Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering how simple and how time consuming it is to culture fruitflies. I've had vivariums ready and have been reading up on dart frogs for over a year and a half, but have been shying away from keeping them because of their feeding. I was wondering things like does culturing require everyday maintenance, will and entire culture die if I don't do everything perfect, do cultures take a lot of time and money, etc. Also, I was wondering the best place to get the supplies and original cultures. I've kept reptiles and amphibians before, but all I've ever needed to do was buy crickets.

Thanks,

Pat

Not requiring a great deal of knowledge or difficult labor, then yes, they are quite easy. If by easy you mean not time-consuming, then no.

Fruit flies, given room and food/burrowing medium, breed pretty readily. 25 of them in a mason jar (with a lid, of course) will produce hundreds, even thousands, of flies. However, every couple of days you have to thin the herd, removing newly hatched flies for feeding purposes and for beginning the next generation of fruit flies. You will spend a decent amount of time starting new cultures, cleaning old ones out, etc. And fruit flies, by themselves, don't make great meals for the life of a frog, so you will have to also use pinhead crickets, small waxworms, silkworms, flour beetle larvae, termites, and/or springtails to round out a good diet. Keeping dart frogs is a lot of work. But, it is its own reward.

Thanks for the info. If I were to keep a trio of leucs or tinctorius, how often would I have to start new cultures? Also, do you personally use a homemade media, or do you buy it from somewhere?