Fruit flies
Fruit Flies
Drosophila hydei
Image source: Dow/Davies labs, Glasgow
Breeding fruit flies as live food
Fruit flies as live food
Fruit flies (Drosophila hydei) make excellent live food for smaller species of exotic pets. They are ideal food for anything from small invertebrates (mantids in particular go crazy for them) to small frogs such as dart frogs and mantellas. They also culture very easily and rapidly and if the mixture is right can be amongst the easiest live food to culture.
There are a variety of ways to make a fruit fly culture. If you are in no immediate rush you can experiment a little with different ingerdients. Here's the way I make a culture. Very easy to do and will provide a supply of fruit flies for 3-4weeks.
You will need
Culture ingredients
Cheap mashed potato flakes (the cheapest you can find, fruit flies aren't fussy).
1 Pack of dried yeast
1 plastic drinks cup (like from a drinks machine)
1 beaker with a screw onlid.
1 old sponge
Cup of water
Pair of scissors
Approx 20-30 fruit flies (buy 1 culture from a pet shop). These will be used as the initial breeders which will supply your live food.
The fruit fly culture
Fruit Fly culture
Start by cutting up the plastic cup into a few strips. Then make a hole in the lid of the beaker with the scissors and cut a piece of sponge approx 2x the hole size. Push sponge in the hole, his allows fresh air into the culture but the fruit flies cant get out. Mix up about 2 inches of mashed potato in the bottom of the beaker. Mix it to a consistancy where its slightly runnier than you'd eat yourself but not too runny. Push the strips of plastic cup into it (sticking up) so the flies have something to climb over. Then sprinkle a tiny amount of yeast over the mix. 10-20 grains of yeast will do. If you put too much in, the culture will go manky and the flies may become sterile. Add the flies into the culture and place the lid on (quickly, these guys can move).
After a few days, the flies will start to lay eggs in the mix. The eggs will soon hatch into small maggots that will feed upon the mashed potato as it breaks down. When they have eaten for a few days they will start to climb the sides of the beaker and the plastic cup strips where they will pupate. The flies meanwhile will be feeding on the yeast grains. As soon as you see maggots, the fruit flies can be taken out and used as feeders. A few days later, the pupae will emerge as new fruit flies.
Its a good idea to set up a couple more cultures in the same way using some of the flies from this culture. This ensures you have a constant supply of fruit flies. The remaining flies can then be used as food and the new cultures can be made into as many as you like with their new flies. This can be kept up for many generations although it's advisable to purchase a new culture every now and again and mix it with your ongoing ones to help keep the genetics healthy.
I'd like to thank Peloquin for this excellent fruit fly guide. All of the information on this page remains copyrighted to him and may not be used without his prior written permission.