Wingless Fruit Flies

[rocknurworld2006]

Hi just wondering some information regarding wingless fruit flies

are they easy to culture?

whats the smallest fish that can manage them?

are they nutritious?

and are they easy to feed?

thanks

 

[rocknurworld2006]

bump

 

[Colin_T]

easy to culture in 2 litre plastic or glass bottles. Most people use glass bottles because they are less likely to fall over than plastic. Put some fruit inside the bottle and add some fruit flies. Then put some cotton wool, filter floss or a piece of flyscreen over the top of the bottle. This allows air in but stops the flies crawling out.
Every week or so you can put the adult flies into another container with some more fruit and they will go about laying eggs in each bit of fruit they come across. They also eat the fruit.
Fruit flies are quite nutritious and will be taken by most barbs and bigger tetras. Stuff like neons are unlikely to take adult flies but you can feed the larvae to the fish.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

easy to culture in 2 litre plastic or glass bottles. Most people use glass bottles because they are less likely to fall over than plastic. Put some fruit inside the bottle and add some fruit flies. Then put some cotton wool, filter floss or a piece of flyscreen over the top of the bottle. This allows air in but stops the flies crawling out.
Every week or so you can put the adult flies into another container with some more fruit and they will go about laying eggs in each bit of fruit they come across. They also eat the fruit.
Fruit flies are quite nutritious and will be taken by most barbs and bigger tetras. Stuff like neons are unlikely to take adult flies but you can feed the larvae to the fish.

do u have to keep renewing it?

and how do you catch them and feed them?

thanks colin

 

[BigC]

I use plastic half pint beakers with ladies tights mesh and elastic bands to keep the flies in the container. For the media I use Mollasses sugar mixed with half a banana and some concentrated fruit juice. Mix this all together into a gooey paste and place in the bottom of the beakers. Place a small piece of curled up kitchen roll in there and a wooden lolipop stick for the adult flies to crawl up and mate on. an adult female can easily lay over 20 eggs per day and like certain livebearing fish species can store sperm in her body and lay fertile eggs virtually at will. Place around 12-15 adult flies in each recepticle. Eggs take 23 hours to hatch at 25 deg C. Once they do hatch, the larvae bury into the media and grow. They will stay as larvae for five days, in which time they undergo three moults.Eventually they will start to climb the sides of the vial, and when fully grown will settle near the top, and form a chrysalis. The change from maggot to fly takes three days.
There are various strains of fruitfly (Drosophila) around you will require Drosphilia melanogaster. Also a point to note try to get the true wingless variety as the vestigial winged mutant is temperature related and once outside the temperature constraints the wings will develop naturally and the mutant strain will be lost.
You can feed the flies by placing the culture in the fridge or a cold area for a couple of minutes and this will sedate the flies long enough for you to tap some into the aquarium for your fishes, be quick as it doesent last long. Keep the fly cultures away from human food areas.
Regards
BigC