# Received Springtails - Now What?



## Percularis (Mar 22, 2011)

I just got my order of temperate springtails from Josh's Frogs... Now what do I do? I plan to start a bigger culture and there are brief directions that came with these, but I still have a few questions...

*1. How do I collect some up to seed my vivarium? They're so tiny and I don't want to dump charcoal into my vivarium. 

2. How do I move them to a bigger culture? There is about 1" of water in the bottom of this culture and I don't want to drown the springtails if I just dump everything into a bigger container.*


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

1) Pick up a chunk of charcoal and tap it with a spoon or something, to knock the springtails loose and into the viv.
2) Springtails don't drown. They live and thive on top of the water's film. Many of us cuture them with an inch of water in the bottom of a charcoal culture. 
3) For the questions you haven't asked yet...http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/66991-how-culture-isopods-woodlice-springtails.html
Good Luck!


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

To seed your viv, you could just flood the culture and then use a turkey baster to remove them and place them in the viv.

To start a bigger culture, I don't think there's any way around it...you have to just dump them in. Unless you want to spend all day with the turkey baster.


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

Doug...the cultures I received from Josh's came with very small peices of charcoal. There wasn't any big chunks to pick up and tap.


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## BlueRidge (Jun 12, 2010)

Typically you'd want to transfer the ones you got from Josh's in the blue tub to 2 sterlite shoeboxes. You'd want to fill the shoeboxes about halfway with charcoal and about an inch of water then split the culture in half. Add a couple sliced mushrooms and watch the culture take off. 

When you harvest some of the springtails, you just add some more water and dump some into your viv. They wont drown, they bounce around on the surface of the water, but I'd wait a couple week until you see them swarming in the shoeboxes first.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

WendySHall said:


> Doug...the cultures I received from Josh's came with very small peices of charcoal. There wasn't any big chunks to pick up and tap.


OK, but if you upsize to bigger cultures, use some big and some small chunks. In the meantime, back in the day, when we cultured on sphagnum, we would put a coffee filter on top and mist it. Put a tiny amount of yeast or whatever you are feeding, on the filter. By morning it would be loaded with springtails and you just pick it up and sprinkle it in.


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

Hey, that sounds like a much easier way to do it than anything else I've seen. I can see the sphagnum rotting...but is there some reason everyone stopped with the filters?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

WendySHall said:


> Hey, that sounds like a much easier way to do it than anything else I've seen. I can see the sphagnum rotting...but is there some reason everyone stopped with the filters?


I've run sphagnum for a couple of years with no rot. The coffee filters will begin to disintegrate and be eaten by the springtails after a while. I think the charcoal tapping and the flood and dump method became more popular.
Another great one is a small piece (like 3" x 3") of sterile tree fern panel stored on top of your culture. They crawl up in it and you just tap away.


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

Well, I don't have any tree fern...but I think I'm gonna give the coffee filters a try on top of my charcoal cultures and just change them out every so often. Thanks!


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## Percularis (Mar 22, 2011)

Okay, here's what I did...

I bought two 6qt Sterelite containers because I couldn't find 5qt. I bought a 4qt bag of organic gardening charcoal and I filled each culture with 2qt of charcoal. I added enough distilled water until there was around 1" in the bottom, and I made sure all of the charcoal was moist. I then put half of the culture I ordered in to both containers. I put the lids on and put them in my room near my frogs. I then added 5 grains of rice in the middle of each culture, and I put 2-3 grains elsewhere around the cultures.

How moist should the cultures be?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Percularis said:


> Okay, here's what I did...
> 
> I bought two 6qt Sterelite containers because I couldn't find 5qt. I bought a 4qt bag of organic gardening charcoal and I filled each culture with 2qt of charcoal. I added enough distilled water until there was around 1" in the bottom, and I made sure all of the charcoal was moist. I then put half of the culture I ordered in to both containers. I put the lids on and put them in my room near my frogs. I then added 5 grains of rice in the middle of each culture, and I put 2-3 grains elsewhere around the cultures.
> 
> How moist should the cultures be?


Out of the many, many foods I've tried, none has produced as poorly as rice. Plus, rice is a grain. It's just a matter of time before you get mites. Yeast. Active Bakers Yeast.


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## Tony (Oct 13, 2008)

Pumilo said:


> Another great one is a small piece (like 3" x 3") of sterile tree fern panel stored on top of your culture. They crawl up in it and you just tap away.


I use tree fern in some of my cultures, and have also had good results with a square of corrugated cardboard.


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

Percularis said:


> I then added 5 grains of rice in the middle of each culture, and I put 2-3 grains elsewhere around the cultures.
> 
> How moist should the cultures be?


I don't put the food directly in the cultures anymore...the mold throughout the container grossed me out. Lately I've been placing the food onto one of those tiny butter bowl lids and then placing it into the container. If something happens and it gets a little too yucky, I throw it away and replace it with a new one. Just keeps things a little cleaner and still lets the mold grow without taking over everything.

If you're keeping about a half to an inch of water in your container, the humidity inside should keep everything moist enough as it is. That's what I do and there's always condensation dripping from the lid.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

WendySHall said:


> I don't put the food directly in the cultures anymore...the mold throughout the container grossed me out. Lately I've been placing the food onto one of those tiny butter bowl lids and then placing it into the container. If something happens and it gets a little too yucky, I throw it away and replace it with a new one. Just keeps things a little cleaner and still lets the mold grow without taking over everything.
> 
> If you're keeping about a half to an inch of water in your container, the humidity inside should keep everything moist enough as it is. That's what I do and there's always condensation dripping from the lid.


Hey Wendy, you should really try letting it get good and gross. It is the...liquifying food that they really go nuts over. Or, just go with Active Bakers yeast which liquifies right away on contact with the wet substrate. Try it and watch your production go through the roof!


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Here you go:

YouTube - ‪joshsfrogsvideos's Channel‬‏


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## WendySHall (Aug 31, 2010)

Pumilo said:


> Hey Wendy, you should really try letting it get good and gross. It is the...liquifying food that they really go nuts over. Or, just go with Active Bakers yeast which liquifies right away on contact with the wet substrate. Try it and watch your production go through the roof!


Yeah...I know, I know...it's the really disgusting stuff that they like. It just really, really grosses me out. I've cleaned out tanks and had my hands in frog poop, gently picked up a dead frog to check on it, killed fruit flies directly on my skin...but that mold...ACK!

I do use the yeast as well as fish food and rice (I know I've been lucky so far)...and my cultures produce far more than I can use.


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## Percularis (Mar 22, 2011)

Pumilo said:


> Out of the many, many foods I've tried, none has produced as poorly as rice. Plus, rice is a grain. It's just a matter of time before you get mites. Yeast. Active Bakers Yeast.


So if I leave the rice in there, mites will come? Or is that after a while of feeding rice? How do I get rid of mites or prevent them? I'll start feeding active bakers yeast. Do I need to take the rice in there currently out?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

WendySHall said:


> Yeah...I know, I know...it's the really disgusting stuff that they like. It just really, really grosses me out. I've cleaned out tanks and had my hands in frog poop, gently picked up a dead frog to check on it, killed fruit flies directly on my skin...but that mold...ACK!
> 
> I do use the yeast as well as fish food and rice (I know I've been lucky so far)...and my cultures produce far more than I can use.


Ahh, but if you eliminate the others, and only feed yeast, it liquifies in a non disgusting way, just like dissolving. Feed the right amount, a couple times a week, and you can totally eliminate the mold, odors, and "disgust" factor! Really!


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

I've used rice for several years, and have never gotten mites (I have with other grains). In fact, I've never gotten mites since I started keeping springs on charcoal.

I've also never had any other foods produce springtails as well for me as rice has, especially after it forms a nice thick, moldy layer. They also produce a ton better for me if I keep them slightly cooler (I keep them on the bottom shelf in the basement).

To the OP - I would try a few different ways, and see what works best for you.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

zBrinks said:


> I've used rice for several years, and have never gotten mites (I have with other grains). In fact, I've never gotten mites since I started keeping springs on charcoal.
> 
> I've also never had any other foods produce springtails as well for me as rice has, especially after it forms a nice thick, moldy layer. They also produce a ton better for me if I keep them slightly cooler (I keep them on the bottom shelf in the basement).
> 
> To the OP - I would try a few different ways, and see what works best for you.


Curious if you have tried active yeast? I am wondering if the type or brand of rice makes a difference. When I was experimenting with rice, it remained untouched by the springtails for about 2 weeks. They showed no interest in the grains until it fully molded over.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

I have used the yeast before, and was not horribly impressed with it - it worked, but I get 10 times the production out of the rice. I feed a substantial amount of rice (a handful) once a month, and within a couple of weeks, I have more springtails than I know what to do with.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

A handful would be a lot more than I experimented with.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Yah, once you get a decent 'mat' of moldy rice going, you really end up with a ton of springtails. Then it's just a matter of pouring them out, and adding more water.

I like to feed springs to all the vivaria at least twice a month (once a week with the thumbs), and this method allows me to maximize production, while minimizing maintenance.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

I have real good luck feeding mine the active yeast as well. That and baby cereal work the best for me. I have to admit though that I've never tried rice.


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## motydesign (Feb 27, 2011)

okay people, listen to pumilo, the man is good at what he does! i have done what he has said. Water, coal, then throw bakers yeast 3 times to 4 times a week.... its clean, NO smell, and production is almost STUPID! why tinker? its proven and clean... just listen to the guy.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

motydesign said:


> okay people, listen to pumilo, the man is good at what he does! i have done what he has said. Water, coal, then throw bakers yeast 3 times to 4 times a week.... its clean, NO smell, and production is almost STUPID! why tinker? its proven and clean... just listen to the guy.


 Have you ever tried rice?


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## Percularis (Mar 22, 2011)

I'll put both cultures in a cooler area of my house. I'll feed active baker's yeast to one culture and rice to the other. Whichever works best for my cultures I will feed to all of my cultures.


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## fishr (Dec 20, 2010)

This thread has been very interesting.

I wanna try rice now.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

The rice does not produce springtails as quickly as the yeast does, but IME it produces more of them, and I can feed the springs much less frequently.


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## fishr (Dec 20, 2010)

zBrinks said:


> The rice does not produce springtails as quickly as the yeast does, but IME it produces more of them, and I can feed the springs much less frequently.


Also good info. Thanks Doug and Zack.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Percularis said:


> *1. How do I collect some up to seed my vivarium? They're so tiny and I don't want to dump charcoal into my vivarium.*


So i also got some (tropical) STs from josh's frogs and I still have them in the original container. I (accidentally) found out that the easiest way to put a large amount of them in my viv (for feeding or seeding) was to just tilt the container a until I could see a pool of STs, and then just blowing on them as I held the container over the viv. They'll go everywhere!

Also, as per recommendation of others (who are much more experienced) on the forum, I mainly feed my STs active baker's yeast. I started out feeding powdered oatmeal, but I really noticed a bloom in the population after I switched to yeast. I also put in some tropical fish flakes every once in awhile for protein, but this is usually disencouraged lol.

I haven't tried rice (as per the instructions on the culture label) because I can't imagine the STs eating the rice directly - the rice is huge compared to them, and they don't have external mouth parts to chew on the rice like insects (think of mandibles on ants). This is why I think my STs did better on yeast (liquified foods)


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## fishr (Dec 20, 2010)

Good information. Thank you.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

zBrinks said:


> The rice does not produce springtails as quickly as the yeast does, but IME it produces more of them, and I can feed the springs much less frequently.


There are so many different ways to do this, friends, with many different pros and cons. I do like my yeast but I'm in there feeding once or twice a week. Certainly Zachs method has a nice plus in being able to walk away for a month!! I'm pretty sure mine would crash if I walked away for a month.


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## Percularis (Mar 22, 2011)

Pumilo said:


> There are so many different ways to do this, friends, with many different pros and cons. I do like my yeast but I'm in there feeding once or twice a week. Certainly Zachs method has a nice plus in being able to walk away for a month!! I'm pretty sure mine would crash if I walked away for a month.


How do I make the rice mold?


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Percularis said:


> How do I make the rice mold?


 You put a bunch of it in a damp springtail culture and forget about it 

Like everything in this hobby, there are several different ways to do things. I tried this after talking to Josh (JoshsFrogs), and seeing some of the insanely producing cultures up at the facility. I've never had any issues with mites since switching to just rice, either.


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## Percularis (Mar 22, 2011)

zBrinks said:


> You put a bunch of it in a damp springtail culture and forget about it
> 
> Like everything in this hobby, there are several different ways to do things. I tried this after talking to Josh (JoshsFrogs), and seeing some of the insanely producing cultures up at the facility. I've never had any issues with mites since switching to just rice, either.


So why did my vivarium grow mold on a dry log, but my wet springtail cultures with rotting food won't? 

I noticed that apples mold quickly in my cricket containers. Is there a reason we don't feed fruit to our springtails?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Percularis said:


> So why did my vivarium grow mold on a dry log, but my wet springtail cultures with rotting food won't?
> 
> I noticed that apples mold quickly in my cricket containers. Is there a reason we don't feed fruit to our springtails?


I would imagine fruits could pretty easily bring mites in. In my vivs, however, the springtails love grapes.


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## LookinRound (May 1, 2011)

Pumilo said:


> There are so many different ways to do this, friends, with many different pros and cons. I do like my yeast but I'm in there feeding once or twice a week. Certainly Zachs method has a nice plus in being able to walk away for a month!! I'm pretty sure mine would crash if I walked away for a month.


What about a yeast/rice mix? Has anyone tried anything with this? (I haven't started cultures yet, still in the reading phase)


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## Percularis (Mar 22, 2011)

LookinRound said:


> What about a yeast/rice mix? Has anyone tried anything with this? (I haven't started cultures yet, still in the reading phase)


Or what if you wet the rice and rolled it in yeast?


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## Tomdarr (Aug 25, 2010)

I have been experimenting with some different mixes and have had a lot of success by dampening a mushroom slice then dipping it into some yeast so that the yeast sticks to it then feeding those to the springtails. I have also tried rice and did fine but the mushroom and yeast thing seems to be the fastest producer for me. 
I am interested in trying the grapes now though. Maybe a yeast powder crusted grape slice? (Kind of like a powdered donut for springtails. )


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Pumilo said:


> I would imagine fruits could pretty easily bring mites in. In my vivs, however, the springtails love grapes.





Tomdarr said:


> I have been experimenting with some different mixes and have had a lot of success by dampening a mushroom slice then dipping it into some yeast so that the yeast sticks to it then feeding those to the springtails. I have also tried rice and did fine but the mushroom and yeast thing seems to be the fastest producer for me.
> I am interested in trying the grapes now though. Maybe a yeast powder crusted grape slice? (Kind of like a powdered donut for springtails. )


I mentioned grapes but I don't recommend grapes in a springtail culture. I think that they would easily bring mites in. Every viv, however, gets mites once it has been set up long enough. That is why I mentioned grapes within your viv. It works as a feeding station for your flies and doubles as springtail food.


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## Percularis (Mar 22, 2011)

WOW!!

Three days after adding a few pinches of active bakers yeast I checked my springtail culture. They were literally just finished it up. There were HUNDREDS crawling all over the feeding area! They go crazy over this stuff!


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Glad it's working for you. You can get a huge, 2 lb bag at Costco for about $3 or $4.


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