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ARIZONA DENDROBATE RANCH - How to culture Springtails
CULTURING SPRINGTAILS
(Collembola)
by
Gregory J. Sihler
Culturing Medium
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· Peat moss and coco fiber and/or tree fern root fibers - mixed.
You can use just Peat moss alone if neccessary.
· Moisten peat moss so that it is thoroughly wet, but not sitting in water.
Equipment We Use
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· Plastic Shoe boxes (available at Target, Wal-mart, other.)
· Rice, pasta, and vegtable or plant scraps/cuttings.
Our Technique
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· This is by far the simplest food that we culture for our frogs.
· Fill a shoe box with about 1 to 2 inches of fairly loose media (do not pack it.)
· Add the starter culture, and sprinkle some rice or pasta on top.
· Mist the carbs (rice or pasta) that you added - then add a small amount of vegtable matter if you have it available.
· Put the lid on the shoe box (do no use ventilation holes or you will find gnats and other flying insects getting in and laying eggs). If you just have to have ventilation holes then put them on the lid and silicon it to the lid on. But it is not neccessary.
· Feed the cultures every week if possible. Keep the medium moist, by misting, preferably after you add the carbs.
· To introduce the Springtails to the frogs simply take a big spoonful of peat from the culture and place it in the tank - on a pitre dish or pringles lid. Replace the medium that you took from the culture with fresh medium.
· We will also tilt one end of the culture, while misting it, and then scoop the springtails off the surface of the puddles of water that form at the lower end. You can seed tanks with these, buy simply pouring the water and springtails into it.
· Don’t worry if you see some white fuzzy stuff on your cultures when you first start them - just spray them down and they will eventually disappear.
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