Food for Thought

Culturing fruit flys can be one of the most cost effective ways to keep your frogs fed. While there are a number of varieties of fruit flys available, we will focus on culturing the D. melanogaster.

This same method can be used for culturing hydei, however the time frame is a little different due to their slower hatching time. Hydei take approx 21-23 days to reproduce. Each variety of fruit fly is a specific mutation, and should not be mixed with other varieties.

Your new culture will need to be set up from a fresh culture that is 3-5 days into the first hatch. Once you have prepared the media according to the directions, introduce approx 30-50 flys. Make a note of the date the culture was prepared, then place your culture out of direct sunlight. Ideal temprature for a culture is 75-78 degrees. Tempratures too low or too high will result in production problems for your cultures. After 7-9 days, you will start to see larva crawling up the sides of the container. At this time, you can feed off the adult flys. After a couple of feedings you will have no adult flys in the container, only larva. Approximately one week after you have feed off the adult flys you should start to see a fresh hatch of flys. After 2-3 days, you can use the fresh hatch of flys to start a new culture and repeat the process. After you have used the first hatch of flys to set up a new culture, then you can use the culture for feeding purposes.

Cultures will continue to produce for 3 to 4 weeks. It is recommended that you dispose of cultures after 4 weeks to lessen the risk of grain mites infesting your cultures. Grain mites can be successfully managed by rotating your cultures.

Some tips for culturing fruit flys:

• Using new flys from the first hatch will result in better production.
• Fruit flys are sexually mature and start to mate 12 hours after hatching.
• Do not let your cultures become over populated. Keep your cultures thinned out.
• Start new cultures on a weekly basis.
• One culture should produce enough to feed two frogs.
• If you notice a culture that has a black powdery mold, DO NOT OPEN the lid. Dispose of the culture immediately.
• If you notice a yellowish green or grey viscous film on the surface of the culture, the eggs do not hatch, or the larva die as well as the adults, this is probably due to a bacterial infection in the culture. Dispose of the infected culture immediately.
• Using clean sterile equipment and containers, as well as working in a clean environment will help to eliminate the possibility mold and bacteria.