[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [Live-foods] fruit fly medium
At 09:00 9/11/2007, REDRAGON40 at aol_com asked:
>Does anyone have a recipe for a fruit fly medium that is as easy to use and
>convenient as the culture medium sold by commercial fly culture places?
Long ago, about 15BC (Before (personal) Computers), I gave away
wingless starters and culture directions. Here is what I recall of
the process:
Medium: Boil cornmeal, oatmeal in water , let cool, add agar to
stiffen (optional), when body temp add propionic acid (mold
inhibitor, stir well), orange juice (optional), then baker's yeast
and a multivitamin tablet (pre-ground up). Sorry but I don't
remember the proportions. The consistency at room temperature should
be like stiff left-over mush. Here is one recipe:
1 cup water
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 teaspoon powdered agar (from lab supply web site)
1 tablespoon molasses
1/8 teaspoon calcium propionate (optional) (from agar source)
1 package bakers yeast
Pour into tall thin bottles (we used baby nursers) to a depth of
about 1 inch, then stuff in a facial tissue so that 10% of the tissue
is down in the medium and the rest rises up the inside of the
bottle. Chopsticks are good tools for this. Make 6-24 bottles at a
time. I would start a new set weekly till you get the hang of
it. Label the bottles with the date.
Then knock a dozen adult flies into each bottle from a mature culture
and cap with a piece of tissue held with a rubber band. In a few
days you should see larvae (white worm-like things) in the medium,
then pupae (brown seed-like things) on the tissue above the medium,
then new adults!
You can feed adults to your fish by removing the tissue lid and
holding the bottle mouth-down over the water and giving it rap to
knock the adults to the water surface. When new adults are scarce
or blue or green mold appears on the tissue, wash the bottle
carefully in plenty of soap and HOT water, then use it in your next batch.
To distribute flies, I sent a piece of tissue with fresh pupae in a
film can by first class mail.
Good luck.
_______________________________________________
Live-Foods mailing list
Live-Foods at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo/live-foods