Fruit Flies

SkyeSpider

Spider Queen
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Messages
1,250
I ordered fruit flies for my spiderlings over a week ago. They were shipped out on Monday, but arrived with no flies hatched. To this day, there hasn't been a single fly in there. Does it normally take this long? :?

I've never ordered them online before, but the store I bought them at stopped carrying them :p

-Bryan
 

Gail

Arachnopixie
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
556
I only ever got one starter colony and have kept breeding from that one but I have noticed that when I start a new jar with adults only that it takes about a week before I see maggots and another week or so for more flys. In case you were unaware, fruit flies lack certain amino acids and if fed as the sole diet for too long can cause curly legs and molt problems.

Gail
 

Code Monkey

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2002
Messages
3,783
The best producing cultures I've gotten, though a bit pricey, are from flukers. They come filled with adults and produce pretty heavily for about a month until the medium is actually consumed completely.

Plus, did you go for melanogaster or hydnei? I've raised both and would never waste my time with hydnei any more - very slow compared to melanogaster and the size difference is inconsequential if your feeding slings.

If you received a started culture with no adults of melanogaster you should see larvae w/in 3-5 days, hydnei may take a little longer. It takes around 10 days for melanogaster to emerge as adults, as long as 20 days for hydnei (another reason not to waste time with them).
 
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SkyeSpider

Spider Queen
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Messages
1,250
According to the site I ordered them from, they are "Melanogastor Flightless." There is NO activity in the cup they came in. None since the day I got it, none yet. Still no reply to the email I sent the company.

-Bryan
 

krucz36

Chelcirator
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
296
it took me about four cultures before i realized i couldn't keep them too warm. i have a culture i keep on the very bottom-most shelf and it's been producing for about two weeks pretty strong. one thing to check for: are any of the larva or maggots moving at all? some should be squirming around if it's still a good culture.
one thing to do to vary the diet of your slings is to breed a few pinheads yourself. it's hard to get them from the stores around my house, so i just put about 40-50 adults crix in a shoebox with one or two containers of moist potting soil. take 'em out the next day. wait a week or two. feed mass of resulting crix to happy slings. keep them slightly moist and not as warm as the eggs. make sure you give them something to crawl on, like a lot of little strips of paper, a lot of egg crate, or some kind of substrate, or they step all over each other and suffocate.
damn, i still can't post a short reply. it's a disease, send help!
 
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