# Cultring springs from inside viv



## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

So I was doing some maintenance inside my viv the other day, and while looking under the coco hut and in the water in the petri dish, I saw what looked like mites -- they were tiny, circular, and white/tan. But upon closer inspection I saw that they were floating on the water and when I blew on them they jumped, so they must be springtails I thought!

My first thought was that these would be perfect for supplementing tiny thumb froglets' diets, and that I should try culturing them. Has anyone had success culturing unusual microfauna that they've found in their vivs?

Also, I'm pretty sure these aren't small pink or white springs that I've seeded my tank with before. The babies for those guys are pretty oblong right? These guys were like almost perfect circles.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Temperate whites, temperate silvers, tropical pinks, and temperate tomocerus, are all born oblong rather than round. I've read about "globular" springtails. Perhaps they are those? I've also read they are difficult to culture, though.

My specific temperate silvers were collected from my Understory Tarapoto viv. I cleaned them via Ed's posted methods of "generational turnaround". They seem to reproduce much faster that older silvers in the hobby. I have tens of thousands of them now, started from 8 adults!!

"Generational turnaround" goes off the theory that pathogens need an appropriate host to thrive and reproduce. The more generations you culture, without the host, the safer they are for other vivs use. I cultured my original 8 until they were crawling with babies. I then collected a small amount of ONLY babies, and dumped the remaining springtails back into my Tarapoto viv.
I raised the babies up until they were adults, and the culture was crawling with new babies again. Collect the new babies for a culture and you are now two generation in. (Dump the old culture back in the original viv).
I repeated this through 5 generations before I began to use them.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

There are 3 separate body type classifications of springtails, and "globular" are definitely one of them. Culture them up! Super easy to do. Ive got a culture started of large green springs that live in the bromeliads on my porch!!!


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

You guys know I'll be "patiently" waiting on a starter of each of those, right?


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I just got these going. They live inside my BIG Neoregelias and are easy to scoop off the top of the water in the axils. Smaller than Tomocerous, but larger than any other spring in the hobby. Reproducing slowly, but steadily. Now that Im no longer having to do 60 hr weeks I can devote a bit more time to bug culturing. 'That means Ill be splitting and making ore of the Linbo isopod cultures too


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## sounddrive (Jan 4, 2007)

Personally I culture springs alittle different than most and have extremely good luck with my method... It probably the cheapest easiest way. I use any container I can lol and fill the bottom with ore wetted soil ( the same substrate I use in all my vivs) to about 2 inches deep, cover the top with a few sturdy oak leaves and seed with springs of your choice ( I have luck with all species this way including globular). When you want to feed simply sprinkle a few grains of yeast on top of one of the leaves and must gently the following day the leaf will be covered.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I use pretty much the same method. Ive moved away from charcoal.....


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

frogparty said:


> I use pretty much the same method. Ive moved away from charcoal.....


any particular reason why? and when you say soil, do you mean abg?


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

some springs just dont respond as well to charcoal culture


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## sounddrive (Jan 4, 2007)

Charcoal dont really serve mich of a purpose and soil is cheaper so if a culture gets mite I toss it and make a new no biggi and charcoal is a lot messier


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## sounddrive (Jan 4, 2007)

And the soils I use is premiere sphagnum peat mix .... I add nothing just strait out of the bag.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

frogparty said:


> some springs just dont respond as well to charcoal culture


Especially Pinks, silvers, tomocerus, and Podura. Come to think of it, that's about everything but white temperates! Oh, by the way, white temperates also do better on organics!
I am currently using 3/4 leaf litter and 1/4 cocofiber, well sterilized.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Im using milled tree fern and leaf litter 50:50


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## oddlot (Jun 28, 2010)

frogparty said:


> There are 3 separate body type classifications of springtails, and "globular" are definitely one of them. Culture them up! Super easy to do. Ive got a culture started of large green springs that live in the bromeliads on my porch!!!



Do you have any pics of the greens?I will want some of them too,put me on the list


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

Pumilo said:


> Especially Pinks, silvers, tomocerus, and Podura. Come to think of it, that's about everything but white temperates! Oh, by the way, white temperates also do better on organics!
> I am currently using 3/4 leaf litter and 1/4 cocofiber, well sterilized.


can you explain the sterilization process? I've done it before once, but that was on a very small scale... Just throw it all in a pot and boil it?


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I autoclave it. But you could use a pressure cooker


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

goof901 said:


> can you explain the sterilization process? I've done it before once, but that was on a very small scale... Just throw it all in a pot and boil it?


An autoclave or pressure cooker would be better, but I don't have one yet. Boiling will work if you get it up to an aggressive boil for a while. Boiling will NOT work to sterilize wood. It insulates too well and it's very hard to get the core temp up high enough.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Ok, I've successfully cultured these guys. I made a container with just some sphagnum moss and water and decanted some of the springs that were floating on water on a petri dish. Feeding them plain ol' yeast.

These guys are TINY. Like about the size of a pixel tiny. I remember when my current frogs were small froglets, they'd constantly lap up something in the viv that I couldn't see. Now I think it might have been these guys.

I'm excited to introduce these guys to the hobby soon! Keep an eye out in the classifieds  . Now to think of a fun name for them


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