Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone know a good place to purchase fruit flies from that is either based in florida or near? The site i usually purchase them from doesnt deliver because it is too hot at the moment. thanks

You might try Ed's Fly Meat, Saurian, or Black Jungle, who might be able to do it with special cool packing and overnight Fed-ex, although none is very near you. (This gets pretty expensive, though.) I did do a search for retailers in Florida, but didn't find anything except PetCo, and in my experience, their tiny containers are way over-priced without enough flies in them to even feed a good sized dart for one day, or even seed a new culture.

If you don't already culture your own, I'd certainly consider this. With the recyclable lids that are vented with a fabric over the holes, I no longer get any of the mass escapes and wild fruit fly contamination I used to get occasionally with one hole over a coffee filter or paper towel.

If you do culture them and have had a crash, and this is an emergency, you might be able to collect some field plankton with a net if you can find a place that's pesticide free. I do this anyway in season, just to vary my frogs' diet. In a past post, I suggested aphids, which my frogs love lapping right off the leaf, but someone else who tried it, said theirs ignored them. The tiny black "pavement" ants are considered good frog food by many dart keepers. There are so many species of ants, it's difficult to identify them, but generally, if they build their nests between walkway stones and such, and are very tiny, it would be safe to collect some and try them as long as no chemicals have been sprayed around. You can bait them with some fruit sprinkled with sugar in a deli-cup on its side next to the colony.

I tend to over-answer posts, anticipating other possibilities, so forgive me if it's totally irrelevant to your problem.
Saurian

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

patty, you are very wonderful for sharing your experience. I do culture flies but have had a crash and need to get new ones to start with. I havent tried collecting any insects in my yard because im always afraid that they might kill my frogs though I personally dont use any chemicals in my yard. I might give it a try. Thanks again and I look forward to hearing your experience.
kris

Even in my remote area, where none of the land has been directly sprayed, ever, I still worry about drift on winds from the farm areas. Even though your own garden or plot is pesticide-free, you don't know what the neighbors might be doing--or the city, for that matter. It's difficult not to get paranoid about this.

During one fruit fly crash, when I had only a few frogs, not 50+, I even siphoned gnats up off the window sill to feed them with this apparatus. I'm not sure how efficient it was, but it was fun, as long as there are gnats on your window and you have lots of time.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

I find I have to order 1 or 2 cultures every month. This is expensive, but I'm considering it part of the learning curve at the moment.

I try to farm the flies myself, but just don't have that experience yet.

Here's my experiences thus far:

I have 8 darts and usually keep around 10-20 cultures going at any time (right now I have 12 hydei (5 in culturing stage, 3 that are just about exhausted and 4 that are being fed off) and 8 melanogasters (2 in culturing stage, 4 that are just about exhausted and 2 that are being fed off)

1.) It seems that only about 60% of my cultures really "Take Off" and produce masses of flies.
2.) It takes my Hydei at least 21 days after starting a culture before they are producing in extreme numbers to feed off.
3.) When selecting a culture for feeding, I usually take about 75% of the flies out of one culture a day, not going back to that culture again until I have cycled through all feeding cultures.
4.) My flies are on a 12hr day/night cycle and temps are 78 during the day and 72 at night.

I would love to get to the point where I am starting new cultures frequent enough so that I always have enough flies in peak, but I guess that'll just come with time.

Can anyone offer some advice on these questions?
1.) Best media to use? - Currently using Ed's Fly Meat.
2.) Best "substrate"? - I have tried papertowels and shredded aspen

Thanks!
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-Iman

1.1 BRBs (Ying and Yang)
1.1 JCPs (Striker and Sheila)
0.0.2 BPs (Spot and Speck)
0.0.4 Dendrobates Tinctorius 'Suriname Cobalts'
0.0.4 Dendrobates Auratus 'Costa Rican Green and Black'
5.5 Fish (Insert your favorite names here)
1.0 Miniature Daschund (Rue)

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Learning to Help
Helping to Love

Stimulate debates, stifle arguments.
Please be nice always.

I use either Ed's Fly Meat media (with a sprinkle of baker's yeast, water and aspen wood excelsior stuffed in, or Patrick Nabor's media--Both appear the same. I use the 32 oz. plastic deli cups with the vented lids, which I prefer to those that have one hole and foam. For 50 frogs, I keep about 20 active cultures going at once, starting two new ones every 2-3 days. For renewing the cultures, I use the younger, 14 day old cultures and lace them rather heavily. They are in room light at room temperatures. I haven't had any trouble for a couple of years--no molds, no crashes, although in winter sometimes production gets a bit slow, so I need to keep more cultures. I begin feeding a bit from the cultures when they reach about 10 days old, depending upon the amount of flies in them, and feed less than half from each culture, working down the line from youngest to oldest. Shortages usually occur only because I've neglected to renew them often enough. So far, I've not had molds, mites or other problems. Knock on wood.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

The way that I cultured the fruit flies was that I would be VERY conscientious about starting a new culture WHENEVER I started feeding off a culture. I would use those first flies from the culture. I heard that if you wait and use the flies from later on, they aren't as fertile. I also put a drop or two of honey into my cultures (supposed to keep down the smell). Another trick that I learned was to gently spray the new culture with water after putting the bakers' yeast in. I heard something about how it would make the yeast active? You might want to check the temps of the room where you are keeping the cultures. Too warm or too cold is not good, it affects their fertility. I found that (at least at my house) that they were affected by lack of light. I had to keep them out on a shelf. Remember that hydeii take a lot longer to culture than melagonaster. I heard that it takes twice as long for hydeii.
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phflame
kingsnake.com host

Awesome ideas from both of you.

I like the start a new culture as you feed one off... and I'm glad to know that Slaytnop is making her cultures the same way that I am.

Thanks for the tips.
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-Iman

1.1 BRBs (Ying and Yang)
1.1 JCPs (Striker and Sheila)
0.0.2 BPs (Spot and Speck)
0.0.4 Dendrobates Tinctorius 'Suriname Cobalts'
0.0.4 Dendrobates Auratus 'Costa Rican Green and Black'
5.5 Fish (Insert your favorite names here)
1.0 Miniature Daschund (Rue)

Loving to Learn
Learning to Help
Helping to Love

Stimulate debates, stifle arguments.
Please be nice always.