile supplies, online reptile shop

[Orlauskas]

Oh, I see good about that that is nothing to worry about them spending time up of tube . I will upload photo soon to you about last concern... this is big tubes 850ml, and about half is media, so after night I find some of flies dig inside media near bottom and I think they trapped there.. I think they will die there, how do you think?
I checked your websites, thanks for links. Locusts seems to be very large, bigger than frogs will be .
I am interested in BEAN WEEVIL STARTER CULTURE (starting to produce weevils now ) | eBay , need to get them . Or will read first and find the way to get started with them by self .

[Truffs1178]

Could I see pictures of the cultures and the stuck flys.

[Orlauskas]

Here it is mate

[Truffs1178]

The media looks to dry to me. It's supposed to be like a kind of paste. How did you make the media?

[Flying Dutchman]

The media looks to dry to me. It's supposed to be like a kind of paste. How did you make the media?

Jack is right. Your media is too dry. That's the reason why the flies could digg to the bottom.

[Orlauskas]

Shop made me like that... so add some water now or juice or its to late now?

[Truffs1178]

You could try adding more liquid and mix to make it into a paste but the flys that have buried themselves won't survive but don't worry as more will lay eggs in the media later.

Also earlier you said that locusts were to big? You must have been looking at adults as the freshly hatched baby locusts are tiny like fruit flys.