Springtail Care
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Breeding & Feeding
We suggest using charcoal to breed springtails over coconut fiber & mixed
media. We have one culture that's been producing for upwards of 4
years now on charcoal, and it's still going strong! We've found long
term mixed media cultures will eventually get mites, whereas
we've never seen mites on our charcoal breeders. (Knock on wood!)
If you plan on adding springs to your vivarium and don't want to breed them,
mixed media cultures make things easier, since it's safe to mix directly
into your substrate before the vivarium is built.
To breed them, simply dump a
charcoal culture directly into a sealed
6qt sterilite tub (or similar) 3/4 of the
way filled with
100% organic charcoal. The new
culture should have between 1/2" to 1" of dechlorinated water at the bottom
to keep things humid & to encourage breeding.
For food we suggest only 1 thing.
100% pure brewers yeast. (Not baker's
yeast) Mushrooms, dog food, fish flakes, and other foods can attract, carry
or breed mites. Simply add a light sprinkling of brewers yeast & mist
it with some dechlorinated water and let the springtails go to town.
When the yeast is gone, add more. Simple as that! After a few
weeks, baby springtails should begin to emerge and before you know it you'll
have a thriving culture.
When it comes to removing them there are 2 ways to go about it... You
can either grab a chunk of charcoal & shake it off into the desired location
or gently shake the entire culture (which will cause springs to fall into
the water) and pour of some water out of the edges of the container.
You should see dozens (hundreds?) of springtails being poured out of your
culture into the new container or terrarium.
Tips & Tricks
• If you are planning on starting your own cultures be careful not to
completely deplete your breeding culture! If you pull too many, it can
take weeks for your breeding culture to catch up to where it used to be.
• Skip all foods but brewer's yeast. As I mentioned earlier - we've fed
nothing but brewer's yeast now for over 3 years and our breeding cultures
have never had a mite infestation.
• Buy from someplace reputable! If the first culture you start with
has mites... Well... You get the idea!
• Keep the temp between 60F-80F. Springs can survive extreme
temperatures, but somewhere between 60F and 80F is ideal. Higher than
80F has proven to slow reproduction in our springtails.
• Ambient light. No direct light, no frequent water changes.
Springtails eat mold, remember - so "disgusting" to humans is like a
steakhouse dinner for springtails.
• Have a tiny dart froglet that could use some springtails as food? If
you have a charcoal culture, grab a chunk of charcoal crawling with springs
and shake it off into a deli cup. Sprinkle some Repashy ICB (now
called calcium plus) into the cup and give it a quick shake. Now you've got
nutritious springtails for your frogs to eat!
• Keep the culture moist. A dry culture will not produce anywhere near
as well as one with the correct amount of water & humidity. Keeping at
least 1/2" of water in the base of a culture makes a big difference with
that one.
If you have any questions at all we're always happy to help! Email us at
meikmail@gmail.com
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