# Mixing springtail cultures



## Estrato (Jan 6, 2009)

Has anybody mixed different varieties of springtails in one culture? How successful was it? I had a slow producing tropical culture that I just added tropical pink and temperate blue springtails to, so Ill update on how it turns out.


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## flybuster (Feb 27, 2009)

I have wild caught springs that are mixed "large silver and i believe temperate" that seem to be doing fine so far.


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## Elf_Ascetic (Jan 31, 2009)

Unless their eating different things, one species is doomed to go extinct. It may take a while, but you'll be losing one or two species.


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## flybuster (Feb 27, 2009)

I have notied that the silvers chase the much smaller whites away when they are feeding.


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## NathalieB (Apr 23, 2007)

I used to culture 4-5 different types of springtails. 
when I was fed-up with all the hassle I mixed the cultures together and after a while there was only one dominant species left (as far as I can see)

in my cultures when the silver ones apear it usually means the culture is running at it's end and soon all springtails will disapear from it (probably meaning that the silver ones are still in all my cultures but only get a break and become visible when conditions are poor and the colony of the dominant type of springtails has died off)


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## JeremyHuff (Apr 22, 2008)

Elf_Ascetic said:


> Unless their eating different things, one species is doomed to go extinct. It may take a while, but you'll be losing one or two species.


That's a pretty big assumption. You can keep many different species together that eat the same food (ie. turtles, fish, stick insects, etc.) and not risk extinction. I worked for a summer sorting micro invertebrates from small moss samples on rock. These samples (less than 20 cm sq) would have 5-6 spp of sprintails, up to 30 spp of mites, several spp of spiders and a few other things. For the most part, only predators were rare. Also did two field seasons in Costa Rica looking at the invertebrate fauna in bromeliads. Again, only the predators were rare. In our case giant damselfly larvae.

The risk is more if the same micro habitat AND food is required, but something like springtails will have several potential micro habitats (ie. top of leaf litter vs. under leaflitter vs. under 2mm of soil). If enough food is provided, then you should not have a problem.

Jeremy


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## Estrato (Jan 6, 2009)

NathalieB said:


> I used to culture 4-5 different types of springtails.
> when I was fed-up with all the hassle I mixed the cultures together and after a while there was only one dominant species left (as far as I can see)
> 
> in my cultures when the silver ones apear it usually means the culture is running at it's end and soon all springtails will disapear from it (probably meaning that the silver ones are still in all my cultures but only get a break and become visible when conditions are poor and the colony of the dominant type of springtails has died off)


Well, you were right about this one. A few pink springtails got into my blue culture, and now it only has pink in it. I also mixed the pink, blue, and silver in with a really large tropical white culture and now its about 75% pink.


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