Wingless Fruit Flies

[Back in the fold]

Here's a weird thing that's been happening. My cultures are the right consistency when I start them. Just thin enough to flatten out when I tap the container on the table. But over time, they start to liquify. Luckily when I feed my fish, I shake the fruit flies into another container and not directly into the tank. And there have been times when some of the culture poured out.

That’s something I noticed that happens sometimes too . Not all the time but sometimes . It seems to happen within the first week of setting up a new culture , when the flies get to laying eggs and the eggs start hatching into the grubs . Moisture from that process starts up but then it levels out . It isn’t consistent or every time and I can’t put my finger on the reason . Best to keep at least three cultures going in case of weird things happening . One culture will be coming to its end and another won’t be quite there yet and one will be producing great . @MuddyWaters You aren’t the first guy that has said Hatchet Fish go wild for fruit flies . They must really like them .

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My choprae danios go crazy for them, but their mouths are so small they have a hard time swallowing them. If I ever get some top feeders (I've been thinking about adding a pair of blue panchax to the 55g), I'll probably raise them again. They really are super easy, just not worth the small effort to me right now. In my experience, once you set them up they're extremely low maintenance.

So here's a question for some of you live food experts: How do other live foods (daphnia, grindel worms, etc) compare to wff when it comes to effort involved?

 

[sharkweek178]

I started buying them to feed my hatchet fish. Turns out, every dang fish in my 75 gallon will try and eat them, so I feed them all the time when I have them. I spend $10 whenever I buy them, so after reading this thread, I think I'll start a culture. I saved one of the containers and I have another right now. They have those breathable lids. I was wondering about the stringy stuff in there, but you guys answered that for me , so all set. Thank you as always, folks! Love this forum.

Welcome to the live food culturing. It's gross but rewarding.
Fruit flies are great because once they get going, you can have pretty much as many cultures as you want.
I got these off Amazon for my cultures. They're perfect.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CBMWLTKQ/?tag=ff0d01-20

I reuse them. After the culture crashes I clean them out and use them again. Aeration is easy. I just cut a hole in the lid and tape a piece of coffee filter over it.

 

[sharkweek178]

My choprae danios go crazy for them, but their mouths are so small they have a hard time swallowing them. If I ever get some top feeders (I've been thinking about adding a pair of blue panchax to the 55g), I'll probably raise them again. They really are super easy, just not worth the small effort to me right now. In my experience, once you set them up they're extremely low maintenance.

So here's a question for some of you live food experts: How do other live foods (daphnia, grindel worms, etc) compare to wff when it comes to effort involved?

I think grindals are easier. I haven't started daphnia yet. That's probably going to be a spring project for me.

 

[Back in the fold]

@WhistlingBadger Any live food culture takes time and attention . A live food culture is no different than your aquarium . It has living creatures in it that have to be taken care of . If you don’t take care of it then the same thing will happen that happens to your aquarium when you neglect it . For most of my aquarist life I was a flakes and frozen brine shrimp guy . Working full time and taking care of a house and family doesn’t leave large blocks of time open to fiddle around with worms and flies . I’m retired now and have the luxury of all the time in the world . Culturing live foods just isn’t feasible for everyone but of all live foods that take a little extra care Grindal Worms are one of the easier and least time consuming ones . If you forget to feed them or just plain old forget about them for a couple weeks it’s not a big job to revive them . They won’t fizzle out completely unless you walk away for a month .

 

[sharkweek178]

@WhistlingBadger Any live food culture takes time and attention . A live food culture is no different than your aquarium . It has living creatures in it that have to be taken care of . If you don’t take care of it then the same thing will happen that happens to your aquarium when you neglect it . For most of my aquarist life I was a flakes and frozen brine shrimp guy . Working full time and taking care of a house and family doesn’t leave large blocks of time open to fiddle around with worms and flies . I’m retired now and have the luxury of all the time in the world . Culturing live foods just isn’t feasible for everyone but of all live foods that take a little extra care Grindal Worms are one of the easier and least time consuming ones . If you forget to feed them or just plain old forget about them for a couple weeks it’s not a big job to revive them . They won’t fizzle out completely unless you walk away for a month .

Grindals probably deserve their own thread. The only tricky thing about them is feeding. Overfeeding is bad because the food can develop mold. I generally feed kitten food pellets and remove anything uneaten the next day. Then I replace with fresh food. If the worms consume it all then great. Sometimes I feed them a veggie based flake fish food a breeder gave me. He makes it himself. But I'm careful with that because I don't want to overfeed.

 

[Back in the fold]

@sharkweek178 Yes , Grindal worms really could use a thread all their own . I agree with you that feeding can be tricky . Mold is a problem no matter what you feed or how often . I watch my cultures constantly . It’s the moisture of the medium and keeping them warm I think . I’m going to try feeding fish flake food instead of bread . Supposedly that gut loads them . @AbbeysDad had a thread on here about gut loading warm temperature White Worms and he made a good case for doing so .

 

[sharkweek178]

@sharkweek178 Yes , Grindal worms really could use a thread all their own . I agree with you that feeding can be tricky . Mold is a problem no matter what you feed or how often . I watch my cultures constantly . It’s the moisture of the medium and keeping them warm I think . I’m going to try feeding fish flake food instead of bread . Supposedly that gut loads them . @AbbeysDad had a thread on here about gut loading warm temperature White Worms and he made a good case for doing so .

Here we go. https://www.fishforums.net/threads/grindal-worms.496102/

 

[MuddyWaters]

I got the food from Josh's Frogs and set up a container today. I added the flies from one I bought at the store. I used the tip from you guys to just use that plastic whatchacallit from Hobby Lobby. The lid is from one of the store-bought groups I bought awhile back. I now have 2 of those. I wish I had thought to save them all the times I bought them from the store LOL.

It seemed like using half a cup of the food is a lot. I was going to put it in a smaller container, but I felt like it would be too small for that amount.

Do y'all follow the instructions on the bag or do you cut down on it?
I usually get a week or 2 from the store-bought ones- I would imagine this one should last a month or so?

Thanks for the thread and the tips as always!

 

[Back in the fold]

@MuddyWaters A half a cup seems like a lot but I always follow instructions to the letter . The guys that sell these kind of things have figured it out as to what works . I’ll have to check to see what the individual amount of my stuff from the Fruitfly Shop is but it’s close to that .

 

[sharkweek178]

I got the food from Josh's Frogs and set up a container today. I added the flies from one I bought at the store. I used the tip from you guys to just use that plastic whatchacallit from Hobby Lobby. The lid is from one of the store-bought groups I bought awhile back. I now have 2 of those. I wish I had thought to save them all the times I bought them from the store LOL.

It seemed like using half a cup of the food is a lot. I was going to put it in a smaller container, but I felt like it would be too small for that amount.

Do y'all follow the instructions on the bag or do you cut down on it?
I usually get a week or 2 from the store-bought ones- I would imagine this one should last a month or so?

Thanks for the thread and the tips as always!

View attachment 359866

I personally cut the food down. I use 3 tablespoons of the powder and enough boiling water to get it to the right consistency.