# Isopod & Springtail Population



## celawlor (Apr 11, 2015)

I know this probably isn't the perfect place for this question but I couldn't find a better category. If it should go somewhere else, I'm happy to move it!

I built a vivarium 3 weeks ago and got 2" deli cup cultures of springtails and isopods and Josh's frogs springtail food from my local reptile store. I saw one bug about a week after I dumped them in the viv and no signs of life, since. Does anyone know how long it might take before I should see a "thriving" population? My viv is the 18 x 18 x 24 Exo Terra. I am wondering if maybe I should have purchased more than 1 deli cup, each, of the cultures? Right now, there are no reptile friends in the viv so that can't be the problem. I used Josh's frogs recommended drainage layer, barrier, abg mix and leaf litter. My plants also came from there.

I'll try to attach one of my progress pics here, in case it helps.


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## JPP (Mar 25, 2015)

There doesn't appear to be any water in your drainage layer?


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## Sammie (Oct 12, 2009)

JPP said:


> There doesn't appear to be any water in your drainage layer?


You don't need to have water in the drainage layer. Personally I siphon it out as soon as it reaches 1cm or so.


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Just because you don`t see them doesn`t mean they`re not there. Also, it looks like from your photo it might be a little dry in there.

Put a mushroom slice under the leaf litter, if they`re in there you`ll see em


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## JPP (Mar 25, 2015)

Sammie said:


> You don't need to have water in the drainage layer. Personally I siphon it out as soon as it reaches 1cm or so.


I always leave a little in there. I never let it go completely dry. That viv looks rather dry, like Enlightened Rogue mentioned...especially considering how ventilated those exo terras are. Then again, the OP mentioned "reptile friends" so the future inhabitants may require said ventilation?


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## celawlor (Apr 11, 2015)

My mister "flooded" the viv a few weeks back and I was intentionally trying to let things dry out a bit in that pic. There is about 2 in of water now. I will try to add a current pic.

I am planning to get a crested gecko, not frogs, but I need to make sure my isopod and springtail population is hearty before I make that leap.

I don't see anything under any leafs. I'll try the mushroom idea. Thanks for that! Nothing is touching the spring to life food/mold.


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## celawlor (Apr 11, 2015)

Current state pic:


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Were there a lot springs in the containers? I`ve gotten springtails from Josh maybe 3 times and was pretty unhappy. 
I also remember putting 100`s in at a time from my own cultures for days until they established. Put some of that springtail food and a few mushroom slices in different spots under the leaf litter, wait a few hours, if you don`t see anything just try adding more bugs.
I recently pulled up a plant to replace and the dirt around the roots was crawling with iso`s


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## Drewbacca (Apr 5, 2014)

You can also use tropical fish flakes. I use a pretty good African cichlid flake from Omega One in all of my new spring cultures, and ocassionally in the vivs. They really bloom and double in size pretty fast. You can put it under the leaf litter, or on top. I add it at night. I've noticed the springs feeding more intensely in the dark. Also, you don't need much. And oh yeah, they love it! My rift lake cichlids don't mind me sharing the food with the springs! Be sure to mist the top of the flakes after you add. They seem to prefer it soggy, and moldy. 

-Drew


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## celawlor (Apr 11, 2015)

Well, I am not sure what constitutes a lot.  My guess is under 100. It was a very small deli cup from the local reptile shop. Had maybe a peach pit amount of charcoal for the springtails and the bugs were visible. Isos were maybe 10 ish? Hard to tell, same size cup.

I *did* see two small bugs this morning! Think they were springs. That was exciting! Maybe I will try to get more.


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## thane (Sep 11, 2014)

I dumped a few cultures of isopods and springtails in my own new vivarium about 3 weeks ago. I was frustrated all the bugs just kind of disappeared into the substrate. I contacted the person who sold them to me who said the small isopods are so small you might hardly ever see them. He also said I had to make sure to feed them.

I have been spreading around a pinch of yeast about every 4-5 days throughout the vivarium for the springtails. For the isopods I was using fish flakes, but I also gathered some leaves from the yard. He said to use partially decomposed ones, as the normal leaf litter you would add to a vivarium is not going to break down and be able to be eaten for a while. So I gathered some leaves from the bottom of a pile in the "cleaner" part of my yard, then I boiled them, then dried them out, tore them up and mixed a couple cups of those throughout the substrate. 

In the 3 weeks after I got them, and about 2 weeks since I started feeding them, I've seen a real boom in population. I can usually see some springtails crawling around, but if you want to verify they are there, if I blow on the substrate slightly a bunch will pop out. Or you could collect a small sample of substrate, put it in water, and some springtails will pop up. Verifying the isopods are in there would be trickier. I just found out some were hanging out behind my cork background and the only time I have caught them out in the viv was like 4AM I would surprise them with a flashlight.

One other mistake - I wanted to keep the vivarium "cleaner" so I was only putting the yeast and fish flakes in a couple places, but he said the bugs don't really seek out the food, they just wander around randomly and stumble into it, so if you aren't already, you can distribute the food all around the substrate rather than in a couple spots.

I hope that helps. I'm not an expert by any means, but I went through a similar situation myself 3 weeks ago and thought I'd share what I did.


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## thrain (Apr 11, 2018)

they're probably in there hiding in the leaf litter. after i bought my starter culture, i dumped the charcoal into my substrate layer and didn't see any springtails for about 3 months. now, i sometimes see springtails crawling on the glass, under any sort of decoration thing in my tank (seed pods, wood, moss clumps) when i move them. they especially like seed pods for some reason... whenever i move the pod, there are like 30 springtails under that thing


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## johnachilli (Feb 8, 2007)

The development of a large microfauna population can take some time. At least a few months and sometimes even longer. Especially in brand new setups, where all the leaf litter hasn't even begun to breakdown. 

I do find though that once I have frogs in the vivarium and I am feeding them and they are producing waste really help to bust the populations.


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## celawlor (Apr 11, 2015)

Ha ha. This is a 4 year old post of mine. Funny that someone revived it!

I am happy to report that I have a thriving bioactive enclosure for the crested gecko that eventually made that home.

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk


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