D. hydei shouldn't be too big for azureus, even young ones. You can purchase a culture of the smaller flightless melanogaster, if you suspect this is the problem. They have either crumpled or vestigial wings. Sometimes, if a culture gets contaminated with wild fruit flies or cross breeds with other types of fruit flies, some of the offspring may be be flighted, but fruit flies you purchase for feeding should not be of a flighted variety.



Overfeeding was mentioned, but if the frogs are actively catching the flies, then spitting them out, something else is going on. I tend to "overfeed" a lot, but the only problem here is that I have some obese frogs.



After trying out a lot of magic formulas that I brewed up myself, I've found that the dried media (mostly potato flakes, I assumre) and culture kits that Saurian.net sells do a great (unstinky) job with both D. hydei and D. melanogaster.



I've had other contaminants, such as a gnat-like creature that the frogs love to eat, and some small "scorpion spiders," so I don't worry about it, but have never experienced mites in a culture. These would be tiny 8 legged critters, like very tiny spiders. You should be able to spot them and see them better under a hand lense. They don't harm the frogs, only interfere with your culture, as I understand.



What kind of calcium/vitamin powder are you dusting the flies with before you feed them? There's an off-chance that the frogs may not like the taste of this, although I've never had them reject any of the dusts I have used. I'm using T-rex tree frog dust now, although in the past I've used various combinations of reptile dusts recommended by the breeders. This is a mystery.
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Patty

Pahsimeroi, Idaho



4 D. auratus blue

5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back

5 D. imitator

6 D. leucomelas

4 D. pumilio Bastimentos

4 D. fantasticus

4 P. terribilis

4 D. reticulatus

4 D. castaneoticus

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