Breeding fruit flies

[Greenhorn]

Hi,

How do i go about breeding fruit flies?

 

[Fidel]

It's called "culturing" fruit flys. You buy this stuff called fly meat, mix it up in a cup, add your choice of medium(coffee filters, excelcior, etc) and add about 25-50 flys and wait about 10 days. Check out dendroboard.com and search it.

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

they're simple

Culturing kits are readily available online.

I've ran a comparison test using Drosophila Hydei
two container types (foam plug/ felt top) and the food stuffs from
http://www.azdr.com
http://www.edsflymeat.com

felt top gives faster results than foam plugs (as expected)
I found that the AZDR feed produced well but was prone to fungus
the breeding was rapid, development was also much quicker
by about a week's time in total when compared to the enhanced ed's feed.
the fungus will be a problem that I'll solve with some inhibitor next time around.
assuming that it's not symbiotic -which it may be.

granted this is only my experience and the sample size was small
but when it's all taken into account, it's good to know
if I want to retain a culture for longer periods of time
vs quick production for hungry hatchlings.

 

[PardalisGirl]

I also maintain cultures of Dropsophila Hydei. I get all my supplies from Ed's Fly Meat (the link supplied earlier). I use the larger plastic containers with the aerated lids that Ed's Fly Meat sells. I follow that site's directions. I put a crumpled piece of wax paper into the medium for crawling flies (Liddy Kammer does this too). I have never had a mold problem with Ed's Super Instant Fly Medium. I have several cultures going at once. If I run out of flies to feed out and have unexpected babies I buy cultures from Big Apple. They are sent Next Day Air and are usually really good. I recently bought a six-pack of them because I have so many babies. One of the six started to mold. The other five are producing like crazy. I feed my babies mini crickets and fruit flies. Babies that are reluctant to feed at first seem to like the fruit flies the best for some reason. The dark color of the flies seem to attract them too. Crickets are meater but babies have lots of fun catching the fruit flies and will eat them like popcorn. It gives them some variety.

 

[Tygerr]

Greenhorn,
Speak to the guys at Reptilians pet shop in Fourways. They have a supplier who cultures fruit flies - I'm sure he'll be able to tell you where to get what you need in Jo'burg.