Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a couple cultures a few months ago, and they have been working just fine. Ive made about 7 or 8 cultures off the original two, but this one was diff. I made 2 new ones about 10 days ago, and when I go to open one, a ton of little flies come flying out!!! Now, its only this one culture that did, that other one made at the same time was still normal. As where all the previous one. But for some reason, jus tthis one has flying flies! I dont know why???? Did they morph? Or did a natural fruit fly get in a spoil it? I dont think that happened though, flies where dumped in and sealed off just like every other one Ive made. Any ideas? Cuz im confused. thanks

I took the culture outside to see them better, and heres what happened. About half of the flies just flew away. But about 25% couldnt fly at all, and 25% could fly a few inches. I found this odd. It would seem a flying fly got in there and interbred. Based on the simple theorys of Mendel, it seems the flyin gene is the dominant one huh? Again, Im almost positive no other flies got it there, it doesnt seem possible the way I did it. So, I am still confused though Anyone else ever experience this?

from one culture got into another culture? From what I have heard, if you mix flies into different cultures, that can produce flighted fruit flies. I have also heard (don't know if it is true) that once you get flighted flies in your culture, the whole line is corrupted. So don't use ANY of those flies to seed more cultures or you will have the flighted gene in all the new cultures.
-----
sue

I have been told by some very experienced froggers that mixing flightless lines would cause fliers. However, being inquisitive, I have tried it and it doesn't. It may even benefit the flies by adding a little more genetic diversity. I think that we as a hobby have not thought through the effects of our culturing methods (i.e. we make cultures with the fastest moving flies when we make new cultures, etc.)

Yes, the flying gene is dominant. It only takes one flier to mess up a culture. He could have flown in while you were making cultures or feeding from that culture. I once got fliers and on inspection found a crack in the cup (these were the hard plastic cups which I don't recommend for this and other reasons).
-----
Josh Willard
www.joshsfrogs.com

"From what I have heard, if you mix flies into different cultures, that can produce flighted fruit flies."

I've heard the same thing. Apparently there are multiple genes that lead to "flightlessness" so it's not just like your regular Punnitt(sp?) square.

Whoever said that they did mix two and had no problems - maybe your two independent lines happened to have the same gene for "flightlessness".

The most likely cause is a wild fruit fly or more got in there, and they can certainly do this, no matter how sealed off you think your cultures are. I get cultures with flighted flies periodically. I just feed them off to the frogs, let the flighted flies fly away and concentrate on reproducing the cultures with no signs of flighted flies. The phenomenon goes away in time. Your cultures are not ruined. You can just selectively cycle out the cultures with some flighted flies.
-----
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
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus

I tried to let the flying ones out, but at least 3/4 of them took off I just threw the whole thing away. Unfortunatly Im only gonna have one newly hatching culture to feed 4 frogs for a while, but good thing is, ive got two more to be ready in less then a week. ANTS... here I come!!!

And again, just to be sure, the mushrooms are still fine in there? I did just have one, but it seems theyre spreading. Theres at lesat 20 in there now. They are small and dont seem to be doing and harm, but again, cant be to sure thanks