# Spring Tail Food



## Sourpatchkid (Mar 6, 2016)

I've read in another message board that some people stand by feeding their spring tails brewers yeast. 

My culture is in charcoal with a few inches of water. I've been feeding them baker's yeast with moderate success. 

Does anyone know if brewer's yeast works better? Any suggestions on how to increase production would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


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## Tijl (Feb 28, 2019)

I feed them mushrooms and bamix or brinta


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## I'mNew2Frogs! (Jan 23, 2019)

I've not used any type of yeast but I can tell you I started using raw cheap white button mushroom pieces and the springtails are going nuts over them.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

I don't think it's brewers yeast. It's active yeast like the Fleischmann's stuff. At least that's what I feed to mine and they do very well on it.

Mine also really like a rice formula dry baby cereal.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

There've been many discussions on this in the past. Here's one that stands out to me not so much because it answers your production questions but because it gives a good reason to use baker's yeast -- contamination avoidance:

https://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/310458-springtail-food.html#post2856050

Likely a thorough search could yield the answer to the production question, too.


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## Sourpatchkid (Mar 6, 2016)

Thanks for the link. I recall actually reading that one as well a few years ago but have since forgotten. Perhaps there are other factors that's keeping my culture from growing. I'll keep browsing for the answer.


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

I'mNew2Frogs! said:


> I've not used any type of yeast but I can tell you I started using raw cheap white button mushroom pieces and the springtails are going nuts over them.


I have experimented with various mushrooms and the cheap white mushrooms are the ones my springtails enjoy the most.
Something else that I found with my research is CO2 can build up and be a factor in slowing growth. I bought a small battery operated hand fan and blow fresh air in twice a week when I feed them. My cultures have been doing much better since I started doing this.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Mushrooms, especially 'raw' almost always resulted in white worm pest explosions.

Any thing 'cereal like' always draws mites.

never used rice.

Seems like yeast and powdered baby milk work great for me. The springs need a lot of calcium.

Some thoughts.


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## tropfrog (Sep 6, 2018)

chillplants said:


> I have experimented with various mushrooms and the cheap white mushrooms are the ones my springtails enjoy the most.
> Something else that I found with my research is CO2 can build up and be a factor in slowing growth. I bought a small battery operated hand fan and blow fresh air in twice a week when I feed them. My cultures have been doing much better since I started doing this.


Yes, I had a few crashes in the beginning that might was due to high co2/low oxygen. Always when the cultures was blooming at its best. I solved this with making ventilation holes to the container. I use resuable coffe filter as a mesh to cover the ventillation and stop the springs from escaping the container. Works really well now.

Most instructions say that springs dont need ventillation, buit in my experience it works much better with it than without.

BR
Magnus


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Springtail cxs absolutely need ventilation. They will die if sealed up.

FF carrying mites seeking the moisture of the springtail cx is how 90% of spring cxs end up with 'grain' mites.

Vents should be cloth like FF cx cups.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Huh. I tried, for a while, using fabric vent lids and got only OK production. The cultures perked up when I went back to sealed lids.

I open my cultures every five days (magnetic calendar board works wonders for keeping track of all my reptile room tasks) to add yeast and fan the culture very briefly with the lid, and feed off any booming cultures. If I go longer than ~10 days, the culture dies from CO2 buildup/lack of O2.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Socratic Monologue said:


> Huh. I tried, for a while, using fabric vent lids and got only OK production. The cultures perked up when I went back to sealed lids.
> 
> I open my cultures every five days (magnetic calendar board works wonders for keeping track of all my reptile room tasks) to add yeast and fan the culture very briefly with the lid, and feed off any booming cultures. If I go longer than ~10 days, the culture dies from CO2 buildup/lack of O2.


Opening the cx under 10 days would be my minimum. Sure they can stay 'sealed' for a number of days. I cannot fathom how production would increase due to lack of airflow.

But we are talking the average new hobbyist here. Some people don't check or feed their cxs for a couple weeks or even closer to a month.

They can eat a lot more than most people think also. I feed them every week or 5 days if they are booming.


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

I use fleishmans as well. And yes they can eat a lot more than people think. I feed my cultures a couple of times a week.


I put a couple of 2" x 2" pieces of unprinted corrugates cardboard to harvest easily. The springs hide in the channels of the corrugated cardboard by the thousands. Just pick up the cardboard and tap the springs exactly where you want them. I have found I prefer to harvest this way.


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## macg (Apr 19, 2018)

I use pinprick holes in the tops of my containers or loose fitting lids. I drop in a few grains of dry rice every few weeks. The rice grows mold and the springtales consume it. 

My 3 cultures have been going crazy.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

Philsuma said:


> I cannot fathom how production would increase due to lack of airflow.


My theory was humidity, but I didn't think about it too hard since going back to sealed lids worked well.



Philsuma said:


> But we are talking the average new hobbyist here. Some people don't check or feed their cxs for a couple weeks or even closer to a month.


I didn't realize that was the standard practice. Maybe I'm more 'hands-on' than I realize.


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

macg said:


> I use pinprick holes in the tops of my containers or loose fitting lids.


While this works and virtually eliminates the risk of asphyxiation, I personally prefer to have fully sealed cultures. I have tried both ways. The reason I prefer a sealed culture is that I don't want escapees. I know the escapees wont survive long outside their cultures, and I'm not concerned about them becoming pests within my house. But the escapees always seem to make it to my isopod cultures and establish a population, and I can't stand when that happens.


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## Sourpatchkid (Mar 6, 2016)

varanoid said:


> " pieces of unprinted corrugates cardboard to harvest easily. The springs hide in the channels of the corrugated cardboard by the thousands. Just pick up the cardboard and tap the springs exactly where you want them. I have found I prefer to harvest this way.


Thank you for this, it's exactly what I've been searching for. I thought about using a piece of food like banana as "bait", but this seems a lot better.


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## Sourpatchkid (Mar 6, 2016)

Philsuma said:


> Mushrooms, especially 'raw' almost always resulted in white worm pest explosions.
> 
> Any thing 'cereal like' always draws mites.
> 
> ...


The calcium requirement is news to me.

I'm feeding them yeast now with a vent. The next experiment is with dough risen with yeast and sugar. This might help with propagating yeast while allowing the option of storing the rest in the freezer for later use.


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

Sourpatchkid said:


> Thank you for this, it's exactly what I've been searching for. I thought about using a piece of food like banana as "bait", but this seems a lot better.


Glad I can help. You can also try a clump of tree fern fiber, but I still prefer the cardboard. 

The advantages of the treefern are that it last for a very long time, much longer than the cardboard, which I replace every couple of weeks. The disadvantage with treefern is that springs get everywhere including on your hands and you can't pinpoint with great accuracy where you want the springs to land.


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## DUDA (Mar 26, 2019)

varanoid said:


> I put a couple of 2" x 2" pieces of unprinted corrugates cardboard...tap the springs exactly where you want them


I do the same with magnolia leaves...springtails collect on the bottom face of the leaf..done.


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

I get the idea behind the cardboard/leaves trap. I've always found it simple (when culturing in water and charcoal) to simply flood the culture and pour off the floaters.


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## chillplants (Jul 14, 2008)

To harvest, I got a small snap tight container from the Dollar Store and drilled two holes. Get two pieces of tubing and silicone into each hole to make airtight. Then you just suck on one end like a straw and put the other in the culture near the springtails and basically vacuum them out. Springs stay locked in the container until I get to the tank and I dump them in. This is my favorite method so far.


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## macg (Apr 19, 2018)

varanoid said:


> While this works and virtually eliminates the risk of asphyxiation, I personally prefer to have fully sealed cultures. I have tried both ways. The reason I prefer a sealed culture is that I don't want escapees. I know the escapees wont survive long outside their cultures, and I'm not concerned about them becoming pests within my house. But the escapees always seem to make it to my isopod cultures and establish a population, and I can't stand when that happens.


Interesting. I don't have any isopod cultures, so maybe that's why I've never noticed an escape. I also only have a single pinprick, so maybe the number of escapees is just extremely low.


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## Jimmyto111 (Apr 29, 2019)

I have 2 booming colonies, fed exclusively on roting leaves and bakers yeast. Works wonders for me.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Jimmyto111 said:


> I have 2 booming colonies, fed exclusively on roting leaves and bakers yeast. Works wonders for me.


how old are your colonies?


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## Flip00u812 (May 19, 2015)

I’ve used both brewers yeast (from NEherp) and uncooked white rice for over 3 years now. I have 6 cultures that’ve been going strong the whole time. Never had any mite issue with either. I have small vent holes in my lids and open them about once every two weeks to clear out any CO2 build up and feed.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

I've been using brewer's yeast from NE Herp. It works great, and the small tub I bought has lasted me for YEARS.

Didn't read most of the posts, but in short brewer's is usually yeast + vitamins/minerals; active/baker's is mostly just yeast. So brewer's is probably a more nutritionally complete food, but obviously people also have great success with baker's.

I've never had a contamination from using brewer's yeast (at least from NE Herp). All contamination I've ever gotten has been the result of poor husbandry techniques.


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## Kinstrome (Oct 6, 2017)

I've just been feeding mine moldy bread. I'm really only basing my choice of that on the fact that springtails eat mold, and bread turns to mold, and ... yeah.

I don't know if there are "bad molds," and if bread produces one of them, but I didn't want to pay for whatever was the powdered formula that Glass Box Tropicals sells. It costs way to much for how quickly it seems to disappear. So I just use bread that's probably too old to eat.


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## Sourpatchkid (Mar 6, 2016)

Bakers yeast ended up being better, the brewers yeast that I was using was still fermenting alcohol, slowing down the springtails. 

It was going great until a few weeks when I inadvertently mixed some old batch of springtails for experiments into my main producing tub. Long story short, my entire tub had to be cleaned and wiped out because of mites infestation. 

I need to restart my springtails to get them producing quickly. Would anyone be able to ship me a decent amount for a reasonable price? I need clean cultures, no mite contamination please and thank you. PM if you're willing to ship some.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

OH and the other difference between the two is that baker's is "active", and can start making CO2 quicker, which can inadvertently suffocate an unvented culture


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## jc_hammy (Apr 22, 2018)

So since I have been experimenting with my FF and have been considering the same with springs, I want to try this head to head.

I have one amazing shoebox culture that I have been feeding with the baker's yeast that comes from NEHERP with FF media. I think I am going to keep that one going and start two others to try brewers yeast and then try a commercial food I saw at a local store and just see what changes.

I also tossed a piece of mushroom into a couple of cultures not that long ago and was shocked at how quickly they consumed them.


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## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

mushrooms and other 'wet' veggies will beget white worms. They will show up, sooner or later for stuff like that.


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## npaull (May 8, 2005)

Avocado peels. Perfect food, perfect distribution mechanism. You’ll never, ever go back.


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## ambilobe (May 13, 2019)

jc_hammy said:


> So since I have been experimenting with my FF and have been considering the same with springs, I want to try this head to head.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Any update on what you liked better, brewers or bakers yeast?

It seems the bakers yeast doesn't grow fungus as well as the brewers yeast, but stays cleaner.

I think brewers makes the culture a little dirtier so I would rather use bakers if it's as effective.





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## npaull (May 8, 2005)

You gotta trust me on this one: avocado peels. Food and distribution vehicle in one. You’ll never go back I promise.


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## ambilobe (May 13, 2019)

Def will keep the peel with my next order of guacamole 

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## raycentral (Oct 25, 2019)

Ive used fish flakes with no issues.


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