Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a fruit fly culture that is gonna be gone soon and i was wondering if i put some fruit in like a strawberry would they keep on multiplying and would there be no problems involved.

Fruit flies as their name implies can be cultured on a media of fruit. Bananas and apples work well. Culturing fruit flies on fruit has its disadvantages, such as mold and fungus. As long as it is a green or blue mold which is normally seen on fruit and the media is not completely covered, it should be safe to feed from. Otherwise throw away the culture and start fresh. There are commercially available fruit fly media available with mold inhibitors (we strongly recommend using the commercially available media). All adults should be removed periodically to prevent over population.
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Ethan

Hi - Because you would need to keep it covered in order to keep the ff contained it will mold VERY quickly and you would need to change it often - like at least once a day. The ff are actaully feeding on the yeast that is produced during fermentation not the fruit itself.

My suggestions would be to either buy a culturing kit which will get you started with live ff, medium for MANY cultures, containers, etc. I got mine from Timebrline www.timberlinefisheries.com/fruit_fly.html tho' other companies offer it as well. You can also buy just the medium from them (it is in dry form you add water and some yeast).

Another approach is to make your own culture - I have not done this yet but here are two sites with info:

www.anapsid.org/fruitfly.html

www.thebdg.org/library/feeding/drosophila_-_the_last_word.htm

I began with the smaller size ff but much prefer the larger hydei as do my chams

hope this helps you out!

lele
>>i have a fruit fly culture that is gonna be gone soon and i was wondering if i put some fruit in like a strawberry would they keep on multiplying and would there be no problems involved.