Fruit Fly Cultures, Supplies & Care Sheets

Rep-Cal and Herptivite

Rep-Cal and Herptivite have been my preferred supplements for all my frogs for years. I have had consistently good results with these products. Since so many of my customers do not have these products when they place their order for frogs with me, I decided it would be a good idea to begin offering them.

Algae Tadpole Food

Human grade Spirulina and Chlorella are the food of choice for the tadpoles at Saurian Enterprises. These algaes offer high protien and a complete diet for your tadpoles. Because there are no animal products to rot and foul the water, water changes are not needed as frequently. This food goes a long way, and two ounces will probably last the average hobbyist with a few tadpoles now and then for a couple of years.

$9.00
Shipping charge of four dollars not included in price, but will be added. Shipping of this item is free with frog and fruit fly orders

$16.00
Shipping charge of four dollars not included in price, but will be added. Shipping of this item is free with frog and fruit fly orders

$30.00
Shipping Included

$45.00
Shipping Included

Culturing Fruit Flies

Fruit flies have long been the staple food source for dart frog keepers. Many different types of poison dart frogs have been raised from froglet to breeding adult on nothing but fruit flies. It is always a good idea to supplement your dart frogs diet with different food sources, but fruit flies can be a reliable inexpensive food source for your dart frog collection. They can also be used to feed some of the smaller geckos, especially as hatchlings.

Fruit flies are available in a variety of different types. For this sheet all information concerns the Drosophila melanogaster. This is a small fruit fly with a short life cycle. It is available in a variety of flightless forms. Each is a specific genetic mutation which when crossed with a different mutation will produce many or all normal fruit flies. This means that if you have fruit flies from two different sources, you need to avoid mixing them together.
In normal production, at the appropriate temperature (72 to 78 degrees F) the time from setting up (inoculation) of the culture to the first good hatch of flies should be two weeks. These flies should be left in the jar for a couple of days so they can lay the eggs for another generation. The flies are sexually mature at about 12 hours from hatching.

Don't allow large numbers of flies to remain in the culture for more than a couple of days, as the waste and load on the culture can sometimes be too much, and the flies can suddenly die, ruining the culture.

New cultures should be set up exclusively from freshly hatching cultures. This cuts down on the risk of mite transferal, as well as mold. Mites can overwhelm your cultures, and if this happens you will need to clean everything (shelves, and surrounding surfaces) and get new flies. It might help to use a new area for a while to prevent a reoccurrence of mites. Many hobbyists use insecticide permeated shelf paper for the shelves their cultures are housed on. This product can be bought at Wal-Mart or other general stores. Mold is another problem, and it can be harder to deal with. In particular black mold is hard to get rid of. The mold spores, once released into the air, seem to linger forever, infecting new generation after new generation, in some cases. For this reason I recommend discarding cultures which have black mold in particular, without opening them. Once again the simplest solution to problems with either mold or mites is to get new flies, and clean everything while waiting for the new flies. You can also move your culturing and storage area temporarily.

A method for culturing fruit flies that I have used with some success is as follows. I obtain 32-oz deli containers, new. I cut a quarter size hole in the lid. I place a third cup of media in the bottom of the cup and add a scant half-cup of water to it. De-chlorinating your water will probably make a difference in increasing production, especially if your water supply is heavily chlorinated. Add about two dozen flies, more if you have them. I place a double folded paper towel over the cup and put the lid on.

The culture should start producing new flies in about two weeks, and produce for about a month. The heaviest production will be in the first week or so of hatching. Once again don't forget to use some of these flies to start your new cultures with. You will probably need about one culture for every three dart frogs, and you should have some extra. Set up new cultures regularly, until you have too many going, then allow the number of new cultures to settle to a number, which will sustain your collection of dart frogs. Due to the two-week cycle of the flies you should probably set up the cultures every two weeks. As the cultures mature, and then expire, you can wash them out thoroughly and reuse them or throw them away. Also during the last half of the cultures life it may be necessary to add some more water to it, to avoid it drying out.

Some Tips on Dealing with Fruit Flies

The first question a lot of people ask is "How do I get the flies out of the cup, without them going every where?" Well there is a little bit of a trick to it, the flies cannot walk up walls when their feet are coated with the dusty supplement. I put a bit of my two supplements in the cup, which is the same size as the cups the cultures are in. I then tap the culture on my hand, to knock the flies down from the top of the cup. Then I remove the lid, and carefully bring the fly culture up to meet the mouth of the cup with my supplement in it. By now the flies are almost to the top of the culture, and as the two cups meet, you fully invert the culture, so it is over the feed cup, and tap it lightly. Care should be taken not to tap too hard, as the media can be dislodged if the cup is tapped too hard.

At this point, most of the flies from the culture are in the bottom of the feeding cup, in the supplement. Put the lid back on the culture, and swirl the flies in the dust, to coat them thoroughly.

At this point, if you are feeding frogs in a shoebox, I would open the box, find the frog or frogs and check to see that they look ok, and perform any maintenance jobs needed. Then tap a few flies out of the cup near the frogs….just a few now! The frogs should begin feeding pretty much right away. Watch as the eat, and when they are out, give them some more. Continue like this for several cycles, these frogs can really pack the flies in! Or if pressed for time, put in about thirty flies for each frog, close the lid, and don't open it again any time soon, since if you open it right away, the flies will walk right out. The flies have walked in the moist substrate, and the supplement has washed off their feet, and now they can walk the walls again. If you did not over feed them, the frogs should eat most of the flies by the next day. You can help by tapping the lid occasionally to knock the flies down from the top of the shoebox, so the frogs can more easily get to them.

If you are feeding frogs in a tank, I recommend the same basic procedure. Make sure as you put your tank together that there are no cracks for the flies to get out through, and you should not have a problem with flies running free in the house.

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