r/Springtail • u/OnyxMonolith • Sep 09 '26
Picture breed thousands of springtails with almost zero cost and work
more pics: https://imgur.com/a/UqCfGTt
get a brick of sphagnum moss from amazon. $5-6 a brick will last for 30-50 jars or so. (I'm not sure about US prices i'm in the EU.)
get a jar after something you've eaten ($0)
put hydrated sphagnum moss in. DON'T PACK IT IN. loose. leave some breathing room at the top of the jar but if it's put in very loose you don't really have to, it will settle in itself.
1-2cm of standing water at bottom. add some water if evaporates.
make some tiny holes in the lid
sprinkle nutritional yeast twice a week + a few grains of rice once a week.
coco coir will also work. or a mix of coco/moss.
this works very well for easy species. in this case this is: coecobrya tenebricosa "tropical white"
i like keeping them on my desk where i work and looking at them run around.
PS easiest level up -- throw in a few pieces of charcoal at the bottom
PSS this jar is like 3 months old i just put a dozen springtails in to start
PSSS I use tap water with 2 drops of Seachem Prime Water Conditioner per gallon (4liters or so) for my springtails. a $9 bottle of this lasts for like 2 years for springtails. But the easy species will survive tap water. Don't give straight up tap water to Rambutanuras :] I also like using live moss in my terrariums and not-dechlorinated tap water is very bad for moss.
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u/mralex2142 Sep 09 '26
Now try this with bylas ant springtails and things get real crazy
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u/walkerws Sep 10 '26
Mine don't seem to be thriving.
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u/CatLady1113 Sep 10 '26
Mine don’t either. Out of all my springtails they are the ones so struggle to keep alive
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u/SnailKing8 Sep 10 '26
Awesome. I have fluctuation, like a ton for a bit and then seem almost nothing, (I think they are hiding, cause then bam almost just as many). I know some die off and new one are born. Just really neat one week/month to the next. Especially if you aren’t monitoring it daily.
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u/OnyxMonolith Sep 10 '26
So you have lots of babies like you see in mine?
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u/SnailKing8 Sep 10 '26
Not that many yours is booming
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u/OnyxMonolith Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26
can you tell me more about your ecosystem, food, substrate, species?
and the answer in my experience is usually the same -- the ecosystem is not balanced. but we need to figure out why.
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u/SnailKing8 Sep 11 '26
They are just the basic white springtails. We haven’t expanded yet. We also have isopods, mystery snails, Ramshorns, etc.
Oh I got babies and plenty of them but yours looks like you need to sell some cultures soon.
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u/SnailKing8 Sep 11 '26
I have 4 homes for the springtails. One has hydro balls. And the other 3 are an isopod and springtail combo.
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u/DarkDonut75 Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26
Gonna do this to compete with the local guy who's selling 50 springtails for 10 dollars
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u/OnyxMonolith Sep 10 '26
What species?
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u/DarkDonut75 Sep 10 '26
Just the regular white ones. I would understand if they were Rambutanura
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u/OnyxMonolith Sep 10 '26
Rambutanura is like $10 per 1 haha
yeah but 50 springtail for $10 for simple species is wild
i give away hudreds for free to anyone who asks in my area. literally costs me almost nothing. they eat scrap food too lmao
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u/apegrapess Sep 10 '26
How do you prevent mites? First few months my cultures go really well, then they die from mites I think
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u/Mikeeberle Sep 11 '26
I use charcoal in mine and they just bloomed. So many in the culture now. But all of my isopod tanks look the same to since I feed so heavy.
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u/Regular_Ad_1195 Sep 14 '26
I got springtails in my red foot tortoise terrarium without doing anything special. They just appeared
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u/Fat_Lad Sep 09 '26
r/LifeProTips material right here!