Fruit fly Culture question

[LilyPad]

My local petsmart sells a flightless fruit fly culture in a clear tube. Could I put the tube in my substrate so just the top sticks out...will that work to continue to culture them while keeping them in the tank? Only my small gray tree frog seems to be a fan of the fruit flies, but I think it is a good extra snack for him because he doesn't eat much when it comes to crickets. Right now there are some fungus flies in that tank from one of the plants, but I'm thinking about when I move him to the new viv and lose that free food source!

[LilyPad]

Live Flightless Fruit Fly Culture | Feeder Insects | PetSolutions

That is what the tube looks like that petsmart sells.

[berksmike]

You'll get much better results if you breed the fruit flies in separate culture containers and then add the dusted flies to the viv as and when required.

[MikeM670]

Live Flightless Fruit Fly Culture | Feeder Insects | PetSolutions

That is what the tube looks like that petsmart sells.

I feel that tube culture will not generate the amount of flies you think it will. berksmike is right, you are better off culturing your own or if you really don't want to do that get the jar of flies from your pet store. Or you can order some on-line. I'm not sure what type of feeder your frog is but my darts usually are all over them within a few minutes of putting the flies in. Otherwise the flies might tend to wonder off in the viv and find hiding places.

[Frog Mom]

I bought a jar of fruit fly culture from petco that looks like this. I just got the one that was already started, I should probably buy the kit. But anyway, the flies just grow in the jar and it has a screened lid to let air in. I just shake a bunch of flies in each day. I actually have two jars now, and I alternate each day, since I have a lot of frogs. Those things have produced a lot of flies.

[Lynx]

I got those vials last week in a pinch while I waited from my cultures from Josh's to arrive. They're definitely not all they're cracked up to be. After 2 days, both vials didn't have very many left, after feeding 4 froglets, and the culture itself is way too small to get much production wise. Oh, and those "flightless" flies in them do, indeed, fly.

[bshmerlie]

Yeah its best to just order a normal Fruit Fly culture kit from a place like Joshs. They produce quickly and the kits will come with everything you need to maintain your fruit fly producing culture. You will find they are the easiest food source and very cheap. The average culture will last about 4 weeks and takes about 10-14 days to get started producing when it is brand new. So depending upon how many frogs you are feeding some people produce new cultures every two weeks or if you have a lot of frogs some do them everyweek. You do want to rotate which culture you use every other day so that ensures the culture doesn't lose too many flies.

[Baelari]

If you want to spread the fungus gnats, try transferring one infested potted plant over to the new viv. They spread pretty quickly.

[MikeM670]

Here is a link to a care article written by John on how to culture fruit flies.

http://www.frogforum.net/care-articl...rosophila.html

Pretty easy stuff. I have Josh's mix on hand but wanted to try making my own mix. I use the Frog Forum Medium. Simple to use and does produce a large amount of flies.

[LilyPad]

I think I am going to make space for some of the plants in that viv too in order to spread the fungus gnats, I don't have a problem with them as they never seem to escape and they definitely reproduce without issue.