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Post by dvg on Mar 8, 2008 22:40:58 GMT -5
I raise wingless and flightless fruitflies for my CPs. I noticed that some of you are keeping and breeding some pretty awesome looking dart and tree frogs. So I'm hoping some of you may be feeding your froglets with fruitflies that were fed with your own home-made fruitfly medium. I really don't want to use any chemicals, but would like to be able to control bacteria and mold from taking over the medium. I would be willing to share how I was able to free both of my fruitfly varieties of mites that arrived with them on shipment. Have any of you posted an organic medium recipe that also has some microbe resistance to it, except for the yeast that is added. I'd appreciate any help here.
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Post by Syble on Mar 9, 2008 8:56:21 GMT -5
I experiment alot. Not having problems with mites, apparently getting rid of old cultures are the key. I use a basic potatoe flake medium with a vinigar water mix as a mould inhibitor. Sib
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Post by dvg on Mar 9, 2008 10:26:12 GMT -5
Hey, I like the vinegar idea, that's great Syble. Then I'm thinking, where am I going to get potato flakes. Really. I've only seen potato flakes in the fruitfly medium, that I ordered. Ahh, another mystery. You gotta luv this hobby. Thanks again, Syble. A person must be able to make their own potato flakes....hmmm...
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Post by doug on Mar 9, 2008 10:42:30 GMT -5
You can get potato flakes at the grocery store. We used Pablum (baby food).
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Post by dvg on Mar 9, 2008 11:05:16 GMT -5
How did you find the pablum worked, it should be fortified with vitamins and minerals. Did you add vinegar or did you even have any problems with bacteria and mold growths? Next time i'm at the grocer's I'll look for potato flakes. Thanks Doug.
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Post by Syble on Mar 9, 2008 11:16:58 GMT -5
We have bulk barns here in ontario, but try looking for bulk food places, you can get everything you need there, including the PLAIN potatoe flakes, and various other goodies to fortify or experiment with, like protine mixes, wheat germ, and brewers yeast Sib
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Post by dvg on Mar 9, 2008 16:59:27 GMT -5
Thanks for the info Syble, now my imagination is really running. I feel like raiding a health food store.
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Post by lloyd on Mar 9, 2008 18:28:02 GMT -5
www.amphibiancare.com/frogs/articles/fruitflies.htmlI used the easier recipe on this site. It worked great and there was no contamination with no antimicrobial precautions. I bought the potato flakes at Loblaws in Toronto. The flies died when I let the medium dry out. Syble inherited the potato flakes.
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Post by Rick Hillier on Mar 9, 2008 19:17:51 GMT -5
I've had nothing but trouble with growing fruit flies using anything that I make from scratch. It might be my environment, but I get a ton of mould and crap taking over the medium and everything crashes. My four little frogs were starving to death. On the weekend of the big expo in Mississauga, Syble was kind enough to bring me a couple of her cultures that were doing well to get me back in the game (she seems to do well with her recipes where I fail miserably - I'll stick to baking from now on ). Anyway, I came into contact with Canadian Feeders from Windsor, Ontario. They have a medium that has some sort of fungicide in it and it all turns a nice turquoise colour when mixed. I am having fantastic results with it and would recommend it to anyone who has problems with mold/fungi/other problems. My frogs are nice and fat now and seem to be back on track. >>> Rick <<<
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Post by dvg on Mar 9, 2008 23:35:48 GMT -5
Hey, I want to thank all of you for your input. Now I really have some material to work with. Great stuff, thanks again. Doug G
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Post by Syble on Mar 10, 2008 8:53:32 GMT -5
There is a ton of info out there, you can make it as complex or simple as you want, and i must admit, i don't really notice much difference in production. Actually I find it comes down to the more flies you put in to begin with the more you get out, but that can be a double edged sword! Too many flies left in a culture to die can easily choke out the culture and crash it! I've had it happen a few times. Actually I finally am recovered from the december happenings hehe. Another bonus to having added alot of flies to start the culture is that the resulting larvae will churn the media so much the it makes mould have a hard time to set foot in. I started off buying fancy premade media, but when my guy ran out I experimented with my own stuff. I think sometimes we over complicate things! For darts in particular nutritional value on the flies isn't a huge deal because we dust them with supplements. Speeking of which, i've got to feed the little beasties and make some more cultures today! Thanks sib
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Post by Syble on Mar 10, 2008 14:02:15 GMT -5
Just finished making my cultures for today. I was aiming for 4, but ended up making 5 very full ones! Also pictured on either side are cultures from a week or 2 ago, although now i see you can't see the action in them. Also shows what i used in it. Oats(like the instantoatmeal type, which i then ground up), plain potatoe flakes, rons mix, brewers yeast, icing sugar, and odds and ends left over from my experimenting times (wheat germ, protien powder, ect, what ever caught my eye while walking through the bulk barn!) I won't be adding flies to these in the next couple days, might be upwards of a week, but they're ready for them when it comes to the point that i have good blooms on my up and comming cultures. I opt out for the excelsior over paper or coffee filters, easier to get adult flies out as you can turn it over and the excelsior dosen't fall out like the others do! Thanks Sib
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Post by sdeering on Mar 13, 2008 10:01:10 GMT -5
The brewers yeast is the sheeeeite and a must for the heydi. Some things I have used rolled oats babe food, banana, sweet potato, apple sauce molasses potato flake vinegar real fruit rice crispies sunny boy porge.
There is a recipie on canadart I would like to try. Stephen
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