First fruit fly cultures

[hjoe1112]

Hoping to get some expert advice. Made my first culture but 2-3 days later I have some white mold or fungus on the surface of the medium. Flies are still running around. I realized I didn' t mix 50/50 water and vinegar and just used water.

Do i need to throw the batch out?

Can i still feed these to my grey tree froglets? I know I can't use them for future cultures.

Thanks for any advice.

[MikeM670]

Lets start off with what type of mix did you use? I use the fly mix recipe from our very own frog forum. Take a look at the article by John called "Fruit Fly Culturing". If your culture is only a few days old I highly doubt you have mites at this time. All cultures will end up with mites. The big white ones are not nearly has bad as the smaller brown ones. I have seen my cultures with what sounds like the same as you have but they were fine. It could be some mold starting but that also sounds too early.

If in doubt just make up new cultures and follow the recipe exactly so you have some backups. You can never have too many fruit flies but certainly can not have enough!

If you can take a closeup photo and we might be able to give you a better answer.

[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!

[hjoe1112]

How long does it take to get mites?

[guppygal]

Fruitfly cultures are notorious for smelling bad. You can add cinnamon to help with the smell. I don't use active yeast in my fruitfly cultures, but I do use brewer's yeast.

I'm pretty sure that you can feed out of your current cultures while your new cultures are making -

[guppygal]

Almost forgot - it depends on how quickly you can get mites. You might get lucky and not have to worry about them at all. I do know that old cultures attract mites, especially old Hydei cultures. I put all of my current cultures in one plastic box, old cultures in another box, and new cultures in yet another plastic box. Separating them like this helps keep the mites at bay. You can also try the mite paper -

[hjoe1112]

I made a big batch with the mash potatoes and butter flavoring - should I throw it all out? Has anyone every used the butter flavored mash potato powder?

[guppygal]

Poison dart frog hobbyists tend to use the most natural products available. I'm not sure if the same goes for other types of frogs. I would be concerned about the makeup of the 'butter' content.

If it was me, I'd start over and make a new batch of culture, but I raise poison dart frogs. I'm not sure how hardy your species is. What you have may be just fine - or not.

Just a thought -