# Holy Springtails Batman!



## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

recent springtail explosion!

https://youtu.be/jD6oyfsCCtI


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Are those yours?


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

Enlightened Rogue said:


> Are those yours?


yeah I just took that video


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Love it. What are you feeding them with?


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

Enlightened Rogue said:


> Love it. What are you feeding them with?


Josh's "Spring to Life" they love it! "it provides carbohydrates, trace minerals and proteins that are essential to the growth and production of springtails" just dust a corner of the culture twice weekly and KaBOOM! lol


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## radiata (Jul 24, 2010)

Any ingredients listed on the container? Josh's doesn't seem to list them -Josh's Frogs Spring to Life Springtail Food (5 oz) | Josh's Frogs.


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## diggenem (Sep 2, 2011)

What type of springs do you have there? Do you prefer Spring to Life over yeast because I get great results on yeast alone. What are your observations?


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## Rmarshall (Feb 28, 2015)

Ha! What a happy sight . Can never have enough of those little guys.


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## foreverinatune (Mar 23, 2015)

Wusserton said:


> Josh's "Spring to Life" they love it! "it provides carbohydrates, trace minerals and proteins that are essential to the growth and production of springtails" just dust a corner of the culture twice weekly and KaBOOM! lol


Is the 'Spring to Life' a must have? I accidentally got a double order of spring tails and neither one of cultures flourished. I can't imagine JFs sending an inferior product so I'm sure it was a user error. Help?


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

Run to your local market and buy some brewers yeast, if you have fish flakes on hand those will mold over as well, I heard a small chunk of bread will work. Depending on your set up I recommend getting them out of their "original" container, I bought the Josh's frogs kit, but I can buy large grain charcoal on the market from my local plant store so in the future Im probably going to use that stuff, make sure its all natural not Kingsford or something you would buy in a grocery store, that stuff has chemicals, you want pure charcoal from wood. buy a 12"x6"x4" deep container, tupperware style and fill it halfway (maybe a little more) with charcoal, fresh stuff I mean, and than fill it to halfway the charcoal lvl with distilled water. Boom lol the Josh's spring to life came with my kit and it works GREAT but I kept my cultures going through fish flakes and brewers yeast before so if your worried about feeding your springs run to the grocery store and get yeast, only add it to one corner and mark that corner so you know your feeding corner ...pour them out from the opposite corner. 


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## lochanrk (Mar 7, 2015)

foreverinatune said:


> Is the 'Spring to Life' a must have? I accidentally got a double order of spring tails and neither one of cultures flourished. I can't imagine JFs sending an inferior product so I'm sure it was a user error. Help?


I haven't tried the spring to life but what worked for me was fish flakes and leaving them in complete darkness at room temp. All I did was open the container once a day for fresh air and added food if there was none.


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

You have to feed that marked corner about 2 times a week, the spring to life stuff is a fine powder, its finer than yeast, its nice, I recommend ordering some, also, my last culture came where every springtail looked dead, the cap wasn't on tight (amazed the water didn't leak out) and it smelled like rot, I called Zach from Josh's frogs and he told me to leave the lid off for about 1-2 hours. Apparently springtails Co2 gas themselves to sleep, sure enough they came right back when oxygen was let in! Josh's kit exploded within 2 weeks! they really are an awesome company so I will definitely buy more spring to life from them when the time comes. 


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

diggenem said:


> What type of springs do you have there? Do you prefer Spring to Life over yeast because I get great results on yeast alone. What are your observations?



Look up, I use yeast too but this stuff has them nuts! These are tropical whites


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

radiata said:


> Any ingredients listed on the container? Josh's doesn't seem to list them -Josh's Frogs Spring to Life Springtail Food (5 oz) | Josh's Frogs.



Only thing listed was what I quoted above about carbohydrates and trace minerals, if your thinking gut load Im sure its fine, they don't eat this stuff they eat the mold that grows on it so essentially getting the best quality mold is what your looking for. in the culture you will rarely if ever see mold, you may smell an odor, no problem, if you feed them 2 times a week you will flush out the Co2 and introduce Oxygen.


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

I have froglets Im trying to fatten up so springs are a must! plus because its a hassle to ship and use and blah blah I decided to start a small culture (yes this is small) that I can donate to my locality to include pet stores.


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

lochanrk said:


> I haven't tried the spring to life but what worked for me was fish flakes and leaving them in complete darkness at room temp. All I did was open the container once a day for fresh air and added food if there was none.



Yeah I keep mine on the top of my frog rack 72" up, its fairly dark and somewhere around 75 degrees up there.


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## radiata (Jul 24, 2010)

Wusserton said:


> Only thing listed was what I quoted above about carbohydrates and trace minerals, if your thinking gut load Im sure its fine, they don't eat this stuff they eat the mold that grows on it so essentially getting the best quality mold is what your looking for. in the culture you will rarely if ever see mold, you may smell an odor, no problem, if you feed them 2 times a week you will flush out the Co2 and introduce Oxygen.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


I find it odd that Josh's doesn't list the ingredients for this "food" (and, so might the Food & Drug Administration). How does the buyer know that it isn't just Brewer's Yeast? NEHERP's "Springtail Food" (New England Herpetoculture LLC - Bug Breeding Menu) is 100% Brewer's Yeast and costs $4.99 for 16oz, while Josh's costs $7.99 for 5oz. 

Would it be more accurate to call both of these a "Mold Accelerant"?


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## Weston (Mar 21, 2015)

I've had good luck with grains of rice. Haha nothing that explosive though.


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

radiata said:


> I find it odd that Josh's doesn't list the ingredients for this "food" (and, so might the Food & Drug Administration). How does the buyer know that it isn't just Brewer's Yeast? NEHERP's "Springtail Food" (New England Herpetoculture LLC - Bug Breeding Menu) is 100% Brewer's Yeast and costs $4.99 for 16oz, while Josh's costs $7.99 for 5oz.
> 
> Would it be more accurate to call both of these a "Mold Accelerant"?


Its not brewers yeast its bone white


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## Tzunu'un (Apr 15, 2014)

I wonder if it's rice flour ? That would be white.

A couple of people have used rice to feed springtails and the flour would hydrate better and perhaps "mold up" faster.

Here's a link to the nutritional info for rice flour.....it would provide carbohydrates, protein, minerals, and some vitamins.
Nutrition Facts and Analysis for Rice flour, white

I've never used the Spring to Life so can't compare.


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

Tzunu'un said:


> I wonder if it's rice flour ? That would be white.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It very well could be


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## stu&shaz (Nov 19, 2009)

Brad(it is brad isn't it) great culture! We get similar with just yeast. don't forget to add some form of Ca,if just using yeast guys,cuttle fish bone grated works well. 

We've got a biggish collection now and probably around the 30plus culture mark on sprintails alone. We fill our containers with much more charcoal,which gives a greater surface area for the beasties,but the flip side is less space for O2. I was finding that when we got the massive blooms I was working on a knife edge trying to get around all of them before they suffocated Years back here some of your froggers started using 2 micro vents (mite proof),i'm going to give you a link to what I'm using here. These vents just one per tub will give you a constant supply of O2 and they have erradicated CO2 build up and crashes related to this. Plus halved my time pulling lids off tubs. They also mean I can feed more without issue,it was getting really silly as the banging cultures were constantly running out of food,as if we put enough in for the number of springtails it would crash if not opened on the next day. As I say a constant knife edge. 

I can't say whether production has actually increased ,but two fold benefits are very apparent,first the springtails always have fresh air,it can't be great for them living in an O2 depleted atmosphere,plus not one single crash on a vented tub...PERIOD.

ORCHID FLASKS FILTERS 0.2 µm PORE PACK OF 20 SELF ADHESIVE AUTOCLAVABLE | eBay

Have a try with these,I'm in the UK by the way,you have other options available stateside,maybe these too. They have made such a difference to my work load and are so easy to use:drill one 8mm hole down low on the tub,CO2 heavier than air being my reason,clean up burrs on the tub with a sharp knife and stick on vent and you are golden.

good luck all

Stu


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## radiata (Jul 24, 2010)

stu&shaz said:


> Brad(it is brad isn't it) great culture! We get similar with just yeast. don't forget to add some form of Ca,if just using yeast guys,cuttle fish bone grated works well.
> 
> We've got a biggish collection now and probably around the 30plus culture mark on sprintails alone. We fill our containers with much more charcoal,which gives a greater surface area for the beasties,but the flip side is less space for O2. I was finding that when we got the massive blooms I was working on a knife edge trying to get around all of them before they suffocated Years back here some of your froggers started using 2 micro vents (mite proof),i'm going to give you a link to what I'm using here. These vents just one per tub will give you a constant supply of O2 and they have erradicated CO2 build up and crashes related to this. Plus halved my time pulling lids off tubs. They also mean I can feed more without issue,it was getting really silly as the banging cultures were constantly running out of food,as if we put enough in for the number of springtails it would crash if not opened on the next day. As I say a constant knife edge.
> 
> ...


Stu,

Thanks for the inspiration! An orchid guy here (tazman2nj) tells me that "most people do not flask their own—they send to a lab." I did a search on orchid flasks and found an orchid site where someone is using NexCare bandages on flasks. So I ran off to a drug store and bought a box of breathable *Band-Aid Brand "Clear Spots" Adhesive Bandages* that I'm going to try using to cover drilled holes. I also came across breathable bandage tape which might be neater, but might also capture springs on the inside of the container. Of course you could also use the tape on both the inside and outside of the container...

Regards,
Bob


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## stu&shaz (Nov 19, 2009)

Bob, the thanks are mine,your hobby helped us get here your hobby inspired my post and has saved me a lot of time that i now get to spend with our frogs not venting springtails . I saw what I thought were a few newer guys talking,getting great results,it must be said, i wanted to try and give a bit back,for the help given in the hope of pushing those great results further...

I hope it works out for you: I guess as long as there is an exchange of air and no mites fungal spore etc can get in one should win.

I'll confess I was worried that Brad might think I was raining on his parade,right through writing that post that was running through my mind,but all I wanted was for him to not be able to see any charcoal at all to spend less time culturing more time observing.

I find it sort of lovely that I couldn't find a substitute in blighty. But a new guy here (who hasn't even built his viv yet,has his head down reading and learning), with a great scientific brain found these for me. He spoke to friends and even sent us the first lot to trial for nothing.

It's the hobby being what it should,one guy helps this guy on the other side of the world I might, add That guy tries to help a new guy starting out . The new guy starting out teaches the guy trying to help him something and gets the product for him. The helped guy on the other side of the world gets a chance to give back and helps a guy whom keeps orchids.God help me if that makes sense

Ok I'm confused now but it's all good that's for sure,lmao

Bob,thanks tell us how you get on

take care and best of luck

Stu


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## Wusserton (Feb 21, 2014)

Thanks for the input guys, the container Im using isnt snap on air tight, the lid is fairly flush but air can still get in, because I have froglets Im feeding on a cycle I am constantly opening my spring culture for feedings and to feed the culture, I'll check into the anti-mite stuff though, right now I sprayed all around the exterior of the room with anti-mite bird spray and steam mop every two weeks in the room itself, the culture is on the very top of my 72" muscle rack and I also have fly cultures up there in seperate containers with mite treated paper towels lining the tubs


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## BlueRidge (Jun 12, 2010)

FYI....the Spring to Life powder is nothing more than white rice flour. I can buy a 24oz bag at the grocery store for $2.49.


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## Jbenedicta (Aug 22, 2016)

I too have had great luck feeding springtails rice. It doesnt attract mites like fish food.


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