# The Tail of the Vanishing Springtails



## JPccusa (Mar 10, 2009)

Yesterday, while looking for mushroom, moss growth, and microfauna (seeded the tank with springs and white isos about a month ago), I noticed there were no springtails anywhere to be seen. How could it be? I seeded the tank with lots of springs. Were they dying? 

I checked the grow out tank, which sits under the display tank and which has also been seeded. Those springs were still there. [head scratch]

The lights of the grow out were illuminating the false bottom of the display tank, and some floating particles called my attention - THE SPRINGTAILS!!! 
How the heck did they end up there? And more importantly, how would I take them out of there so the frogs could eat? 

I stepped away to give it some thought. Got busy with other things around the house. "Dendroboard would have an answer... those guys always do," I thought. "I will make a video to show them my problem."

By the time I got around to making a video, the lights had already been off for a while. I manually turned the timer back on so I could record the video. To my surprise - NO SPRINGTAILS!!! Where the heck did they go? Weren't they trapped on the false bottom, endlessly floating on the current of my water feature? 

Today at work I kept thinking about the vanishing springtails. Perhaps they would go down to the false bottom during the day, coming back up to land at night. 

I checked as soon as I got home from work today. The springtails were again floating in the false bottom. I made this video: Springtails During the Day - YouTube
All I had left to do was wait for a couple of hours after lights off to check what would happen. Around 9pm I went back to check, and the springtails were once again gone: Springtails at Night - YouTube

What an interesting creature! I hope that, although LOTS of springs are hiding in the FB during the day, some still remain on land so frogs catch them.


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## pdfCrazy (Feb 28, 2012)

This is one reason I do not like false bottoms. You lose alot of microfauna into the water and then not accessible to the frogs. My tanks are the same, big floating rafts of springtails under the false bottoms. This is why I'm trying to do all glass false bottoms.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

pdfCrazy said:


> This is one reason I do not like false bottoms. You lose alot of microfauna into the water and then not accessible to the frogs. My tanks are the same, big floating rafts of springtails under the false bottoms. This is why I'm trying to do all glass false bottoms.


Why are you assuming that they are "lost" to the rest of the enclosure instead of acting as a refugia from which the springtails will migrate upwards? It's not like the springtails can't climb the glass... 
I also have yet to see isopods drowned in the bottom of my enclosures..... 

Some comments 

Ed


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## curlykid (Jan 28, 2011)

Ed said:


> Why are you assuming that they are "lost" to the rest of the enclosure instead of acting as a refugia from which the springtails will migrate upwards? It's not like the springtails can't climb the glass...
> I also have yet to see isopods drowned in the bottom of my enclosures.....
> 
> Some comments
> ...


Ed, I have witnessed this first hand. The springs fall to the bottom and create a huge mass, and within a few weeks, no more springtails. It's annoying. Especially because my frogs eat most of the ones I try to seed.


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## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

Create little pockets in your substrate. Put sphagnum moss or such in the pocket. Always pour your springtails in to the pocket.

This way you create an area the frogs can not get at (down IN the sphagnum) and the springtails can hopefully get reproducing in that area. They pop out on occasion - they get eaten.

s


curlykid said:


> Ed, I have witnessed this first hand. The springs fall to the bottom and create a huge mass, and within a few weeks, no more springtails. It's annoying. Especially because my frogs eat most of the ones I try to seed.


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## JPccusa (Mar 10, 2009)

Just to be clear, I do not think I am losing springtails in the false bottom. Like Ed said, they are using it as a refugium during the day, coming back up at night (the 2 videos were shot only a few hours apart). Too bad the frogs are diurnal. I hope there will always be stragglers for the frogs to find.


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## pdfCrazy (Feb 28, 2012)

Well, I dont think the springtails are lost once in the water, and yes it creates a "refugium" of sorts where the population lives/breeds, etc. I just think its better if they stay in the soil and leaf litter where they are breaking down compost, frog poop, and are a meal for our frogs. Not a lot is gained by them simply floating on the water in rafts, short of existing.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

pdfCrazy said:


> Well, I dont think the springtails are lost once in the water, and yes it creates a "refugium" of sorts where the population lives/breeds, etc. I just think its better if they stay in the soil and leaf litter where they are breaking down compost, frog poop, and are a meal for our frogs. Not a lot is gained by them simply floating on the water in rafts, short of existing.


Other than producing springtails that emigrate back up into the substrate layer??? 

If the springtails are actually abandoning your leaflitter and substrate to go live on the water surface that should be an indication that something in your enclosure is not to thier liking..... 
While I typically don't see springtails out and about on my leaf litter during daylight hours, I can find them crawling about on the surface several hours after the lights are out (so far the best population was about 2 AM East Coast).... In addition, my frogs spend a lot of time down under the leaves hunting them during the day.... 

Some comments 

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

curlykid said:


> Ed, I have witnessed this first hand. The springs fall to the bottom and create a huge mass, and within a few weeks, no more springtails. It's annoying. Especially because my frogs eat most of the ones I try to seed.


Seed the tank well after lights out..... 

So several weeks after they are in the water layer they disappear? If they haven't moved back up into the substrate etc, I would look for something to be killing them off since springtails (like Folsomia) are used as ecotoxicity indicators... http://www.oecd.org/chemicalsafety/testingofchemicals/41389036.pdf or that the conditions were really not conducive to the springtails surviving to reproduce in the tanks.... 

Ed


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## frogyiee (Jul 25, 2017)

I seem to have issues with my springtails. Whenever I put them in, most are eaten immediately, and I never see them again, not even in the substrate. The only time I have had luck with springtails really doing their job was in a small tank I seeded just about every day. I want to try burying the springtails in a little substrate to keep them safe. Maybe that will help.


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