Most common use: Semi adult and adult killies

One of the very essential food sources in the nature habitat of many killies are what falls to the water surface. Fruit flies can therefore be a good supliment to a good and varied menu. It is quite easy to keep a culture of the flies and most killies loves them. When beginning to feed with flies to older killies bred in aquariums, the fish has to be trained that the food can now also be living on the surface and will not fall through the water. So if your first attemts to feed with flies does not make you happy - then just keep on trying. Most killies learns to eat also the flies and then you will have a lot of fun and your fish will love you for the effort.

You can start your own wild culture just by placing a jar with one of the mixtures outside in a week or 2 and then cover it. In the summer period you will often be able to start your own cultures but this also have some side effects. First of all the flies have wings and they could escape from you with an unplesant result. Furthermore you can also risk to have other insects eating the flies inside your culture. The best is to get a culture from your killi club or from some good fish dealers. The common cultures for aquarium use have either crumbled wings or are complete wingles. This is a great benefit as they will not leave the tank or fly away when you open the culture. Although the flies are quick runners you will have less truble in handling them if they can not also fly.

There are many good receipts for a good culture mixture. Some of them are mentioned below but almost everything with some kind of fruit will be a good food for the flies. Just be sure that the mixture is not liquid as you will drown the flies. It must be more like a paste.

To culture the flies you will need some kind of small glass or plastic container. Common to use is a glass marmelade jar as it is strong and easy to handle. As cover use a piece of thin textile or some kind of plastic mesh. You must allow the culture the "breath". Close it with a rubber band so you can easily open and close the culture. Inside the glass put some kind of object that will stand upright so the flies have somewhere to escape from the mixture.

The temperature means a lot to the speed of reproduction. In 10 degrees celcius it wil take about 2 months for a fly egg to develop into fly, and in 25 degrees about 10 days. Above 25 degrees will slow down the reproduction and above 30 degrees it will stop.

It is a good idea to have several cultures running so your are prepared if a culture should go bad.

Receipts:

1:
Mashed banana, pear, plum or other fruit. Pour in oat meal or corn flakes to remove some of the moisture. Mix is with a bit of gelatine (or even better vegetabile gelatine) to make it stiff and attatch better to the bottom of the medium. Pour it in the glass and let it settle for a day before adding the fly cuture.

2:
1 portion of instant mashed potatoes. 1 teaspoon of breawers yeast, 2 teaspoons of corn flour, a little touch of sugar. Mix it and add apple cider vinegar until a nice paste is made. Pour it in the glass and let it settle for a day before adding the fly cuture.

Possibilities are many - do you have a good receipt ? Let me have and publish your favoirite. Email me here.