# Springtail and Isopod 'expiration date'?



## mmandajade (Feb 13, 2017)

Newbie question:

I'm about ready to purchase all the construction supplies for my vivarium. I'm hoping to get everything in one giant order, to (theoretically) save on shipping. In essence, all the substrate, plants, wood, and springs/isos will arrive at the same time. I pretty sure I can keep the plants happy until the silicone and hardscape cures and I can lay substrate down and plant them, but will the springs/iso cultures do OK in their shipped containers for 1 week or more during the build process?

Thanks!
Amanda


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

I used to divide up 25+ packs of isopods for sale, and keep them in 2 oz deli cups, (about the size of a chicken nugget dipping sauce), until they sold. Sometimes a handful might sit around for a month or better. As long as I gave them an air hole or two with a pin, (the cultures, not the isopods themselves...they don't like it much), and fed them (not much!), they would do fine. 
Watch that moisture level! On a tiny culture, they dry up fast. Drying and desiccation will be your biggest danger in a tiny culture. Of course suffocation is up there, too, but we already addressed that with the pin holes. 
Most people will send you a larger culture container. I was able to get away with smaller containers by actually counting the adults out. Otherwise, a 2 oz container might have 3 isopods or even less.

I would not attempt to keep springtails in such a tiny container. My minimum size for a springtail container was an 8 oz deli cup. You will find that springtails reproduce faster...much, much faster, than isopods do. Keeping them in a tiny container is an invitation to suffocation. As the population quickly grows, CO2 levels can build up. Air holes keep it down to a certain extent, but it can still catch you by surprise. Generally, the final death blow to a suffocated culture is the last time you feed. Bacteria begin eating the food and reproducing. Bacterial have to breathe, too, and they can reproduce at alarming rates. That final feeding causes an unseen bacterial bloom, and your CO2 level skyrockets. The entire culture can be dead by the next morning. Do NOT throw it out yet. The most common springtails in the hobby, collembola, can appear to be dead, but when given air, could revive. Even if they don't, some of the microscopic babies, or perhaps it is eggs, survive. You could see the colony start producing again over the next few days.

Hopefully, that will be helpful in making your decisions.

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/66991-how-culture-isopods-woodlice-springtails.html


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