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Banana worms from ol FF cultures?


OnlyGenusCaps
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I'm curious, has anyone tried to grow banana worms in old fruit fly cultures?  I'm always looking for ways to get more use out of materials especially when it comes to rearing live foods (which I have very little space for), and it seems like this could work.  FF media is mostly potato and yeast, which should be a good match for banana worms (or microworms).  So, I'd think it would work with fresh FF media, but would be so much better if you could get a second life out of old cultures.  The only question would be whether the FF deplete the media too much, or pollute it too much for the worms.  I'm going to have FF again soon which is why this might open up growing banana worms for me.  But if old cultures don't work, or if this attracts too many mites, then banana worms are probably not in my, or my fry's, immediate future, sadly. Has anyone tried anything like this?

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I haven’t grown banana worms at all, but I have grown microworms in the fruit fly culture media from Josh’s.  I don’t think my cultures are doing as well as they did in cooked oatmeal.  In fact I just switched back to oatmeal when I reset yesterday.  I wanted to use up the FF media since I’m no longer growing them.  My pea puffers didn’t even try to taste them and I offered many times.

So I can’t truly speak to banana worms specifically, but my microworms seem to be gradually declining in production in it.  We’ll see how they do after switching back to oatmeal.  If they do better, I may try a blend.  This stuff was too expensive to just throw away!

I’m using the small deli cups with the fabric covered, vented lids from Josh’s for my microworms, BTW.  Reuse the lids, toss the cups after use.

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Thanks, @Odd Duck!  That's what I wanted to know.  It was sort of what I feared - potentially workable in concept, but doesn't pan out in practice.  I think I'll only try it now if I can get a free culture starter locally here, because I suspect it'll crash.  So, I might still give it a go, but with vastly lowered (read: more realistic) expectations.  Thanks again for sharing your experience, Odd Duck! 

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On 3/15/2022 at 8:40 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

Thanks, @Odd Duck!  That's what I wanted to know.  It was sort of what I feared - potentially workable in concept, but doesn't pan out in practice.  I think I'll only try it now if I can get a free culture starter locally here, because I suspect it'll crash.  So, I might still give it a go, but with vastly lowered (read: more realistic) expectations.  Thanks again for sharing your experience, Odd Duck! 

I’ll let you know in a few days if my culture takes off again switching from the FF substrate back to oatmeal.  I’ve redone cultures at least 5-6 times in the FF substrate (not used substrate, BTW, but fresh).  If they do take off, I’ll probably at least try a blend to use up the FF substrate and see how that goes.  I’ve read that you can use about any grain source to feed them, like stale, soaked bread, any kind of grain flour, etc, but there may be something in the FF substrate that inhibits them.  Or it could be I need to expand my genetics.  I’ll let you know how the switch back goes.

By the way, I’ve been trying vinegar eels as a high density culture growing them almost like microworms/banana worms except you make the mush with 50/50 apple cider vinegar and water.  They are doing extremely well!  I’ve had a liquid vinegar eels culture going for over a year but it’s a bit of a pain to harvest.  I’ve been able to pipette a small amount directly out of the culture already and I only started it about a week ago.  When it’s really going good they apparently crawl up the wall of the culture just like microworms and the like, and are even easier to harvest and feed.

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On 3/15/2022 at 3:42 PM, Odd Duck said:

By the way, I’ve been trying vinegar eels as a high density culture growing them almost like microworms/banana worms except you make the mush with 50/50 apple cider vinegar and water

I've heard those are a great way to have a lazy source of nematodes around for fry.  I'll be curious how those progress for you.  I like the ease of harvest for banana and micros - simple wiping finger across die of container.  If vinegars can do that, I might have to look into them.  Thanks!

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On 3/16/2022 at 6:47 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

I've heard those are a great way to have a lazy source of nematodes around for fry.  I'll be curious how those progress for you.  I like the ease of harvest for banana and micros - simple wiping finger across die of container.  If vinegars can do that, I might have to look into them.  Thanks!

Even pipetting a small amount of the liquid vinegar mix from the top of the culture has made it far easier already and worth the change in culture technique compared to regular, liquid culture.  So even if they don’t start crawling up the side, I’m happy with the switch.

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