Im a bit of lurker here at mantid forum (I mostly keep dart frogs), recently I saw a post about someone inquiring about springtail culturing. I didnt see any posts regarding them so i thought I'd add my experience with them. First off I am by no means an expert but I have kept springtails for years with reasonable success and they are easy to culture. They should be great for nymphs although i have very little mantid experience.
There are many different types - the springs I have are:
Folsomia (white) - highest producing, small
Sinella - slightly larger than the folsomia and much faster moving
Tomocerus (black) - largest
Here is a picture for reference (not mine) of folsomia and tomocerus next to a young pinhead cricket.
There are generally two ways I have found that people culture these. One is a method where you use water and charcoal and one uses moist coco fiber/chips. Both have advantages and disadvantages. I use the coco method (more popular). Regarding the charcoal method, the folsomia (whites) float on the water and climb on chunks of charcoal - to harvest them many people use a turkey baster, suck up water and springs, and dump in the tank. The coco substrate method is very simple as well. I use some medium sized gladware and fill it up 2/3 of the way (at least 2 inches) with coco fiber (I use eco earth) or chips. I think the larger springtails benefit from having coco chips used or mixed in with the coco fiber creating a more porous substrate. Different springs like different levels of humidity. The folsomia seem to do well in most conditions from lightly moist to wet where as the tomocerus do better for me when left on the dryer side.
I mostly use bakers yeast to feed them, you can get this at a grocery store or you can buy it in bulk from a nutrition store and save some cash. Mushrooms are a very popular feeder as well and you can throw in kitchen scraps like bell peppers, potatos, carrots. Also fish flakes are used often although I have heard food and fish flakes are more prone to mites than the yeast. Also using the yeast and a dried magnolia leaf makes harvesting easy. Simply place the dried sterile leaf on top of the substrate and sprinkle with yeast. I then spray a small amount of water on the leaf and wait a day or 2 then I pull the leaf out and tap it in the tank. Once the yeast is gone and any fungus that may have sprung up is eaten than I sprinkle on more yeast and start over. I do use mushrooms a couple times a month and small amounts of fish food. For harvesting using these foods you can buy industrial sponges, tree fern, coco bark, cardboard, etc and place the food on them.
Here is an example shot of what a booming folsomia culture might look like (I havent come close to this production but many have) but you can see how if you just pulled a leaf out you would have a lot of food.
Every couple months remake the cultures. You can either take a portion of a substrate from the old ones or just harvest them into a new one.
I think you would be able to keep a culture in an enclosure with a bunch of mantid nymphs successfully but I would probably harvest some and dump them in there as well. I would recommend the folsomia as they have produced the best for me by far and are quite hardy.
Thanks!
-Eric
There are many different types - the springs I have are:
Folsomia (white) - highest producing, small
Sinella - slightly larger than the folsomia and much faster moving
Tomocerus (black) - largest
Here is a picture for reference (not mine) of folsomia and tomocerus next to a young pinhead cricket.
There are generally two ways I have found that people culture these. One is a method where you use water and charcoal and one uses moist coco fiber/chips. Both have advantages and disadvantages. I use the coco method (more popular). Regarding the charcoal method, the folsomia (whites) float on the water and climb on chunks of charcoal - to harvest them many people use a turkey baster, suck up water and springs, and dump in the tank. The coco substrate method is very simple as well. I use some medium sized gladware and fill it up 2/3 of the way (at least 2 inches) with coco fiber (I use eco earth) or chips. I think the larger springtails benefit from having coco chips used or mixed in with the coco fiber creating a more porous substrate. Different springs like different levels of humidity. The folsomia seem to do well in most conditions from lightly moist to wet where as the tomocerus do better for me when left on the dryer side.
I mostly use bakers yeast to feed them, you can get this at a grocery store or you can buy it in bulk from a nutrition store and save some cash. Mushrooms are a very popular feeder as well and you can throw in kitchen scraps like bell peppers, potatos, carrots. Also fish flakes are used often although I have heard food and fish flakes are more prone to mites than the yeast. Also using the yeast and a dried magnolia leaf makes harvesting easy. Simply place the dried sterile leaf on top of the substrate and sprinkle with yeast. I then spray a small amount of water on the leaf and wait a day or 2 then I pull the leaf out and tap it in the tank. Once the yeast is gone and any fungus that may have sprung up is eaten than I sprinkle on more yeast and start over. I do use mushrooms a couple times a month and small amounts of fish food. For harvesting using these foods you can buy industrial sponges, tree fern, coco bark, cardboard, etc and place the food on them.
Here is an example shot of what a booming folsomia culture might look like (I havent come close to this production but many have) but you can see how if you just pulled a leaf out you would have a lot of food.
Every couple months remake the cultures. You can either take a portion of a substrate from the old ones or just harvest them into a new one.
I think you would be able to keep a culture in an enclosure with a bunch of mantid nymphs successfully but I would probably harvest some and dump them in there as well. I would recommend the folsomia as they have produced the best for me by far and are quite hardy.
Thanks!
-Eric
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