RAISING SPRINGTAILS

Bob Worthington

Springtails are essential for raising very small frogs after metamorphosis and as a food supplement for larger frogs such as D. auratus. I always find it fascinating to see the time spent by D. auratus feeding on even the tiniest of Springtails. I have tried a variety of methods of raising Springtails (see Springtails 2) with, at times, outstanding success, only to find the cultures crashing after 1-2 years. The following is my most successful method so far.

I use the plastic containers in which I receive my hatchling crickets and which are supplied without ventilation holes. They are about 189mm x 100mm and I cover the base with about 5mm of activated charcoal available from any tropical fish shop. On top of this I place two squares 75mm x 75mm of capillary matting. Water is added so that if the culture is tilted a small amount can be seen at one end. Small pinches of Ready Brek Breakfast cereal are placed onto the capillary matting, the culture is seeded with springtails and the lids closed firmly.

The cultures develop best between 20 and 25°C, below 10°C they become dormant and above 30°C they die off. The Ready Brek quickly produces various moulds and fungi, which the springtails presumably eat. Further cereal is added as required.

To feed the frogs the pieces of matting are removed and placed into the vivarium and new pieces are placed onto the culture. Starter cultures can be obtained from further hobbyists or collected from around compost heaps. It was recently suggested to me by Richard Berridge that potato peelings from the compost heap often prove to be a good source.