# Springtail food..



## Ryan (Feb 18, 2004)

Ok, I have many cultures of springtails going that are starting up and others are producing like MAD. So my question is in all your experience, which food gets most production!? I have been using fish food, but some of my cultures eat that up overnight....i told you i have some that are mad, tree fern i think is to blame :wink:


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## joshsfrogs (May 6, 2004)

I feed uncooked rice, but I also notice a big jump in production when I add something that has molded (I just found some strawberries in the corner of my fridge today!) I just cut the moldy part off and put it in their culture.

I also add calcium which I think slowes production, but at least the springtails contain calcium then.

Doesn't the fish food make it stink? I assume it would be more nutritious then rice.


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2005)

*food*

i feed them engevita nutritional yeast EXTRACT. they eat it alot faster than plain yeast and they seem to reproduce faster when fed that than some of the springtail specific foods from holland. i also have a type of springtail the same size as tropical white ones which is green/dark green/ black that i have in an old aquarium where the water is gone but theres still slimy algae on the sides and it is reproducing pretty quickly, i just spray it every now and then to keep the algae wet.


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

Ryan,

My springtails also consume the flake fish food quickly compared to uncooked rice. I assume that the larger surface area to mass of the flakes versus the rice is part of the reason for the difference. I tend to alternate them or I would be going through a can of fish flakes per week.

Bill


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## dmatychuk (Apr 20, 2005)

I have stayed away from flake fish food because I was told that most of them contain vitamin A and that vitamin A is poisonous to PDFs especially tads and froglets. Can anyone verify this?


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## Spar (Mar 27, 2004)

Dendrocare has Vit A. So I would guess it is fine.

I also feed my springtails Flake food with great success. No problems with froglets eating them either.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Vitamin A is toxic only when in extreme excess (like eating polar bear liver or taking too much cod liver oil) but vitamin A is also a necessary vitamin for frogs and tadpoles. 
If the ratio of vitamin A to D3 is incorrect then there can be issues with calcium metabolism. 

If the label says vitamin A it doesn't always mean that it is retinol (unless it is stated as retinol) in the food item as it could also be a readily converted provitamin A such as betacarotene. 

Ed


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## Lucidblue (Jul 23, 2004)

I'm getting huge production from feeding yeast, banana peels and small slices of watermelon. They seem to really love watermelon. I'm gonna try honeydew in a couple of days.


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## devin mac (Oct 4, 2004)

how often do you guys feed a springtail culture?


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## Ryan (Feb 18, 2004)

daily...still


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## joshsfrogs (May 6, 2004)

weekly


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## Lucidblue (Jul 23, 2004)

honeydew and cantelope are a success.


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

hmmm feeding springtales brightly colored fruit....containing carotenoids...could this be a way to bridge the gap between supplementing tads with color enhancing foods and then frogs big enough to eat ffs with color enhancing supplements?


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