[Guest]

Hello, I'm new to the whole world of darts and am doing all my research before adding these beautiful creatures to our menagerie.

I've read up on how to culture fruit flies etc and I was wondering how difficult it really is. I'm a reefer (we have a 135g) and some of my fellow reefers have said it's a real pain to culture the flies and how difficult they are to find locally. I'd like the opinion of people who really know.

I'm hoping to set up a 20g and get a pair of "begginer" darts at the Houston reptile show this summer.

All advice is appreciated and I'm sorry if this has been discussed a million times over.

 

[Arklier]

Try the food section. There's a FAQ I wrote stickied there that will answer most of your questions.

 

[Dancing frogs]

FF's are intimidating until you try them. (culturing that is :lol: )
I start three cultures every two weeks...takes about 10 or 15 minutes each time. You just have to make sure and keep making new cultures on time.

 

[Guest]

I appreciate the responses. I had read how to culture, just wanted an honest opinion about how frustrating it is or isn't. Sounds like I should give it a try before I jump into adding some frogs to our menagerie.

Thank you!

 

[Dunner97074]

I agree with Brian, once you try it and get down the routine it's not bad. There aren't many animals you can keep and "grow" your own food too. I usually just lay out all I need in an assembly line fashion before I start. It seems to make the process go faster. I also found that using big juice bottles with foam plugs makes the feeding process easier. Unplug, invert, shake, replug. Hope this helps. Trial and error.....
Mike

 

[SMenigoz]

I appreciate the responses. I had read how to culture, just wanted an honest opinion about how frustrating it is or isn't. Sounds like I should give it a try before I jump into adding some frogs to our menagerie.

Thank you!

Absolutely get the fruitfly thing down before you get the frogs. It took me several ff generations before I became "comfortable" with the process. My guess is that you'll make all the typical mistakes (too much water, not enough, waiting too long before starting another culture, mites...) but its better to figure these things out BEFORE you have the frogs that'll depend on you. Many on this site have made frantic calls and paid overnight shipping due to crashed cultures! I now make about 40 cultures a week and have them staggered so that I should never be without.

 

[dmartin72]

Scott is absolutely right! I still call him every once in awhile for some fly cultures.