# what to feed tropical springtails?



## krowleey (Sep 21, 2006)

hello all, i have ran outta the little package of food my springtails came with, they are booming and i would like to keep the culture going. what can i feed them, to sprinkle ontop of the charcole?


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## Jason DeSantis (Feb 2, 2006)

Dried rice would work fine and others have used dried pasta before.
Jason


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## krowleey (Sep 21, 2006)

wow uncooked rice and pasta??


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## alifer (Oct 24, 2005)

I alternate yeast & fine ground granule type fish food


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Instant oatmeal baby cereal.
You can feed them just about anything that will rot, and you will find some work better than others.
Rotating their diet is a good idea, though I've been told that is a good way to end up with a mite infestation.


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## joeyo90 (Nov 5, 2006)

some people say cucumber peels work well


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## krowleey (Sep 21, 2006)

thanks guys!


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## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

The peel doesn't work so well - cucumber works good though. You end up plucking all those old cucumber peels though.

Thinly sliced mushroom works well. Active yeast works well. Just about anything in *small* amounts works well. 

They key is small amounts, often. They get fresh air this way.

s


joeyo90 said:


> some people say cucumber peels work well


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## bluedart (Sep 5, 2005)

Scott said:


> The peel doesn't work so well - cucumber works good though. You end up plucking all those old cucumber peels though.
> 
> Thinly sliced mushroom works well. Active yeast works well. Just about anything in *small* amounts works well.
> 
> ...


I concur. Except, I would venture to say that if the culture is booming, small amounts isn't always necessary, especially when you have many many cultures. I've got about 20 going right now, and I don't really feed more often than every two days. But, by the second day, the food I fed them is gone, and it's a fairly large amount of food. Anywho, it's all about experimenting to see what works best for you.

Good luck!


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Scott said:


> The peel doesn't work so well - cucumber works good though. You end up plucking all those old cucumber peels though.
> 
> Thinly sliced mushroom works well. Active yeast works well. Just about anything in *small* amounts works well.
> 
> ...


I think the air may have a lot to do with it, one of my more productive cultures has a lit that barely snaps on, versus the others that snap on airtight.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

After a mite invasion, all the cultures I've got going are tight sealing gladwares. But... I feed 3-4 times a week small quantities of fish food. Old fish food I wouldn't feed my fish :lol: the springies love it.

There are a number of springtail food threads. The basic deal isn't that what you put in there is what they are eating, what you are putting in there rots and produces the fungus/mold that they eat. The key is whatever it is in the right amounts. Lots of small feedings to keep the culture going, rather than a couple large ones. As much culture populations grow, I don't increase the amount of food I'm feeding, I just add on another feeding during the week. A booming culture I'm actively feeding I might feed up to every day to keep the food supply going strong enough so the population doesn't crash.

Don't suddenly stop feeding your culture or it will crash, basically leaving you with only a few adults and weeks of building it back up to a decent size. Instead, reduce the population by feeding it out and/or seeding tanks with springies.


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## krowleey (Sep 21, 2006)

ya i add springs once a week at lights out, goal: acheieve a self substating culture in my viv. i never see any so i dunno where they live in there.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

In your substrate.

The cultures I feed from are sludge, mostly cuz then they can't hide away in the substrate  I've got some other cultures that are coco bedding and what not, but I just don't like them as much as the sludge cultures... which is basically a bunch of organic matter that has broken down and solidified into the consistency of FF media lol.

IMO trying to get a self sustaining culture of springies in your viv with the purpose of feeding your frogs... outside of the Eiben compost vivs, is pointless. After their initial explosion in population in a tank that is cycling, where they are feeding on mass populations of fungus and mold, the population stays relatively low, along with their food source, and they stay out of reach of the frogs. If you're feeding springtails as part of the frog's diet, you need to culture them separately, where you can control their amount of food, and thus their population. You need to basically hold their population at maximum capacity to get enough of them to feed even a few frogs/froglets.


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## Guest (Nov 30, 2006)

I feed fish flake food, generally spirulina, and they eat a ton of it. My gallon size culture can make a heaping tablespoon vanish overnight!


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