First fruit fly cultures

[guppygal]

If there isn't any mold inhibitor like vinegar in the liquid, you will get mold. To be on the safe side, prep a few more cultures and make sure you add 1:1 vinegar to water to the dry ingredients.

As Mike mentioned, all fruitfly cultures eventually end up with mites. The older the culture, the more likely it is to get mites. There's mite paper that you can set your cultures on that should help.

I make my cultures a little differently than most folks. I use empty plastic water bottles rather than the culture cups. I cover the bottle opening with black pantyhose so that I can see if I have a mite problem. I use the basic potato flake/brewer's yeast/powdered sugar dry ingredients mixed with an equal amount of liquid. I also use the broad excelsior which gives the flies more space to sit and the larvae to pupate. I drink a lot of water, so the containers are never in short supply.

On a side note, the plastic water bottles are useful for others stuff: cut the top half off an use it as a funnel; use the bottom half as a catch cup for your frogs; invert the the top half and tape it to the bottom half that has a piece of banana in it for a fruitfly trap.

So, there ya go ~

[hjoe1112]

Using Harvey Petersen Medium with 1 part white sugar, 2 parts instant milk powder and 4 parts instant mashed potatoes.

Can I still feed these flies to my froglets?

[guppygal]

I'm not familiar with this recipe, so I'm not sure what the white stuff is. The flies look ok, though. I'd be inclined to prep new cultures using these flies.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think your frogs will be okay eating the flies.

[hjoe1112]

Thinking about it now - my instant mash potatoes actually had butter "flavor" added, could it be that separating to the top? I had made another culture with the vinegar/water using the same mash potatoes powder and it didn't do this.

[MikeM670]

I believe the recommendation is to use plain old potato flakes. No additives of any kind. I'm sure what you have will be fine. Looking at the amount of flies you have in the container in the future I would add more. Read the article I mentioned earlier on the number of flies to use. With D. melanogaster use about 50 to 100 and D. hydei over 100.

[guppygal]

Could be. Does it smell buttery? Probably just smells....

[Tony]

Did you sprinkle active yeast over the top of the culture when you set it up?

[hjoe1112]

Well it does smell kinda bad. I didn't know about the active yeast - will need to get some.

Thanks for the advice from everyone!