Wingless Fruit Flies

I'm taking the plunge. I just ordered deli cups, excelsior and fruit fly medium (I got the Repashy brand). I know my betta and honey gourami will like them. I hope I can get my neon tetras and upcoming harlequin rasboras to eat them too. Seems pretty easy and straightforward to culture.
Anyone have any recommendations as to who I should order my starter culture from?

sharkweek178 said:

I'm taking the plunge. I just ordered deli cups, excelsior and fruit fly medium (I got the Repashy brand). I know my betta and honey gourami will like them. I hope I can get my neon tetras and upcoming harlequin rasboras to eat them too. Seems pretty easy and straightforward to culture.
Anyone have any recommendations as to who I should order my starter culture from?

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Its been years since I ordered a wingless fly culture. I just remember how much my fish loved them, and they bred fast too. The only problem I have with receiving cultures through the mail is that sometimes they are dead on arrival. The seasonal heat during transit killed my last batch, so I stopped ordering them.

I have been looking forward to ordering again.

Here is a website that looks promising to order from: https://www.fruitflyshop.com/shipping.html

I would be wary of ordering them in summer. In heat, they are much more likely to develop wings. I cultured them for years, but once it got above 25c, I often lost cultures.
Tall jars are best. They need something to climb on. They escape easily. And if you have duckweed, you will see them getting out of the tank uneaten.
Beware where you keep them, as if you don't keep up with the turnover, starting new cultures, they can stink. Repashy is good, but it gets used up quickly and may not be cost effective.

On second thought, I'm going to either see if I can find someone who sells locally or wait until the temps are a little cooler (like low 70's) before I order.

When I buy fruit flies, I typically buy from Josh's Frogs. If I just want melanogaster, Petco usually has them, but beware- Petco doesn't always remove the dead or dying cultures from the shelf.
Melanogaster are smaller than hydei, but more productive and easier to culture in my experience.

Herpin Man said:

When I buy fruit flies, I typically buy from Josh's Frogs. If I just want melanogaster, Petco usually has them, but beware- Petco doesn't always remove the dead or dying cultures from the shelf.
Melanogaster are smaller than hydei, but more productive and easier to culture in my experience.

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Just so happens I got off the phone with my local Petco. And they just got a shipment of melanogaster in. I'll swing by tomorrow and take a chance. But now I know to check them before buying.

I did it. I got the Petco fruit flies. I took a small cooler with me to protect them from the heat on the trip back home. It worked.
As I was about to add them to my culture, I remembered something someone told me. They might not be able to fly but they can still hop. So I took them out on the porch. Bullet dodged. Because some did escape during the transfer process. They can start their new lives outside instead of in my house.

So here it is.



Some of them got caught in the lid when I put it back on. I'll start another culture in 15 days then rotate them.

sharkweek178 said:

I did it. I got the Petco fruit flies. I took a small cooler with me to protect them from the heat on the trip back home. It worked.
As I was about to add them to my culture, I remembered something someone told me. They might not be able to fly but they can still hop. So I took them out on the porch. Bullet dodged. Because some did escape during the transfer process. They can start their new lives outside instead of in my house.

So here it is.

View attachment 345099View attachment 345100

Some of them got caught in the lid when I put it back on. I'll start another culture in 15 days then rotate them.

Click to expand...

My local petco didnt have them in stock. I called a local pet store that has fish, snakes, and other pets, and they carried wingless fruit flies too. I bought a batch today as well.

Glad you decided to go for it. You've received some good advice here. A few other tips:
--Josh's Frogs sells a fruit fly medium that is easy to use, grows a ton of flies, is nourishing to your critters, and contains a natural (non toxic to fish and other critters) mold inhibitors so it doesn't get stinky for a long time.
--Get a few tallish, dishwasher safe bottles with slightly narrow necks and screw-on caps with the center cut out. This makes a good compromise between ease of cleaning and ease of controlling where the flies go. I use Frappuccino bottles with the tops cut open and plugged with a thin coffee filter. A bonus for this method is you get to drink Frappuccino!
--I try to keep three cultures going, about a week apart. Usually number three starts producing about the time #1 is dying off.
--Sanitize your bottles before starting a new culture. I scrub them out with a bottle brush, then either run them through the dishwasher or sanitize them with alcohol.
--Excelsior is neat stuff, but it isn't strictly necessary. I put a small handful of filter fluff in my bottles, and it works fine. In my latest culture, I forgot to put even that in, and the flies don't really seem to care.

My fish eat them like candy, and they're the staple food for my fire-belly toads, until they get big enough to eat crickets.

I fed some today, for the first time. My betta ate them right up. I couldn't get my neon tetras to look up. I put some in a feeder ring over the corner my honey gourami hangs out in. He hasn't figured it out yet. But I feel like it's only a matter of time.

While you are setting new cultures, you may want to get to know a good divorce lawyer, just in case they escape.

"In case" Huh. They always escape. but they don't go far...

Just checked and they are still in the feeder ring over the honey gourami. Maybe I'll try dropping some food he's familiar with into that ring to see if that gets his attention.

GaryE said:

While you are setting new cultures, you may want to get to know a good divorce lawyer, just in case they escape.

"In case" Huh. They always escape. but they don't go far...

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I put mine in the fridge for 3-4 minutes then took them out onto the porch. Seems to have worked at keeping the escapes to a minimum.