# What do Springtails look like?



## Guest (May 24, 2007)

I just bought a culture of these in a charcoal filled container from Josh's Frogs and I don't *see *anything moving? Can someone post A pic or something because I have no idea what these look like at all.

Thanks,


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

You're in luck, somone just posted an excellent pic of them in the feeders section earlier this week: 
http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=28039


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## bpetty13 (Mar 17, 2007)

they are tiny white bugs. sorry i dont have any pics, but when i look into my springtail culture i can deffinitely see them.


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## nitsuj (Jan 21, 2007)

they are like 1-2 mm long, very small, and if the culture primarely contains babies they can be around 1/2 mm long.


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## VTHokie (Jun 28, 2005)

Sprinkle a little pile of food and you should be able to see them gathering there buy the next day.


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## Guest (May 24, 2007)

Ok I see the little critters finally and fed a pinch of food I got from Josh. How do I dump them in the tank regarding technique?


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

There are many ways, but this is from the FAQ linked to in the sticky at the top of this page:
http://www.dendroboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=324



> 3.) Serving them out: Some people take advantage of the springtails' property of floating on water, by keeping the substrate low enough in areas to suck them out with a turkey baster or scoop them out with a spoon. Others pick up pieces of the substrate (if it's charcoal or mulch) and bang them together over the open tank, causing the springtails to fall off. Another method is to pick up a piece and put it right in the tank. Do whatever works best for you with the substrate you've chosen.


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## Guest (May 24, 2007)

Alraight sounds good! 

Thanks,


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## VTHokie (Jun 28, 2005)

I have found that the most effective way to feed them out is to put a piece of tree fern panel in with the culture. All you need to do is sprinkle some food on the panel, the springtails will then be all over and in the tree fern and you can just shake them into the viv. This works better with tropical springtails than the temperate.


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## tyler (Feb 23, 2006)




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## Guest (May 25, 2007)

How often do I feed springs? Do I feed the ones in the viv too?


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## nitsuj (Jan 21, 2007)

There is no real rule to how to feed springs, they can not be a primary food source, just a "snack". Springs usually come most handy when you have baby thumbs or pums or some very small adult thumbs like retic's. I would suggest you keep your culture or transfer it to a shoe box, wait until it is at a "booming" stage in production, you'll know when..when you cant see the subtrate. Then feed alittle to your leucs from time to time, I know you're getting some thumbs soon, so I would wait for them, they'll appreciate them more! Dont feed them all to your leucs,


Justin


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

The "in culture" section of this Springtail article will likely be of interest to you... it's very general, but gives you the idea. It sucks that you didn't get a booming culture to begin with, but given a few weeks you should be able to up the population enough thru the feedings to split the culture or feed out (I recomend starting new cultures first, so you have back ups).

The charcoal you mentioned... is it large chunks? Or just small ground charcoal? The large chunks you can actually pick up (when the culture is booming and there are a lot crawling around) and tap two peices together over the tank, knocking off all the springtails.

Don't bother trying to feed the ones in the tank, there is plenty of food for the low density that the frogs will keep them at. Actually, in a tank without frogs you can easily get a boom of them with very little work. Just feed out the springs as often as you feel you've got a big enough boom to feed them out. They make great snacks to larger frogs, are especially relished by thumbnails, and are a good small feeder to give to froglets that don't get much variation in diet due to small size.


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## brettlt (Oct 5, 2006)

I just want to mention that my Leucs love springtails. They happily eat them up. I usually feed flies 4-5 days a week and put in springtails on the days I do not put in flies. This has worked well for me, but my frogs are a little heavy because I feed them too many flies. I am putting them on a diet next week.


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## Guest (May 25, 2007)

Thanks everyone! 



> KeroKero Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 7:27 am Post subject: The charcoal you mentioned... is it large chunks? Or just small ground charcoal? The large chunks you can actually pick up (when the culture is booming and there are a lot crawling around) and tap two peices together over the tank, knocking off all the springtails.


-Sorta, most prices are no smaller than your thumbnail but not larger than your actual thumb. I guess its large chunks.

Thanks to everyone else! I plan to just feed a pinch of food to the culture once a day and feed them to the frogs twice a week!

Cheers,


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

When I was talking large chunks, I was talking lump charcoal like that sold by vivarium concepts. These are closer in size to the palm of your hand than your thumbnail  Culturing springtails on small lumps of charcoal like that is similar to raising them on gravel or LECA... can't exactly pick up the pieces and tap them together like I described! Instead, if no other media is present, you'll probably have to flood the culture (handy that they float) and either use a spoon to remove small amounts of them, or pour a good portion of the culture into the tank by dumping the water, with springtails, directly into the frog tank. I prefer the larger lump charcoal tho.


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## Guest (May 26, 2007)

Already ahead of ya :wink: . I picked up the container and tipped it on its side to let the water come out into a small gladware dish. I remover out as much charcoal-y water as I could and just poured them in my viv; seems to be working great.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I figure the water is just gonna fertilize, and helps me clean the culture a bit too, so I just dump the springs, charcoally water and all, right into the frog tanks  Not a good idea in tanks that don't have drainage layers tho, like froglet tanks... but in large set up tanks, a couple oz. of water won't hurt anything.


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