rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) (11/14/88)
I've used wingless fruit flies to feed my fish for years, and they are no problem. There are (at least) two recessive mutants, vestigial (vg) and curly wing (cy) that cannot fly--at any temp, so far as I know. If you are at a university, you can probably get a starter colony of one or the other from the department of genetics. I raise mine in "Formula 4-24 Instant Drosophila Medium" which I buy from Carolina Biological Supply Co., 2700 York Road, Burlington, N. C. 27215, or Box 187, Gladstone, Oregon 97027. This is probably a relatively expensive way to do it, but one bag will last years, and it is really easy to work with. The medium requires no cooking, and looks more or less like Pablum. I raise mine in Drosophila bottles, which are wide-mouthed bottles of about 5 oz capacity. Use a porous sponge stopper, so that there is air circulation, but the flies cannot escape. I would think that the smaller vials (.16 guage vials) would be too small to be of much use for raising fish food. Good Luck, Jim Rising -- Name: Jim Rising Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1 UUCP: uunet!attcan!utzoo!rising BITNET: rising@utzoo.utoronto.bitnet
paleo@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Constantine A. LaPasha) (11/18/88)
From what I remember about raising these little guys, we fed them on yeast, and fed the yeast on a substrate like baby pablum. The pablum provides a nice solid (sort-of) lump in the bottom of a vial so the media didn't slop out when tapping the vial, or turning it over, and also provided a nice food supply for the yeast. The flies were after the yeast. Your flies are probably after the yeast growing on your grapes. For a modest investment, you can buy culture tubes, and prepackaged "instant" media for Carolina Biological Supplies, Burlington, NC. They can also provide you with instructions and any other fly stuff you might want - including live flies, if I remember correctly. You could call them at 800-334-5551 (eastern US) or 800-547-1733 (western US) for info or ordering. I have no connection to CB except that I order from them occasionally. Good luck... -- ===================================================================== Kostya LaPasha paleo@uncecs.edu or paleo@ecsvax.uncecs.edu === NCSU takes no responsibility for anything above === ==================... beware of root nematodes ...==================