I use a recipe I found on a website called "someones"frogroom...Cant remember the name right now, but he had plenty of experience and good things to say about his method. Ive tried it out, and it is super easy, cheap, and only smells like orange juice.

1 cup oats
1/3 cup potatoe flakes
1 tsp of sugar
a pinch of bakers yeast

Mix the ingredients. (I choose to throw them in my magic bullet for a few seconds)

Then add enough orange juice to ensure the majority of the mixture is moist, however you still want there to be a little dry ingredient left at the bottom of the culture. The culture beomes more liquid over time so it will eventually become soggy just like the rest of it.

Let sit overnight, then add a folded up paper towel, and some flies. Presto

 

well, ibeen using this formula with a great success.

6 cups of potato flakes
2 cups of brewers yeast
1 cup of powder sugar
2 table spoons of cinamon

1 tea spoon of methyl paraben, only used with hydei cultures.

 

Julio, that seems like a nice easy ingredients list also. How many cultures would you use this for? 6-8? And do you just use water in the similar fashion as I stated with the orange juice?

 

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/33846-hydei-media-mix-ideas-needed.html

 

Before my collection got big I used:

1 cup white sugar
2 cups powdered/instant milk
4 cups instant mashed potatoes
2 table spoons of cinnamon

For melos I used 1/2 cup media, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup vinegar. Never had great success with hydei using this media...... Works great because you can get everything at your local grocery store!

-Mike-

 

I use this exact formula for melos and hydei just water though ,only had trouble with the hydei I suspect it was the high temps that had to do with it!!Been using it for three years!

 

1 tea spoon of methyl paraben, only used with hydei cultures.[/QUOTE]

Why only with Hydei??

 

Do you guys find the cinnamon helps with the smell?

 

Yes, and it helps to prevent mold.

 

I am going to have to try this next time I make cultures... I just made a bunch yesterday.

 

I use the one listed on UE, mainly because I don't like to use anything I have to order on line. I don't like the vinegar smell though so I do use methyl paraben but I've made it without the methyl paraben and have had no mold problems. The measurements are eye balling, not specific at all.

1/2 banana per culture
Applesauce (a cup or 2 depending on how much you want to make)
Potato flakes, add to desired consistency basically until it's not runny
1/2tbs of methyl paraben for each culture made
1 tbs of yeast per culture made, I use bakers yeast because it doesn't smell and you can get it in bulk cheap at Costco
Let the mix sit for 24 hours before adding flies so the CO2 made by the yeast will escape
Sprinkle some yeast on the top of the culture for adult flies to eat before putting in excelsior/coffee filter.

I like this recipe because it call for fruit and not just freeze dried or powdered everything. This is under the assumption there's some benefit to feeding fruit flies fresh fruit. Novel huh? I hear adding powdered milk can help production too so I add a tablespoon per culture. I never figured out if there's any benefit from it but I now have a big box of it so in it goes.

 

1 tbs of yeast per culture made, I use bakers yeast because it doesn't smell and you can get it in bulk cheap at Costco

you really need brewers yeast in the mix. just because theyre both east doesnt mean that they serve the same purpose. if anything, its the bakers yeast that you can go without since the flies carry it with them into new cultures. the brewers is an essential part of the FF mixture. i didnt want to spend the money for it at first, but when you see the difference between those made with and without, theres no going back.

james

 

Ive been using the recipe that Marty posted a while back, I found it in a sticky on culturing and Ive had GREAT results (even being a noob myself...) my cultures have just taken off and its very easy to mix a big batch of media up (i keep it in a cereal storage container with a flip top) and have it ready to just scoop and add the liquid ingredients in.

I also HIGHLY recommend making up some "Overflow" containers, very very useful when you are up to your eyeballs in flies haha

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/18630-fruit-fly-culturing-mini-howto.html

and here was an excellent breakdown of how much of each ingredient to mix

Basic ratios:
8 parts potato flakes
1 part sugar
1 part brewers yeast (i found this at Whole Foods, any store with a bulk foods section will probably carry it)

With that recipe I use 8 cups potato flakes, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup brewers yeast (shake/stir WELL) and again gallon zip loc bags or a big tupperware like the ones for cereal are awesome.

When you go to actually make your cultures, measure 1/3 cup media into a fruitfly cup, add 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup vinegar and swirl it, a pinch of the bakers yeast on top, add excelsior or coffee filters and like 50-75 flies


I can imagine cinnamon would be a pleasant substitution to the vinegar, do you adjust your other ingredients to account for less liquid being added in? I have about 10-15+ cultures going right now but the smell isn't terrible, maybe it is worse in larger quantities... All of my tanks/supplies are set up in the family room and Ive yet to hear a complaint from the roommates..

 

I have a question. What if any would be the effect of using 1 cup of media in the 32 oz cups we all use , for melanos? The only flies I get good production out of are the Gliders, which I hate because they get out and get everywhere.

 

Definitely a love/hate relationship with the gliders, they produce at least twice as much as the melanos but I need to put banana smeared on a piece of leaf litter in each tank when I feed them out to try to keep them in as well as banana in cups on the floor around the tanks - and they STILL are all over the place

 

So I have had people tell me about their incredible melano production and on a few occasions I have received cultures that had these numbers and I get them and on a good hatch maybe get a teaspoon of flies. On gliders the good hatch is at least2 plus tablespoons, massive amounts, but then I get 1 more decent hatch and they are pretty much done. The melanos will go on after the first hatch to produce, but even smaller numbers with each hatch. And the medium is not drying out.So my question is, am I stuck with inhaling gliders forever or am I missing something with the melanos, I really am tired of inhaling, drinking, and probably eating gliders, I even think I am developing the Tinc Twitch, Bill

 

I've always had great success with my melanogaster cultures using the following recipe:

Blend the following:

8-10 overripe bananas
(I always blend a large carrot and some vitamin A and D3 supplements into the media but this is not necessary for large production)
1 cup of water

Put the above into a pot and add:

2 cups water
3 cups apple cider vinegar
1/4th cup Dark molasses
1 can of grape juice concentrate
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp vanilla

Bring the above mixture to a rolling boil for five minutes.

After bringing this mixture to a boil, add the dry material

1 cup malt of meal
1 1/3 cup potato flakes
2/3 cup Brewers Yeast (the key ingredient)

It stinks like hell for an hour while boiling on that vinegar, but the production (for me) is totally worth it. I usually add a cup and a half or two cup of media per culture (way more than most people do) and this usually makes 8-10 cultures. If you were to reduce the amount of media (I know some people who only use a half inch of media) you could probably make 20+ cultures and freeze those that you don't use right away.... Also, I use the coffee filter method, I find this produces more than excelsior as has been mentioned.

 

If you have time to fold coffee filters, I always got much better production when using that method. What I did was accordian fold a coffee filter 1/4" pleats, fold it at about 1/3 of the length (to make it about the same height as the culture container), stick it into the media, and repeat, till there are enough filters in there that they will not collapse (20-30 IIRC).
After finishing this process, I popped the cultures in the microwave, because the culture was open so long, chances of contamination are great.
I belive I remember getting at least 1/8 cup of flies per shake with this method.
I'm considering going back...I switched to excelsior due to the time involved, but I'm pretty sure I could get by with less cultures with the filter method.
For Hydei, I'd probably stick with excelsior though...the coffee filters seemed to disintegrate with them.

 

I use filters and have used excelsior. I saw no difference.

 

Did you do folds? I think that is key to the success I saw. More surface area, and they dont collapse with the accordian folds.

 

I use the basic potato flakes\powdered sugar\brewers yeast mix, adding 50/50 water/vinegar. I use a different container, though. I recycle my water bottles, using a third cup each of dry and liquid. I prefer the broader excelsior - the larva are able to pupate a little better on it. I also use black pantyhose to cover my bottles - I can see if I have a mite problem fairly quickly. One more thing I've learned over the years is that placing my cultures on baker's racks helps keep the mites from spreading.

Here's a pix of a hydei culture prepped 8/29 (right) and a mel culture prepped 09/06 (left).

 

I use the basic potato flakes\powdered sugar\brewers yeast mix, adding 50/50 water/vinegar.

I use this mix as well too but lately have been getting crap production for over a month.
I'm only culturing wingless melanos right now.
The only factor I can think of is I have been trying to be kind of cheap and use less excelsior per culture.
My yields were much higher when I used Josh's Frogs media opposed to my own.

I also didn't see much of a difference when using cofffee filters vs excelsior. (except like Brian said about the coffee filters not lasting when I used to have hydei)

 

I do the folding technique. Guppygal I like your artistic flair on your cultures

 

I was using coffee filters but they kept dissolving into the medium and I've used excelsior, which always leaves a mess somewhere (everywhere). Lately I've been using the plastic shopping bags from the grocery store. I cut the 2 corners out about the length of the container I'm using and split what's left, so I end up with 4 pieces for 4 containers, and stick into the medium. This has worked well and is the cleanest way I've found so far.

I use 4 cups of potato flakes, 1/4 cup of brewer’s yeast, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 2 teaspoons of methyparaben 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. I put 1/4 cup of mix, 1/2 cup+ of water and a little baker’s yeast.

I've seen so many different quantities of baker's yeast--is there any correct amount?

 

I've seen so many different quantities of baker's yeast--is there any correct amount?

Yes, but I would have to go digging to locate it. Protein is one of the main nutrients limiting growth and production in a fruit fly culture. The brewer's yeast/nutritional yeast or soy or dried milk all provide a higher level of protien which then allows for greater population and growth levels. However if you add too much protien you can not only change the microbial growth and waste products (ammonia..) but the nutritional requirements of the flies for other nutrients. Either or both of these will significantly affect your production levels. (for those interested you can start with this paper from 1956..http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/33/1/45.pdf).

If I remember correctly the basic Carolina mixes are probably pretty close.

With respect to adding vitamin A and D3, to the media, the flies do not uptake D3 (and this doesn't even take into consideration that the microbes in the media will be digesting it..) and the only A found in the flies is located in the eye of the fly and is synthesized from carotenoids. The flies will uptake tocopherols.. but not normally A or D3.

Ed

 

I use one of the standard mixes:

3C powdered sugar
1/4C methyl paraben
24C potato flakes
2C brewers yeast

Mix up and keep dry. When ready to use mix 50/50 with hot water, sprinkle with bakers yeast and spritz with water (one spray does it).

I've had great luck with this mix, nice steady production. I've also been spraying my culture lids (coffee filters) with reptile mite treatment and allowing them to dry before using. Since I started this I haven't had any problems with the little buggers.
Best of luck,
Melissa

 

My recipe keeps changing--but I have been using the same set of Melanogasters for two years now and have not 'lost' a culture since, nor had problems with mite infestation or mold before 2 weeks into the culture life.

Now I am trying:

2 cups purified water
1/8 cup organic molasses
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
2 bananas
instant potato flakes
Baker's yeast
spirulina powder

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.

Add potato flakes 1/4 cup at a time until it is no longer 'soupy', but 'pasty'

Blend well with whisk---separate into cups with four spoonfuls in each, allow to cool to 90 degrees.
Sprinkle a coating of baker's yeast on top just to cover the media (about 1 TBS), and add 1 tsp spirulina powder. Stir into the media a bit. Allow some to spill down the sides of the cup, which will encourage the sides not to exude too much extra water and drown flies/larvae.
Add a tuft of excelsior, pressing it into the media a bit, but keeping it away from the sides of the cup if possible. It should not be more than what will reach halfway up the cup.

Cover and place in freezer for up to one month before use.

 

Before I got lazy and decided to buy fruit fly media, I used whole wheat flour instead of potato flakes. I'm surprised nobody uses flour? Even if I add too much liquid to fly cultures, I will add flour to thicken it.

 

Afterwards bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and you'll have some beautiful biscuits. Honestly that's the first I heard of using flour.

 

I've used Julio's mix minus the brewers yeast since I can't seem to find a local supplier. Maybe super supplements sells it. Instead I tried using red star bakers yeast and my cultures are pretty lame (I assume this is due to the lack of brewers yeast). I also tried upping the amount of cinnamon and using water only but I got really bad mold as a result so I still use 50/50 water and vinegar. The cinnamon does help with the smell however. Have any of you guys tried using whey protein? I have a ton of that stuff laying around from my body building/power lifting days. If it's a protein issue I would imagine this stuff would yield tons of flies.

 

I just added a couple scoops into my latest batch, I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Ryan,
I usually just order mine from Josh's frogs, if i were to buy locally it would be way more for much less even after shipping cost.

 

Right on I'll order some here in the near future then. I really need to get the yields up. Thanks Julio!

Yes you can use whey protiens to supply the protien needs for the flies (if you read through the paper I linked to above, you will see that they used casein in thier studies which is a protien mix derived from milk (as a simplistic explination). You will have to fiddle with the ratios a little to see what works best but I wouldn't start with a protien content higher than 5% as protein levels above that are known to reduce production. Also about 5% total protein is about what is needed to maximize production (but one should also include the protien already included in the media).

I can't speak for how it will make your cultures smell...

If I understand you correctly you added more live yeast to the culture. This isn't really going to increase your protien levels in the same way as a prekilled yeast. The live yeast will compete for oxygen with the flies and this can reduce production/larval development. Some live yeast should be added as this helps prevent other microbes from colonizing the media and helps stimulate egg production.

Ed

How can I account for the percentages of protein content vs say carbohydrates or sugars etc.? I could be wrong but I don't think potato flakes and sugar have much, if any, protein value. Yes the live yeast was substituted for brewer's at the same ratio as Julio's recipe (maybe a little less). Is there a way for me to kill it and use it in the same way as brewer's? I guess what I'm asking is, is brewer's yeast just dead baker's yeast? I have noticed what seems to be greater pressure inside the cultures, though not much since I generally use porous weed blocker material for the lids. So just to be clear it's ok to use the whey as long as the total protein content doesn't exceed 5% of the total mixture?

I just added a couple scoops into my latest batch, I'll let you know how it goes.

Sweet Tony, please do.

 

Yes you can use whey protiens to supply the protien needs for the flies (if you read through the paper I linked to above, you will see that they used casein in thier studies which is a protien mix derived from milk (as a simplistic explination). You will have to fiddle with the ratios a little to see what works best but I wouldn't start with a protien content higher than 5% as protein levels above that are known to reduce production. Also about 5% total protein is about what is needed to maximize production (but one should also include the protien already included in the media).

I can't speak for how it will make your cultures smell...

If I understand you correctly you added more live yeast to the culture. This isn't really going to increase your protien levels in the same way as a prekilled yeast. The live yeast will compete for oxygen with the flies and this can reduce production/larval development. Some live yeast should be added as this helps prevent other microbes from colonizing the media and helps stimulate egg production.

Ed

 

Hi Tony,

If it was enough to bump your total protein over 5%, it may reduce your production. If that is the case, scaling it down to the correct proportion may give you a better production rate.

Ed

 

Thanks for the tip Ed. I didn't have quite enough brewer's yeast, so I added the whey protein to make up the difference, I don't think it will boost the levels too high.

 

anyone used potato flour or starch instead potato flakes?