# Help with springtails.



## Gaz1987 (Dec 27, 2008)

Hi I was wondering if a springtail expert could help me 

I want to know what everyone thinks the best and quickest to produce springtail is and how they culture it.

I am in need of more springtails than I can produce at the moment and would like a faster producing species that is simple to culture with good results.

Ideally a small springtail would be best around the size of the common white or tropical springtail is fine or if a smaller one is available that would be even better as I keep mainly thumbnails so would be nice have smaller springtails to feed tiny froglets.

Thanks for your time in advance.
Gary


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

There are several other species besides the tropical and the temperate ones you mentioned that I suspect are equally easy to raise though I can't say for sure if they are more productive or not. 

At the risk of sounding unhelpful, i recomend the search function. There is a wealth of information on this website about them and shouldn't be difficult to find. Happy culturing.


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## Komodo Reptiles (May 11, 2010)

For me Folsomia breed the quickest. I culture them either with the charcoal and water method, or on a damp peat substrate. Keep them at room temperature, feed them fresh mushrooms and they will boom.

Dave


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## DartAsylum (Feb 17, 2011)

check this thread 


http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/64284-springtails-thrive-vivarium-frogs-only.html#post560781


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## Gaz1987 (Dec 27, 2008)

Thanks guys any other help is also appreciated.


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## BlueRidge (Jun 12, 2010)

I do mine the same way Komodo does and feed them mushrooms and OMG...... I cant stop them from breeding. If you lift the lid all you see is TONS of white scatter everywhere


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## Gaz1987 (Dec 27, 2008)

I will try mushrooms again then. I tried them before but didnt find much changed. 

Does anyone do anything to the mushroom or add anything before feeding them?

Does any type of mushroom seem to work?


Thanks again can't wait to get tons of springs


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

In my experience live yeast works just as well as mushrooms. If you aren't getting a lot of production from the springtails using baker's yeast then you probably are underfeeding the cultures. 

Ed


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## Gaz1987 (Dec 27, 2008)

How often do people feed and what sort of amount?

Is any yeast suitable or only bakers yeast?

Sorry for all the newbie questions its just springtails are a pain for me I never get enough. I would really like to be able to feed my whole collection around once a month with just springtails just one day and still be able to feed my froglets regular.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

You will get a much better response from live yeast (baker's yeast) than you will from nutritional or brewer's yeast. Sprinkle it in the culture.. if it is gone the next day up the amount you add until it isn't being eaten in 24 hours.. if you badly overfeed the cultures the springtails will be immobile as the CO2 levels will have knocked out the springtails. Simply aerate the culture by opening the lid and fanning it a few times. When you are adding enough that you can still see uneaten yeast for a 24-36 hours you are feeding about the right amount. 

Larger cultures do produce better but if your cultures have been set up for a long time (say a year) then you need to set up new cultures as the springtails secrete pheremones that will inhibit reproduction. 

Ed


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## D3monic (Feb 8, 2010)

Ed said:


> Larger cultures do produce better but if your cultures have been set up for a long time (say a year) then you need to set up new cultures as the springtails secrete pheremones that will inhibit reproduction.
> 
> Ed


I am around a year on my cultures and I have to agree my production has slowed down significantly. I think its about time to make new ones.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Just seconding what Ed said. I switched to live bakers yeast and am getting great production. Plus too many other feeds can introduce mites into your cultures.


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## Gaz1987 (Dec 27, 2008)

Thanks everyone.

At the moment my best cultures seem to be the ones in small 6 litre tubs that have a small amount of ventilation and a fitted lid.
They have Hydroleca in the tub filled with water halfway up to the leca. I feed over the top of the leca. 

When I take springtails out I use a film canister to scoop them out with the water after a few feeds I do add some fresh water to top it back up. The springtails do breed ok but just need more so I will be trying some of the tips you guys suggested.

With the setup that I described above do I still need to make new/fresh cultures even though there is ventilation and they have fresh water added every so often?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Yes, new cultures do need to be started as the pheromones build up on the substrate. 

There is a lot of success with different medias and I have the best success with Folsomia when I culture them on a substrate of hardwood charcoal and fired clay product (I use Turface). Soak the charcoal with water until saturated and mix with the Turface to get the culture going. 

Ed


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## Gaz1987 (Dec 27, 2008)

Thanks again for all the info.

If I use the culture setup as I mentioned before with the Hydroleca will the pheromones not get washed away everytime I add fresh water and scoop some out with springtails?

If not would I gave to add fresh Hydroleca to a new culture everytime or could the same hydroleca be used if washed through before hand?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Anything you use to culture springs on is porous and will absorb the pheromones. You have to do the yearly replacement. This is part of why we use something cheap like charcoal to culture them on.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Doug has it right. 

You may be able to clean the leca by baking it or some other method but as I haven't tried it I wouldn't rely on that suggestion. 

Ed


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

What a lot of us do after a year or so, when they slow down, is split the culture. Scoop out half of the culture and put it in a new container. Then top off the old, and the new, cultures with new media.


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

How do you deal with pheromone accumulation in vivarium soils that are seeded with springtails? 



Ed said:


> Larger cultures do produce better but if your cultures have been set up for a long time (say a year) then you need to set up new cultures as the springtails secrete pheremones that will inhibit reproduction.
> 
> Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

dmartin72 said:


> How do you deal with pheromone accumulation in vivarium soils that are seeded with springtails?


In general you don't as you aren't attempting to sustain a maximal continous production like a culture. In enclosures, you will see populations boom, bust and then stabilize at a level supported by the enclosure within a year or two of setting up the tank. This time line is going to be variable but one of the beneficial points behind larger enclosures as they ultimately support larger populations of microfauna. If you are utilizing a flow through system you are going to remove some of that pheremone with each flushing cycle so that helps to keep it from building up but it isn't going to be enough. There should also be some degredation as microbes in the enclosures feed on it but in general you don't. 

Ed


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## Gaz1987 (Dec 27, 2008)

Thanks everyone I will create new cultures more often then. Any other advice is much appreciated.


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## Arizona Tropicals (Feb 15, 2010)

I used bakers yeast for quite a while and it most certainly works great, but I have since found baby cereal to work even better. I now use Beech-Nut Oatmeal and our cultures grow bigger and faster then they ever did on yeast.

I am using this:










I sprinkle cereal over the top of the culture and wet it down with a hand mister. I do this once a week at most.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

I originally used baby cereal but stopped as I kept getting infestations of mites. The use of bakers yeast seems to deny the foods that commonly trigger mite infestations. 

Ed


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## Arizona Tropicals (Feb 15, 2010)

Ed said:


> I originally used baby cereal but stopped as I kept getting infestations of mites. The use of bakers yeast seems to deny the foods that commonly trigger mite infestations.
> 
> Ed


Knock on wood but I haven't had any mite issues using baby food, I culture in completely sealed gasket boxes. That may help?


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## Bcs TX (Sep 13, 2008)

> What a lot of us do after a year or so, when they slow down, is split the culture. Scoop out half of the culture and put it in a new container. Then top off the old, and the new, cultures with new media.


Ed, I have some 1 year old charcoal cultures that production has slowed down, will the above work with them or should I pour out the water and add new water.


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## tim13 (Feb 1, 2011)

Sounds like you need to split the culture if its the one year mark and production is down.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Arizona Tropicals said:


> Knock on wood but I haven't had any mite issues using baby food, I culture in completely sealed gasket boxes. That may help?


The mites can actually arrive in the cultures with the baby food (grain mites, one of the ones that get into the fruit fly cultures). Using the gasket sealed boxes will help as it helps keep mites out from other sources (like other insect colonies) it won't stop mites if you are adding them with the food. Grain mites are found in basically every cereal product unless it was sterilized after sealing. 

I'd have to look at the gasket boxes again as I remember thinking they looked pretty fruitfly and bean beetle proof but there is a seam where the two ends of the gasket are pushed into the lid and I wasn't sure that was mite proof (or maybe the one I was looking at was defective). 

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Bcs TX said:


> Ed, I have some 1 year old charcoal cultures that production has slowed down, will the above work with them or should I pour out the water and add new water.


Replacing the water won't do it.. I would follow Doug's suggestion. I always tended to set up whole new cultures every year but that method sounds like it will work well. 

Ed


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## Bcs TX (Sep 13, 2008)

Thanks Ed and Tim.
I will give it a try. 

-Beth


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## Allyn Loring (Sep 30, 2008)

If you have a "charcoal" based substrate can you add any other substrate to amend the charcoal .I'm thinking; peat, leaf litter , orchid bark mix or anything else that I'm not aware of??!!!!!!


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

Arizona Tropicals said:


> I used bakers yeast for quite a while and it most certainly works great, but I have since found baby cereal to work even better. I now use Beech-Nut Oatmeal and our cultures grow bigger and faster then they ever did on yeast.
> 
> I am using this:
> 
> ...


I second this. AND, so far for me no mite problems.

The way I avoid the phermone issue is to culture the springs on shredded coco husks. When I feed out the springs I just take scoops of the growing media loaded with springs and pile it up on a culture plate that I then place in the viv as a feeding station. This way I'm continually using up the old growing media and making new cultures on fresh media.

Works great for me - http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/63320-booming.html


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## DartAsylum (Feb 17, 2011)

Allyn Loring said:


> If you have a "charcoal" based substrate can you add any other substrate to amend the charcoal .I'm thinking; peat, leaf litter , orchid bark mix or anything else that I'm not aware of??!!!!!!


i make my cultures with substrait just like in the frog tank.
my springs are booming like crazy. way better than just charcoal. no comparison. and i also have cultures in big sweater boxes not small shoe box size. i had to split cultures in a couple weeks because the massive number of springs.

so yes mine have bark peat spagnum charcoal leaf litter etc


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