Wingless Fruit Flies

[Back in the fold]

This was something I have wanted to do for some time after seeing a video of some Tetras gobbling them down. A couple months ago I ordered my culture and started. My Aplocheilus lineatus Golden Wonder Killifish love them. They are a surface feeding fish so fruit flies really get their attention. Fry of about one half inch can take these Drosophila melanogaster wingless fruit flies which are only 1/16 inch long. Growth of the fry on these and Grindal worms is excellent. I have never had such nice fish. The only thing that puzzles me is that the fish don't seem to digest them well. When they crap them out it's in a little ball of fly husks that spatters apart into lots of pieces when I siphon them out at water changes. Maybe how when we eat corn and it makes it through. The corn kernel is still there but the juicy pulp filling has been digested out. Sorry to be so graphic but, hey!, we're all scientists here. The flies are easy and fun to raise but they won't hold still long enough for me to give them names.

 

[Retired Viking]

I have been feeding my tetras mosquito larvae almost every day this summer but with the cooler weather I have not had many to collect. They go wild for them too and if I let the larvae into the tank at the same time as the flake food the tetras go after them first. Must be the wiggling movement that attracts them.

 

[itiwhetu]

Fruit flies remind me of school days. We tried to breed albino ones kind of fun

 

[AbbeysDad]

I once thought of doing this until David Ramsey cautioned that if you have floating plants, they can escape the tank and be a pest (my wife would just love that ... NOT)

 

[hansgruber7]

I've been feeding fruit flies to my betta and he seems to love them. I haven't noticed the digestive issue.

 

[Colin_T]

If anyone has roses in the garden, you can collect aphids from them and feed the aphids to your fish. Just put an icecream bucket under the branch with the aphids on, gently tap the branch and the aphids fall into the bucket.

If you have a bag of flour, rice or bird seed, you can leave it open and let weevil moths infest it. Then let them grow until you see larvae. Separate the larvae and feed them to your fish.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

If anyone has roses in the garden, you can collect aphids from them and feed the aphids to your fish. Just put an icecream bucket under the branch with the aphids on, gently tap the branch and the aphids fall into the bucket.

Dang, wish I'd known this earlier in the summer! Will see if I can find any aphids today

 

[HoldenOn]

If anyone has roses in the garden, you can collect aphids from them and feed the aphids to your fish. Just put an icecream bucket under the branch with the aphids on, gently tap the branch and the aphids fall into the bucket.

If you have a bag of flour, rice or bird seed, you can leave it open and let weevil moths infest it. Then let them grow until you see larvae. Separate the larvae and feed them to your fish.

The two words "Weevil Moths" are making me kind of sick.

 

[Back in the fold]

I once thought of doing this until David Ramsey cautioned that if you have floating plants, they can escape the tank and be a pest (my wife would just love that ... NOT)

They will do that. Another thing they do if you feed too many is climb on top of each other and make a little raft of themselves. The surface tension of the water holds them up very well. They try as hard as they can to stay alive.

 

[Sgooosh]

I've been feeding fruit flies to my betta and he seems to love them. I haven't noticed the digestive issue.

he might be one of the bigger ones

 

[fish48]

wingless fruit flies are very good at climbing out of the tanks so I freeze some of mine