Fixtures slow down tests: the django test runner searches for the specified fixtures and reads them from the filesystem, and it does this for every test in the test class (search speed is improved in django 1.6). Often fixtures create objects that are not needed by tests, or are only needed for a subset of the tests. Replacing fixtures with code will decrease the runtime of your test suite and will make it easier to make further improvements to your tests.

Copy dumpcode into your project and add to INSTALLED_APPS.

Run the management command: django-admin.py dumpcode fixture_name second_fixture_name The command will locate the specified fixtures the same way loaddata does and then print methods to create the objects found in them.

Paste the methods into your test file and call them from your test class's setUp method.

After removing fixtures, consider further improvements like deleting creation of objects that aren't needed by your tests, moving creation of objects that aren't needed by all tests into the test methods that use them, and simply instantiating objects rather than saving them to the database.