Description

If you buy springtails culture you are likely building a bioactive vivarium or have some very small pets that need tiny feeders. They are most commonly ordered for their janitorial or clean-up crew abilities. They feed primarily on bits of mold that develop in all cages with soil-based substrates. Even though you may not see mold in your tanks, spores are constantly floating around homes. Springtails help to keep it from expanding in our tanks by feeding on it.

This particular species is the most prolific arthropod I’ve ever worked with. They reproduce more slowly in my cold, unheated garage tanks but they love it on the rack above the lamps on our bearded dragon tanks. And they do fine in all temperatures in between. These are comparatively large against other hobby springtails, and very active. They tolerate more dryness than you might expect but will reproduce more quickly in moderately humid conditions.

We offer them here in starter cultures of 50+ individuals for $9. These begin reproducing immediately and prolifically! We don’t really count them and no doubt miss lots of small ones hiding in your order. Immatures of this species are tiny but grow to a size near the length, but probably 1/2 the mass of the familiar D. melanogaster fruit flies. They are neither shipped nor raised in charcoal (a common question, though we also sell those types in the related items area, below), nor do we raise amphibians of any kind that might be harboring harmful chytrid fungus, etc. We raise these springtails on our isopod substrate (sold separately). We typically ship them with a bit of sphagnum moss and a little bit of moistened paper towel.

We feed them primarily with brewer’s yeast (sold separately, below). We simply sprinkle very small amounts of this onto the top of the substrate and always keep the substrate a little bit moist, and in a low ventilation tank.

Here is a video that includes some footage of these springtails and some outdoors. If you’d like to skip ahead, go to the 9:50 mark.