I find I have to order 1 or 2 cultures every month. This is expensive, but I'm considering it part of the learning curve at the moment.

I try to farm the flies myself, but just don't have that experience yet.

Here's my experiences thus far:

I have 8 darts and usually keep around 10-20 cultures going at any time (right now I have 12 hydei (5 in culturing stage, 3 that are just about exhausted and 4 that are being fed off) and 8 melanogasters (2 in culturing stage, 4 that are just about exhausted and 2 that are being fed off)

1.) It seems that only about 60% of my cultures really "Take Off" and produce masses of flies.
2.) It takes my Hydei at least 21 days after starting a culture before they are producing in extreme numbers to feed off.
3.) When selecting a culture for feeding, I usually take about 75% of the flies out of one culture a day, not going back to that culture again until I have cycled through all feeding cultures.
4.) My flies are on a 12hr day/night cycle and temps are 78 during the day and 72 at night.

I would love to get to the point where I am starting new cultures frequent enough so that I always have enough flies in peak, but I guess that'll just come with time.

Can anyone offer some advice on these questions?
1.) Best media to use? - Currently using Ed's Fly Meat.
2.) Best "substrate"? - I have tried papertowels and shredded aspen

Thanks!
-----
-Iman

1.1 BRBs (Ying and Yang)
1.1 JCPs (Striker and Sheila)
0.0.2 BPs (Spot and Speck)
0.0.4 Dendrobates Tinctorius 'Suriname Cobalts'
0.0.4 Dendrobates Auratus 'Costa Rican Green and Black'
5.5 Fish (Insert your favorite names here)
1.0 Miniature Daschund (Rue)


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Helping to Love

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