# Great Springtail culture



## MonopolyBag (Jun 3, 2007)

Some may know this already, but cork bark, although very expensive, is great to add chunks into your springtail culture, place on top and bury some a bit in the dirt, and they stay moist and are great. My friend has some in his tropical Springtail culture, and his are doing a bit better than mine, so I plan on getting some cork bark and breaking it up and adding it. Also a great way to put them into the viv. :mrgreen:


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## froglet (May 18, 2005)

dont waste your money on cork bark.... go outside take some tree bark from dead trees/branches ... and its free


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## Mac (Aug 14, 2007)

Hey I have noticed that no one is "using" this thread so I had a question, where do you get the charcoal that you put in springtail cultures? Is the regular one that you use for barbeque's? And does it matter if it is mesquite or some flavor?


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## brettlt (Oct 5, 2006)

Well that is one way to liven up this thread.

DO NOT use the regular charcoal used for bar-b-que. It is coated in chemicals that would not be good for your frogs. What you are looking for is natural charred wood. Grilling with natural charred wood has actually made a come back in recent years, and it is easier than ever to find natural charred wood.
There are many brand names that usually vary with geography, but Kingsford actually has its own kind now that can probably be found throughout the country. I have seen it at home improvement stores, Walmart, and even the local grocery store. 

In my experience, a substrate made up of mostly charred wood is best for temperate springtails. The tropical ones tend to not do as well on it. I have 5 cultures of temperate sprintails going right now and 4 of them are on mostly charred wood. They are doing great. My three cultures of tropicals are all on a base of coconut fibers.


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

I haven't been able to find a better springtail culturing medium than coco husk chips and some crumbled leaf litter. Nearly every variety I have going just explodes on the stuff.


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## markbudde (Jan 4, 2008)

Jason, do you add any food other than leaves?


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## Mac (Aug 14, 2007)

so can you post a pic of the kind of Charcoal I should be using?


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## Mac (Aug 14, 2007)

so can you post a pic of the kind of Charcoal I should be using? They culture I curently have is from Joshs Frogs, where can I get the charcoal he has?


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

> Jason, do you add any food other than leaves?


Sliced mushrooms. Springtail superfood.


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## brettlt (Oct 5, 2006)

Here is a picture of the Kingsford product.








There are sometimes fairly large pieces in this bag, but it is cheap and usually available locally.

If your culture is from Josh, then you can usually buy charcoal from Josh. You can also find that kind, which is in smaller pieces, from your local plant nursery.


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## salix (Mar 28, 2008)

I'm in the Sacramento area also and I've seen bags of chunk charcoal sold at nurseries for use in potting plants. They were sold alongside bags of bark, etc. The bags were a couple of quarts and were less than $10.


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## Mac (Aug 14, 2007)

ok thanks


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## Sokretys (Dec 16, 2007)

Bark from nearby trees will not have anywhere near the same density as cork bark. which is what allows cork bark to be so absorbent. i saw black jungle selling a 6" piece of cork bark for 6 dollars...i guess that is something to fret about...give it a try.


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

Seems that using cork bark in springtail cultures is a bit wasteful to me, especially since cork bark runs about $7 a pound at my local LFS. Chunks of moist rotting wood work extremely well for my conditions, and my cultures are booming.


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## Sokretys (Dec 16, 2007)

Well each piece i am using to dispense Spring is like 2 cubic anches at most..so like, 7 bucks to buy all of your spring dispensers...but HIGH 5!


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

If you've got some cork bark laying around, then I'm all for it. I wouldn't buy cork bark for that expressed reason, however


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## Dangerously (Dec 19, 2007)

Tropical springtail story.. show's just how durable these bugs can be:

I bought a culture back in early January and used it to seed a few new cultures. It was in a small, square ziplock disposable container and the media was charcoal. I emptied it, rinsed it out, put the lid back on and put it on the tool cart in the garage to use for nuts & bolts. I hadn't used it for nuts & bolts, so the other day when I was making springtail cultures I went and got it to use for a culture. Opened it up and the bottom had springs crawling all over it. Enough that I used it to seed 3 more cultures as well as itself. The garage never quite gets to freezing, but it did go below 40 degrees out there for quite a while in Jan & Feb. I did not expect to find live bugs in that container at all. I didn't see any live ones in the container when I put it in the garage, but there must have been some eggs or small newly hatched ones in it, even after rinsing (no soap, just water.. it was clean enough for old nutes & bolts).

But as far as substrate, some of mine are on charcoal, some are on a cocobrick and bark mix. Both seem to do well.


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## Sokretys (Dec 16, 2007)

hahaha..thats pretty amazing..wicked good story! if thats true than it would be very hard to say what media is best when it seems like everyone has great success doing pretty much anything...i guess springs are just wicked easy? i havent had my 3 cultures for very long..and they took like 5 weeks to bom..but i had also been messing around with them from time to time. so i wouldnt have muh good to input otherwise. but that is certainly some outstanding proof as to just how rugged these little buggers are.


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## jnsangel33 (Nov 26, 2010)

Hello... I am new here and new to raising water dragons. I am curious as to having springtail cultures in his tank. Is this something I should be looking into and if so, how do I go about starting a culture. What do I need to do?
Thanks!


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## JimO (May 14, 2010)

There is tons on info on starting a springtail culture. Try Josh's Frogs. You can get everything you need from him and he even has a video on his site showing how to set it up. There are lots of opinions on what to feed them. They eat fungus, so many people put fish food, uncooked rice, or other stuff that will brak down and grow fungus. I've had tremendous success putting regular store-bought mushrooms in the culture.

Josh's Frogs - Springtails

Josh’s Frogs How-To Guides » Blog Archive » Culturing Springtails



jnsangel33 said:


> Hello... I am new here and new to raising water dragons. I am curious as to having springtail cultures in his tank. Is this something I should be looking into and if so, how do I go about starting a culture. What do I need to do?
> Thanks!


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## ems1016 (Apr 23, 2010)

Cucumbers are great food, too. Cut them into tiny pieces and they "fungus-up" real quick. Mine are on Josh's charcoal and primarily feed on store bought mushrooms. Culture is outstanding.

I keep mine in a plastic rectangular container I bought on sale at a craft shop (sold as a doll display box and cost $10). I drilled a hole in the bottom of the plastic and rubber stopped it. That is how I drain and refresh the water in the charcoal. To scoop up the springtails, I place a plastic knitting mesh over the charcoal and flood the tank; springtails rise and charcoal doesn't. Just scoop 'em up! I've attached a pic: 

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=14138&stc=1&d=1291358661


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

I have a question that has sorta been bugging me...no pun intended...why don't you ever read about isopods and springtails , and of course crickets eating fruit?? Wouldn't you think that the moisture from a tomato give plenty of moisture...you do read about having a piece of banana for a fruit fly buffet...but it just makes me curious about the fruit thing...


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Judy S said:


> I have a question that has sorta been bugging me...no pun intended...why don't you ever read about isopods and springtails , and of course crickets eating fruit?? Wouldn't you think that the moisture from a tomato give plenty of moisture...you do read about having a piece of banana for a fruit fly buffet...but it just makes me curious about the fruit thing...


Hey Judy, I sometimes throw green grapes in the viv for a fruit fly feeding station. When I do, the springs go crazy for them.
Doug


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## packer43064 (Nov 30, 2010)

Judy S said:


> I have a question that has sorta been bugging me...no pun intended...why don't you ever read about isopods and springtails , and of course crickets eating fruit?? Wouldn't you think that the moisture from a tomato give plenty of moisture...you do read about having a piece of banana for a fruit fly buffet...but it just makes me curious about the fruit thing...


I see what your saying, but with the example you have said it just wouldn't work. Alot of fruits perish/mold away quickly compared to a vegetable
(carrot, potato). Putting a tomato in a cricket tub will fowl in 2 days tops, they just have too much water in them. Alot of bugs can eat vegetables though since they last longer. In my mealworm tubs they get fed carrots and potatoes for moisture.


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## 1963 Falcon Hardtop (Dec 27, 2010)

I keep reading about using store bought mushrooms. But... I have not seen it clarified... do you use fresh or canned mushrooms? 

Thanks in advance for an answer.

Bo


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

1963 Falcon Hardtop said:


> I keep reading about using store bought mushrooms. But... I have not seen it clarified... do you use fresh or canned mushrooms?
> 
> Thanks in advance for an answer.
> 
> Bo


Fresh are fine, as are dried mushrooms. I have never heard of canned being used. If you were to try canned, you need to make sure that there are NO preservatives, salt, or anything like that. If it's just mushrooms and water, you are probably ok.
Doug


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

packer43064 said:


> I see what your saying, but with the example you have said it just wouldn't work. Alot of fruits perish/mold away quickly compared to a vegetable
> (carrot, potato). Putting a tomato in a cricket tub will fowl in 2 days tops, they just have too much water in them. Alot of bugs can eat vegetables though since they last longer. In my mealworm tubs they get fed carrots and potatoes for moisture.


grapes, huh? Sounds pretty tidy and neat...one of the reasons I kept losing all the pinheads and real small crickets was that they were not getting enough moisture...but having wet cotton balls, remoistened every day has worked...but no nutrition to that. So therefore, I just thought that some fruit, like lettuce, etc. would be a good alternative and you are right...it would have to be changed kinda often...but so do the sweet potato, etc. So in some ways, it was wondering if there was a specific reason not to do it, or was it a matter of custom--the way it has always been done???


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## packer43064 (Nov 30, 2010)

Judy S said:


> grapes, huh? Sounds pretty tidy and neat...one of the reasons I kept losing all the pinheads and real small crickets was that they were not getting enough moisture...but having wet cotton balls, remoistened every day has worked...but no nutrition to that. So therefore, I just thought that some fruit, like lettuce, etc. would be a good alternative and you are right...it would have to be changed kinda often...but so do the sweet potato, etc. So in some ways, it was wondering if there was a specific reason not to do it, or was it a matter of custom--the way it has always been done???


Custom IMO. I've tried lettuce with mealworms and banana peels before and they just mold or would wither away in what would seem to be hours. The carrots/potatoes just wouldn't mold as much.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Judy S said:


> grapes, huh? Sounds pretty tidy and neat...one of the reasons I kept losing all the pinheads and real small crickets was that they were not getting enough moisture...but having wet cotton balls, remoistened every day has worked...but no nutrition to that. So therefore, I just thought that some fruit, like lettuce, etc. would be a good alternative and you are right...it would have to be changed kinda often...but so do the sweet potato, etc. So in some ways, it was wondering if there was a specific reason not to do it, or was it a matter of custom--the way it has always been done???


I don't know about grapes for other insects. Could be messy and moldy. Springtails eat mold so it's not a problem. Lots of cheaper, better foods for springtails though. I had just noticed my springs are attracted to them when I toss em in the viv. Just an observation as you asked about fruits.
Doug


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

It was also about feeding crickets as well as the springs and isos...you know the pyramid of nutrition we all had to learn in the second grade???


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