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Fruitfly cultures.

How hard is it to keep fruit fly cultures? I figure its pretty easy, but I wanted to know what you guys have to say about it. The reason why I'm keeping them is because I plan on getting Mantids (fruit fly's for the small instars), this is besides the point though. Thanks for any help.
 
They aren't to bad. I've been growing D. Hydei (flightless) for a couple months now. Had to restart it a couple weeks ago after I had fed the last of the adults to my CPs I forgot to recap the container and the medium and pupae dried out killing everything. The worst part of growing them so far, is cleaning up the old medium to get the container ready for a new batch. I tried a couple of DIY mediums and had trouble with mold and fungus taking over. I've been using and instant fruitfly medium I ordered from the internet and it works pretty good for me.
 
Ooo...mantids. I want to keep mantids so badly, but I think one crazy hobby is enough for me right now. Plus, I like spending all my money on plants. :D

In my research I found this forum. You might have already know about it, but if not, you should check it out.
mantid forum

Good luck! When you do get some mantids...please post pictures.
 
How about how many Fruit flys do you think you can get in lets say a 24 oz or 32 oz culture? What temperature should they be kept at? Approximately how many flys would I be able to take from the culture?

Thanks for that forum link but I'm already on their forum, theirs not much activity so i don't get use out of it.
 
How hard is it to keep fruit fly cultures?

varies.........ive had them crash for no reason. i find raising enough fruit flies for my dart frogs to be the most challenging part of keeping dart frogs.....the rest of it is easy

How about how many Fruit flys do you think you can get in lets say a 24 oz or 32 oz culture?

most come with ~75 flies

What temperature should they be kept at?

room temp, ~75 degrees works fine

Approximately how many flys would I be able to take from the culture?
depending on wich species either around 500 for hydie or a couple thousand with melono's
 
LOL! I just put rotting fruit in plastic containers (in the attic), near the CP's, and let nature take its course. I don't worry about where they go.
 
Well once my ant colony's get going back up Fruit flys will make great bits of food.

Rattler you are saying that if I take 200 or so from a culture I will still have a strong culture?
 
depends on what your doing..................out of mature colonies(which is at about week 2) ill take ~250 out of one every other day..........i usually have 4-6 mature cultures going at a time with new cultures started every other week..........however im trying to keep around 20 frogs in breeding condition. and they need to eat good sized meals 3 or 4 times a week..........
 
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