Fruit Flies - What do you use

[Vivariums In The Mist]

Hey everybody,

Asked this question on our Facebook page and thought we would ask it here to. What do you use with your Fruit Fly cultures and why? Excelsior, coffee filters, mesh or another product?
Curious what everybody prefers...

https://www.facebook.com/VivariumsIn...type=1&theater

[deranged chipmunk]

I use coffee filters and rattan. I'll be trying out a mesh on some new cultures this week.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[flybyferns]

I've been using a left over roll of "deer block" / mesh barrier ( home depot or agway )
Originally purchased to cover some berry bushes in the yard.

It's actually working really well, and will last forever.
I'm on my 3rd week in a row of cultures batches ....no problems

I'm sick of vacuuming up the excelsior mess

[packer43064]

When I used to make cultures it was excelsior.

[Vivariums In The Mist]

I'm sick of excelisor too, honestly I would give up a little production for less mess, but just my opinion.

I've been using a left over roll of "deer block" / mesh barrier ( home depot or agway )
Originally purchased to cover some berry bushes in the yard.

It's actually working really well, and will last forever.
I'm on my 3rd week in a row of cultures batches ....no problems

I'm sick of vacuuming up the excelsior mess

[DigitalPunk]

I have been using excelsior, but like many others I am tired of vacuuming up the mess and picking the excelsior pieces out of the flies I am going to dump into the frog tanks. I found a nylon mesh online and have used it for the last couple weeks to setup cultures. So far it looks like it is working great. I will keep testing this and let you all know.

[Vivariums In The Mist]

Definitely, keep us posted Paul. Very interested in how mesh is working out for others. I'll let you know how I like it also.

I have been using excelsior, but like many others I am tired of vacuuming up the mess and picking the excelsior pieces out of the flies I am going to dump into the frog tanks. I found a nylon mesh online and have used it for the last couple weeks to setup cultures. So far it looks like it is working great. I will keep testing this and let you all know.

[deranged chipmunk]

That's a pretty crafty solution. Thanks for adding your method. I may have to give that a shot.

The forum has had issues uploading pics off and on recently, I'll get a message to the admin


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[DigitalPunk]

Very crafty solution!

One topic I would like to discuss too (maybe I'll start a separate thread about it) is judging fruit fly cultures the right way. As a hobby you will hear people talk about the "production" of Fruit Fly cultures. I have done this (as I am sure everyone has), but due to recent research into the best media to use to get the most nutritious flies possible. Not the most flies per culture possible, but the flies that will provide my frogs with the best meal I can.

Anyways small side note... if its a topic several want to discuss I will start us a thread.

[Tzunu un]

Not intending or wanting to hijack this thread (so feel free to move if a new thread is started)

You are on the money with a goal of having the most nutritional fruit fly as something to be aspired to.

Unfortunately the scientific data comparing nutritional value of flies reared on different media are lacking, and this is a difficult subject to fully address by hobbyists as we do not generally have the availability of instrumentation and expertise to directly analyze the produced flies for various components of nutritional value.

So this leads to the information available (and that generated by frog owners) being primarily anecdotal.

Recently some commercial media is being marketed as producing "healthier" or more "nutritional" flies but again there are no analyses performed to determine values of components in the actual flies produced. Just 'cause you add it doesn't mean the flies are altered.

Additionally comparing frogs (often different species) fed on flies raised on different media (often where components / nutrients are not fully known) where the frogs are kept under different conditions / set ups is also chock full of problems in drawing firm conclusions.

There is a thread that has good / a lot of information on this exact topic started on another frog-centric forum (don't know if it's OK to mention other forums).
It should be checked out as there is some good information there.

I personally make my own media using the Frog Forum recipe on the "How To" section. I also add SuperPig to this to boost carotenoid availability.
I feel that most commercial media is probably similar in components and produce fairly equivalent flies.....but am waiting to see a real analysis of the flies prove me wrong.

Dusting and providing a varied selection of insects / larvae is probably the best way to insure good nutrition....until produced flies come with nutritional labels.

[DigitalPunk]

Not intending or wanting to hijack this thread (so feel free to move if a new thread is started)

You are on the money with a goal of having the most nutritional fruit fly as something to be aspired to.

Unfortunately the scientific data comparing nutritional value of flies reared on different media are lacking, and this is a difficult subject to fully address by hobbyists as we do not generally have the availability of instrumentation and expertise to directly analyze the produced flies for various components of nutritional value.

So this leads to the information available (and that generated by frog owners) being primarily anecdotal.

Recently some commercial media is being marketed as producing "healthier" or more "nutritional" flies but again there are no analyses performed to determine values of components in the actual flies produced. Just 'cause you add it doesn't mean the flies are altered.

Additionally comparing frogs (often different species) fed on flies raised on different media (often where components / nutrients are not fully known) where the frogs are kept under different conditions / set ups is also chock full of problems in drawing firm conclusions.

There is a thread that has good / a lot of information on this exact topic started on another frog-centric forum (don't know if it's OK to mention other forums).
It should be checked out as there is some good information there.

I personally make my own media using the Frog Forum recipe on the "How To" section. I also add SuperPig to this to boost carotenoid availability.
I feel that most commercial media is probably similar in components and produce fairly equivalent flies.....but am waiting to see a real analysis of the flies prove me wrong.

Dusting and providing a varied selection of insects / larvae is probably the best way to insure good nutrition....until produced flies come with nutritional labels.

I agree with all of this and that is the crutch the hobby has to lean on. We don't really know what we can do or shouldn't do to help produce the healthiest feeder insect we can. Flies can not be gut loaded like crickets and start to clean off the supplements we dust them with as soon as they hit the tank floor.

I have read several articles and forum topics on this very thing and I walked away from them with the understanding that I (just some guy who likes to raise and care for frogs) lack the skills and knowledge to affectively alter the nutritional value of the flies I culture. This understanding has turned me away from home made medias and towards commercially available ones. I have settled on using Repashey Superfly. I personally chose this one, because of all the advances Repashy has made in Amphibian supplementation in their powders they offer. The ingredients in their media offers all of what I have read is good to offer the flies... Plus I trust their supplements to provide my frogs with what they need so I will trust their fly media to help make as nutritional a fly as possible.

One of the things I walked away from valuing the most is that regardless of media makeup the first generation hatched in a fly culture will be the healthiest generation in that culture. All other flies after that will not have as nutritional of media to start with. This can be physically observed in the look of the flies over the life of the culture. As the culture booms the first time the flies are all big and black (in a Hydie culture). towards the end of the cultures life the flies are small and sickly looking, they also appear brown.

This topic is something we will probably be able to debate and talk about forever and never really have a definitive right answer.

[deranged chipmunk]

You mean you guys don't buy the flies with the nutritional labels on them? I can't be the only one!! Lol

I agree, to most, it's about production, but it really should be about nutrition. It should be quality, not quantity, that we aspire to. But as Tzunu stated, the equipment needed to study this is just out of the typical hobbyists hands, so all we can do is take all the anecdotal info and make our own conclusions.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[deranged chipmunk]

Yeah, I was less than thrilled about the mesh. Seemed like on some cultures, it blocked the flies from getting to the media. I have since decided to go a more "festive" route, synthetic Easter grass


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[Vivariums In The Mist]

It's colorful for sure!! I'm using the more rigid gutter guard "mesh". Cutting pieces to fit in the cups. So far so good. Thanks for your update.

Yeah, I was less than thrilled about the mesh. Seemed like on some cultures, it blocked the flies from getting to the media. I have since decided to go a more "festive" route, synthetic Easter grass


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[Lady]

I have been using excelsior but yeah it is messy. I think I will have to try the filter around the ball method. I just need to be able to keep the stuff out of the feeding cup we use to measure the flies so it does not get in the viv.

[DigitalPunk]

That is what I have been looking for Paul! The nylon mesh is not working that great for me. It starts out working good, but once the culture booms the weight of the flies causes the mesh to collapse down and.... well it is a giant pain. I will have to go get some of the gutter guard mesh and give it a try.

I will add that on the most recent cultures I added twice as much nylon mesh to see if the extra amount would give the flies more room and help the mesh not collapse after the boom.

[Vivariums In The Mist]

So far no issues using the Gutter Guard mesh. Got a nice size roll at Home Depot for less then 5 bucks. Don't see myself using Excelsior anymore. I'd rather have slightly less production, although I haven't really seen much of a difference, but it is still early on.

That is what I have been looking for Paul! The nylon mesh is not working that great for me. It starts out working good, but once the culture booms the weight of the flies causes the mesh to collapse down and.... well it is a giant pain. I will have to go get some of the gutter guard mesh and give it a try.

I will add that on the most recent cultures I added twice as much nylon mesh to see if the extra amount would give the flies more room and help the mesh not collapse after the boom.

[DigitalPunk]

Wonder how the steel mesh gutter guard would work. or how fast it would rust (if at all)... I am NOT going back to excelsior, just need to find something that works good, is reusable, and is inexpensive lol. I bought a piece of the steel mesh today to play around with. Will setup a culture or 2 on it and see what the results look like and maybe test and see how reusable it is.