# Dusting Springtails?



## MonopolyBag (Jun 3, 2007)

I ordered some springtails to start out my new frogs. Can Springtails be dusted? I do plan to also get some fruit flies and feed them variety in food. I read that for most animals, variety in diet is best.


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## froggerboy (Jul 9, 2006)

I can't see how spring tails could be dusted and they are so small that it wouldn't benifit the frogs.use the spring tails to establish a colony in the tank to help clean up waste and become little froggy treats.Stick to dusting FF's.Depending on your frogs you could feed them pinheads which could be gutloaded.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

I like to feed springtails yam a couple days before feeding out a culture - their back end turns orange. :twisted:


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## MonopolyBag (Jun 3, 2007)

YAM! Great idea, Yams are FULL of GREAT nutrition for all animals! Thanks! Sweet potatoes too.

And any other food ideas for the Springtails? Like what else to feed them? I heard feeding the fish food flakes for tropical fish are good, but is that good for frogs?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

The jury is still out on some aspects of gut loading because with some invertebrates on analysis, the gut loading doesn't significantly change the protien and fat profiles of the insects (although you can modify the highly unsaturated fats in springtails). The main thing you are probably changing through the addition of yam is some more beta carotene (the yellow color) which is amply supplied in the diet if you routinely dust the flies.. 

Ed


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## MonopolyBag (Jun 3, 2007)

What is best to feed the springtails?


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

I raise the springtails in a substrate of organic compost and oak leaf litter with some charcoal blocks on top for collecting them. The adults will tend to run around on the charcoal which can be picked up and the springtails blown off into the tank. Every couple of weeks, I add a sprinkling of brown rice and a lacing of bakers' yeast. I mist the boxes every few days so there's always a shallow layer of water on the bottom. This seems to last for over a year without renewing.


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## EDs Fly Meat (Apr 29, 2004)

Springtails feed on detriatus, or non loving organic material. Collembola, are the janitors of the forest. They break stuff down, so any organic substrate will work. Yeast is a good one, banana peel, fish flake, and Cous Cous are all good food stuffs for springtails. Collembola have a great ability to store Calcium, so you don't have to dust them.


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## slaytonp (Nov 14, 2004)

ED's_Fly_Meat_Inc said:


> Collembola have a great ability to store Calcium, so you don't have to dust them.


I think you would need another food source that _can_ be dusted, however. The frogs would still need a source of D3 to utilize the calcium.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Actually, there is an interesting thread on soil/substrates that ties into this... soil invertebrates are only as good as the soil they live on/in  A few frog keepers (Brent Brock, Matt Mirabello) have been working on soil substrates that are truer to what is in the wild, and have had animals that lived primarily off the microfauna in the tank, with little ill effects from lack of supplimenting...

In the case of Matt's tank, it's a 29g with juvie canal zone auratus growing fat and sassy... and he doesn't feed them! Just tosses kitchen scraps in a composting pile behind a stump in the tank.

In Brent's case, he has pumilio froglets growing to good size in his large 100g pumilio tank, feeding on the microfauna in his tank... with no calcium issues in the juvies at all. This is a bit more impressive due to the fact that pumilio juvies are WAY more sensitive and harder to supplement for calcium, and often die of calcium problems as juvies, where auratus generally don't have that problem. Also, the tank has running a lot longer. 

While both these sets of juvies are feeding on microfauna more diverse than they would if raised indivudually and fed only what we gave them, the biggest players... the introduced springtails... seem to be more nutrient (calcium) rich in these tanks than out of our cultures!

We either need to switch our substrates to more calcium rich substrates and work the tanks so the frogs eat more microfuana raised in tank (some projects I'm working on), and/or raise our springtails on more calcium rich substrates (which I also want to test).


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## froggerboy (Jul 9, 2006)

Is it the clay in brent's set up that makes it calcium rich?I'm still messing with that stuff but haven't found a sucessful way to use it with a water feature.


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## MonopolyBag (Jun 3, 2007)

So possibly raise the spring tails in a substrate that is something like compost maybe?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Having some compost (organic matter) in the viv will allow for the springtails to multiple and grow in number, which is why leaf litter is important (or kitchen scraps!) and can also act as a refugium. It is not, however, where these guys are picking up their calcium, tho you could add calcium too it like Ed described. Having compost as a substrate would likely end up very swampy... But a compost pile on top of a good calcium containing substrate would not only be a good way to go (and matt does in his tank) but also very natural, since that's how it's usually done in the wild


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

its possible to dust them. Tropical springtails will swarm on paper towel with food, its easy to shake it them off. 

You would have to use only a very thin layer of supplement (almost dust itself in the container), but its possible.

I should try this out once I get froglets.


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## CREEPlNG_DEATH (Nov 28, 2009)

KeroKero said:


> We either need to switch our substrates to more calcium rich substrates and work the tanks so the frogs eat more microfuana raised in tank (some projects I'm working on), and/or raise our springtails on more calcium rich substrates (which I also want to test).


What about wonder soil expanding coco coir it is full of calcium and worm castings? Would this work? Because its what I use in my tanks and once I get my springtail culture its what ill use for them as well.


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## Kugamazog (May 12, 2010)

I would highly NOT recommend dusting springtails. They are very primitive insects, and contain an external structure for water regulation called a collophore. You are likely to upset that ability and dry them before they can compensate. I suspect most would die from dusting.


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## JrayJ (Mar 11, 2010)

KeroKero said:


> Actually, there is an interesting thread on soil/substrates that ties into this... soil invertebrates are only as good as the soil they live on/in  A few frog keepers (Brent Brock, Matt Mirabello) have been working on soil substrates that are truer to what is in the wild, and have had animals that lived primarily off the microfauna in the tank, with little ill effects from lack of supplimenting...


Is there a thread...besides The Ultimate Clay Substrate?

Thanks.


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## D3monic (Feb 8, 2010)

Kugamazog said:


> I would highly NOT recommend dusting springtails. They are very primitive insects, and contain an external structure for water regulation called a collophore. You are likely to upset that ability and dry them before they can compensate. I suspect most would die from dusting.


How about instead of "Dusting" them sieve out a bunch and add a few drops of liquid vitamins? This would keep them hydrated and they would likely absorb some of it.


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## Harmenjan (Oct 28, 2018)

I was reading this old thread. In our isopod cultures we have some sepia for their Ca need, what if we add this to springtail cultures? Would they eat it and become Ca richer??


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