# rasing spring tails in the tank with your frogs?



## Vivexx (Nov 28, 2007)

I have heard a lot of talk about just putting spring tails in the tank to live with your frog I want to know more about this I have heard that they will clean the tank as well as give the frogs snacks all day will they breed and sustain themselves in the tank or will it need to be replenished? Will I need to provide food in the tank for them or will they be ok to feed themselves without my help? I am planning on getting frogs and I want to be ready I am going to breed 4 different food supplies to make sure there won’t be any shortage. I have actually heard that the spring tails do better while living with frogs?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

You should culture them seperately, too. Sometimes they do great in vivs and other times they get wiped out by the frogs. You will need to occasionally provide bits of fruit, mushrooms, fish flake, etc to keep your "in viv" cultures going strong. Also, a good, thick layer of leaf litter will help. I like to use about a two inch layer. You'll have to replenish the leaf litter occasionally.
_I have actually heard that the spring tails do better while living with frogs?_ I think I know the thread you are referring to and that was for one particular type of springtail. I have never had a problem establishing seperate cultures of springtails. I culture on charcoal from Lowe's (cowbow or frontier brand). Put the big pieces in a pillowcase and hammer them smaller. I feed Active Bakers Yeast.


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## carbonetc (Oct 13, 2008)

I put a refugium in one of my tanks for springtails where I could feed them individually and they could spill over into the tank on their own, but I have terrible luck with springtails and couldn't keep them alive. If they survive for you it's probably a good way to go. 

The way I did it was to create a pocket in the corner by standing up a piece of cork bark diagonally and filling it with peat and bark and charcoal and such (what you would put in a springtail culture). The cork was flat on top and butted right up against the glass lid so springtails could fit through but frogs couldn't. The medium didn't fill the corner up all the way, so only the climbers could venture into the tank rather than my whole culture wandering off.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 18, 2011)

Do you feed yeast into the viv itself on occasion, or just in the separate cultures?


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## Vivexx (Nov 28, 2007)

i would assume putting yeast in the viv is a bad idea... thanks for the answers that’s pretty weird that they live on charcoal I didn’t know that until today


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

they dont eat the charcoal. you can put mushroom pieces in a viv to feed springs


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## Vivexx (Nov 28, 2007)

I didn’t necessarily mean that they eat it but that they are sustained by it lol


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## oddlot (Jun 28, 2010)

look up springtails,There are several ways to culture them.Some use charcoal some use cocofiber,depends on what works for you.The charcoal or coco is just a substrate.I seed all my tanks with springs and add more regularly.Frogs will eat them up but you still need to feed dustable insects.Leaf litter is good for giving the springs somewhere to hide and eat the decaying leaves as well as mold and poop.I don't feed them in my vivs but you can in moderation to provide a frog feeding station.My pumilio tear up the springtail population so I always add more.Just keep your cultures going and split them regularly or they will stop producing over time.

Lou


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## Vivexx (Nov 28, 2007)

Would you recommend temperate or tropical spring tails ? I would think tropical but I could be wrong lol


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## DJboston (Oct 25, 2008)

Spring tails are great. They're fun to watch in the culture too. I made the mistake of seeding all my tanks and figuring I'd be fine. So I gave my culture away to a friend at the last frog meeting locally. Then I realize that my springtails aren't producing in the tanks like they should. To me it looks like mites take them down but who knows. I keep trying and find them here and there. Luckily, I realized I might need a culture for myself so before I took the culture to a friend from Maine, I took a single table spoon full of the coco husk they were in and threw it in a jar container with a few shroom slices and a piece of fruit. Didn't think anything of it and figured they wouldn't bounce back from just a small scoop...but they did! My culture is larger than it was when I bought it from that one little scoop. If I had the space, I'd sell springtails as they seem to be in demand and I enjoy culturing them. Mine are white temperate I believe from Dane at junglebox.net I'd like to get more species though and just set aside some to send to a local friend this week. He's sending back some different types as well.

I don't really rely on them as feeders but they're great for microfauna. I do see my pumilio picking them off here and there and I'm sure they'll come in handy when froglets morph out. I culture a lot of different types of flies though and my wingless melanogaster are pretty small. Even better, older wingless cultures that still produce great for me usually hatch out the tiniest fruit flies I've ever seen. They're SO small that I know a froglet thumbnail or pumilio can take them down for sure. Springtails are great though. Don't be surprised if other things pop up you didn't expect. I just saw slugs in one tank which annoys me...an snails.


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## oddlot (Jun 28, 2010)

I have 4 different kinds currently.If you have both available,try both and see which do better for you.Tropicals are a little smaller but seem to be more prolific.Temperates are the size of a pinhead so they are a little bigger.If you go with 1, I would do the Tropicals.
Lou


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