Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well how do you know when you need to get rid of a ff culture jar/deli cup, clean it and start another culture with that containter? once the media looks bad or what?

thanks
aj
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Click Here to See My Dart Tank In The Making UPDATED 6.15.03 SPOILER! Still Needs Moss View At Your Own Risk

kungfu28181: My god. You are insane. -Mon Jun 30 21:41:05

Every 3 weeks or so I can usually notice a dramatic drop in fly production in a heidi culture. Once I notice this drop, I toss out the culture. I usually start secondary cultures about 5-7 days after the first hatch of the primary cultures.
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Randy
Lawrence, Kansas
1.1 Azureus
1.1 Cobalt
1.1 Fantasticus
1.1 Bastimentos Pumilio

You will know

The flies start decreasing in size, everything gets dry inside of the container, the population boom starts to dwindle, etc.

Certain mixes prolong all of this better than others, but in my experience, the shorter the life period the faster they produce. On my long living cultures (2 months sometimes), it takes about 1 month for the flies to even start hatching from cocoons. But the flies are large and fertile for over twice the normal time period.

For these reasons always make sure you have "too many" cultures going at a time. It is ALWAYS better to have too much than too little in any situation. If you feel like a culture has too many flies in it then just let half of the flies go outside or flush them

In my final words, dont let the cultures fool you. Just because they seem to be producing at a gigantic rate doesn't mean there will still be flies in there 2 weeks or even 1 week later.

May have been too much info, but good luck and have fun anyway
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Thanks and Gig Em,
Cliff
0.2.1 Sipiwlini Tinc's

ohh no that was great info. exactly what i was looking for! thanks you two!
aj
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Click Here to See My Dart Tank In The Making UPDATED 6.15.03 SPOILER! Still Needs Moss View At Your Own Risk

kungfu28181: My god. You are insane. -Mon Jun 30 21:41:05

When its all dried up looking like brown dust and you see alot of dead fruit flie inside.