# How do I get the springtails and Isopods out of their containers?



## Telly80 (Mar 28, 2016)

I tried to seed my tank with springs before planting, but I think the culture was dead. I never saw any when I dumped it in. 

I just bought a new spring culture (I see them all over this one!) and some Isopods. The problem is, my tank is planted now, and it's pretty small. I don't want to disturb it too much if I don't have to, and I don't have room to just dump the cultures in. Is there a way to get the bugs out of the cultures and into my tank without dumping them?

I've read about using water to float out springs. if I do that, how do I get the water out of the culture afterward?

Do Isopods float?

Thanks for any help.


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## darts.in.a.den (May 2, 2016)

I'm new to darts, but for springtails all u need to do is just pour water (spring,distilled,or RO) into the culture not to much but enough for enough springtails to float then just dump the water into the bottom of the tank.not all spring tails will come out so do not throw away the culture 

and as for isopods its harder they don't float i haven't used them but i saw online you can lay clean, plain, non-colored corrugated cardboard for them to shelter under and then later just shake the isopods into the tank off the piece of card board


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## Jungle_John (Feb 19, 2007)

As he said. That is the best way.


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## Telly80 (Mar 28, 2016)

Floating the springtails went great! They were all over the place. Kind of jump around a bit, even out of the water. 

I put the cardboard into the isopod culture last night and saw nothing on it today. Do I need to get it wet, or put something on it to encourage them? How long will it take for them to climb on it?


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## macuser (Oct 8, 2015)

yea, my cardboard is always damp. they should cling on. i think they're nocturnal so you'd have to wait until they wake up at night and do it the following day.


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## Aqua_il (Apr 10, 2016)

My isopods took a while to come in so when I got them I just picked up a lot of the leaf litter and dumped them and covered them back up with the leaf litter.


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## Fingolfin (Jan 31, 2016)

My iso cultures have leaf litter in them (moist), and I just pick up a few leaves, flip them over to double check there is some bugs on the other side, and just plop the whole leaf in the viv. 

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## theeternalstudent (Jul 26, 2015)

To add to previous comments, if you flood the springtail tanks, you can use a turkey baster and transfer em. 

For isopods, I mostly use the cardboard method and it does work better if it's damp. I've also had some success with damp paper towels-others on this site have posted about using cucumbers to feed out of as well. Hope that's helpful!


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## Telly80 (Mar 28, 2016)

The water method was perfect for the springtails. Wish I had thought of the turkey baster!

So far the cardboard isn't working for the Isopods. . I kind of picked through a bit and found some crawling on leaves which I put in the tank. 

The guy I bought them from at frog day said they really like melon rinds, so I'm going to cut up a watermelon and put a piece of rind in there. Maybe they'll hang out on it.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

I don't float mine. I get a straw and blow them out so they scatter and don't pile up so the frogs start a feeding frenzy lol.
One of those straws that bend are great you put the long end in your mouth and bend the end andit gets behind them and blows them forward into the viv. 
As for my dwarf whites I have crested geckos and when the geckos have left overs I stick the cups in there and they go to town on the gecko diet and I just pull out one of those cups and it's so full of isos so I just jump them int he vivs. 

Isopods love sweet potatoes and cuttlebones. I have better success of them gathered on cuttlebones than I do food. I only put the gecko diet in the dwarf white culture. All my cultures have cuttlebone pieces, sweet potatoes, ABG type substrate, and leaf litter. 

I went to a guy's house recently and he was using bark. All the isos loved being on the bark so I collected some and will be putting them in my cultures after I boil and bake it.


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## Wy Renegade (Feb 15, 2012)

If you don't mind my asking, what type of bark are you using?


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

Wy Renegade said:


> If you don't mind my asking, what type of bark are you using?


Oak bark. Some use cork bark.


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