# I've been cultivating blue springtails apparently...



## wikiwakawakawee (Jan 24, 2013)

So I just finished spraying the 2 apothecary jars I filled with some live sphagnum moss and Utricularia Sandersonii (I only spray them once in a while like every few months since I keep them concealed with the tops) and when I came back into my room I found a ton of little bugs crawling all around the upper part of the jars.

I took a closer look and they were springtails! The thing is that I never seeded the two jars with them...I don't even have a springtail culture. Not only that, but they appear to have a blue hue to them as well.

I tried taking a picture of the blue they reflect, but it's pretty hard to see in the pictures. Sorry, they aren't the best shots either 

The sad thing is I can't even take them out to try to cultivate them...we're not allowed to have any animals of any type in the barracks, I didn't even know these guys were growing in here!

Has anybody seen these blue springtails before? Or any other color besides the typical white or pink? I remember finding a single yellow one outside in California one time, but that's about it.









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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

They come in many colors. Some cultivate well in the hobby and others don't. I had a small number of bright yellows I found in a friend's yard, but they didn't do a thing for me. I've done some dusky greys, but they couldn't survive a frog viv's humidity levels.
I was distributing some giant Tomocerus for a while. In the same population you could find blacks, tans, and silvery colored springs. They were mostly blacks. 

Those don't look like the blues that are rarely found in the hobby. The ones I've worked with were the smallest I've ever seen. They preferred incredibly wet conditions.


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## wikiwakawakawee (Jan 24, 2013)

Pumilo said:


> They come in many colors. Some cultivate well in the hobby and others don't. I had a small number of bright yellows I found in a friend's yard, but they didn't do a thing for me. I've done some dusky greys, but they couldn't survive a frog viv's humidity levels.
> I was distributing some giant Tomocerus for a while. In the same population you could find blacks, tans, and silvery colored springs. They were mostly blacks.
> 
> Those don't look like the blues that are rarely found in the hobby. The ones I've worked with were the smallest I've ever seen. They preferred incredibly wet conditions.


Well I do keep these jars sealed with the tops, so the humidity cant escape...but now that I sprayed the jars, I wonder if it's too wet, and that's why they climbed up to the top? 

It's hard to explain the blue they exhibit, the pictures barely capture it at all, I would say they look like the powdery blue isopods but with a brighter blue to them.

I do have a vivarium in my room that I seeded with tropical whites I believe, but they all eventually died despite not having any frogs or animals in there to eat them. So it's kind of surprising seeing these little guys growing in these jars that I don't really pay attention to.


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