How to culture Orange springtails

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00:00 How to culture Orange Springtails
00:05 Some, very testy Greek yogurt comes in nice glass jars.
I ate the yogurt and saved the 8oz jar with the cover for making a terrarium.
Wash the jar clean.
This jar is about 7cm diameter and about 6cm deep.
I am going to use this jar for making a small terrarium that can be placed anywhere!
First let's put some gravel to cover the bottom of the jar.
Add dechlorinated water to cover the gravel.
Now let's add a layer of Sphagnum peat moss.
3-4 heaped teaspoons should be enough for this size jar.
Peat moss has great water retaining qualities.
And the excess of water will stay in the gravel layer.
I like to add a piece of tree bark that would serve as a feeding spot for critters.
Tree bark also retains water.
Now we can add live moss.
I've been growing land moss in high humidity on the platform in my enclosed aquarium.
This land moss can grow underwater as well.
Mosses look very nice in terrariums.
Lava rock or any rock can be used for decoration.
Let's cover the terrarium and let it sit overnight for the peat moss to get moist.
I checked the terrarium the next day.
The top part of the peat moss layer is still dry.
Let's moist it more and let it sit one more night.
01:55 The next day I pick a couple dozen springtails from one of my old well established cultures.
You can pick springtails one by one using a soft brush.
Or simply shake them off from the feeding spot.
You can seed the new culture by splitting the medium of the old culture as well.
I keep 3 different strains of springtails in the same enclosures.
For this terrarium I separated Orange springtails one by one using a soft brush.
The terrarium is ready and seeded with Orange springtails on January 14th, 2024.
Let's feed springtails with a bit of cereal flake.
Also, I set up another terrarium in exactly the same way on the same day.
I feed springtails 3 times a week with cereal flakes or baker's yeast.
02:52 3 weeks later on February 8th I noticed a lot of Orange baby Springtails.
It was a pleasant surprise!
Usually it takes 3-4 months for the population of Orange springtails to grow.
Feeding spots are the best place for observing springtails.
03:23 In the following weeks I set up a couple more terrariums.
In the following months I've been transferring adult Orange springtails into new terrariums prepared in advance.
Using a soft brush is the easiest way to pick Orange springtails one by one.
And it takes a dozen or more springtails to establish a new colony.
03:46 I prefer Cheerios cereal for feeding my springtails.
It's odorless compared to any type of yeast.
One flake is enough for one feeding of about 10 cultures of this size.
And I feed Springtails only 3 times a week.
04:05 Overfeeding brings problems.
Mold is one of the most common problems that could destroy the terrarium with all springtails in it.
I will explain how I deal with mold in future videos.
Avoid growth of mold by feeding less - that's simple and the most effective.
3 months after the initial setup I added more tree bark.
Tree bark makes it easier transferring springtails into other containers.
04:39 5 months later in May 2024 I have more than a dozen cultures of Orange springtails you can see here.
Also, I keep White and Silver springtails in the same containers with Orange springtails.
Mix of three different species in each container.
Adult Orange springtails are the largest and the most noticeable among all.
All my terrariums and aquariums get only indirect sunlight from the window.
Orange Springtails are nice and simple to take care of pets.
Funny, moving around cheetos they are :)
Have fun and happy Springtails :)

[@rewhsrihusx5160]

Nice I was just about to start a new terrarium I need these things

[@4me]

You will enjoy them!!

[@Kat-qj6sl]

I’ve been looking forward to this video! I use a small paintbrush to move my freshly hatched caterpillars, but I never thought to try it with springtails. Thanks for the idea, it worked perfectly! 😁 Much easier than using a small spoon haha. I moved them into a jar just like the ones you’re using, I was worried because it doesn’t have air holes but after reading the comments you’ve written I feel better about it. Thanks for another great video 😊

[@4me]

Interestingly, initially I want to use a cover without holes to prevent white and silver springtails from sneaking into the jars with orange - they do it anyway 😂 I don’t really want to make fully enclosed terrariums. Feeding a couple times a week and occasionally adding or removing something is much more interesting to me.

[@Dane411]

It would be nice if you could link here to the video where you explain how you deal with the mould

[@4me]

The video is scheduled and already uploaded for publication on June 11th.

[@rgilroy1909]

no breathing holes in lids? please explain

[@4me]

You noticed it too! Great!! It's my first attempt on a building fully enclosed terrariums. I did it with aquariums years back in a plastic bottles - discovered some interesting effect related to internal air pressure. It actually steered me away from building fully enclosed aquariums. So, now I've been exploring the same possibility with terrariums - fully enclosed for days/weeks. So far the results looks good for extend of a couple days. I only open the small terrariums shown in this video for feeding (takes a couple minutes at a time0) springtails 3 times a week. The longest period between opening was 72 hours - enough to leave them for a long weekend 😉I think it would be safe to keep them closed for longer time in a larger sized jars. That's my side project. I am not sure if I would get time/space to test it any further. Definitely not this Summer. Anyway, I hope other people may find it useful.

[@gayefanner731]

Hiya Michael I was hoping for another video from you! Thank you! What a wealth of springtails you have ; you know exactly what they love and how to provide it, well done👌I suppose it’s taken forgranted that the lids are pierced? Maybe not as you’re feeding 3X per week.🤷🏼‍♀️ God bless you 🙏✝️. ✌️🇷🇺☮️🇺🇦✌️. 🙋‍♀️🤍🇮🇱✌️

[@gayefanner731]

Would fine ground coir be a reasonable substitute for peat? It’s virtually unobtainable here in England and probably in much of Europe, for conservation reasons ✌️

[@4me]

Hi there! I am glad to hear from you!! There are a couple things I forgot to mention in this video. One is about the lids as you noticed. I actually did not make any holes in the lids for this setup. All my previous terrariums had holes in the covers. This time I decided to check if it would work without the holes. I only open the jars for feeding. It takes 5-10 minutes or even less. 3 times a week. And it seems working well. It's my...side step project 🙂 I still experimenting with springtails - mostly toward using them for self-feeding aquariums - that is my primary project. And the other thing I did not mention is about breeding rate. Orange springtails breed much slower than the white and silver. This actually one of the reasons I consider orange springtails more as pets. They look very nice in terrariums, they don't jump. Nice pets, but not so much as a source of food for my fish (because of the slow breeding). I am more interested in silver springtails. Silver are smaller than orange, but larger than white springtails. Silver move fast, breed fast and...they seem to be feeding on variations of fungus that orange and white avoid. That's make them more desirable for my long term self-feeding projects.

[@4me]

I've never tried coir to tell you for sure. Though, I tried many other mediums for springtails and grindal worms. And I think springtails would be fine on coir. Coir is not much different from dried leaves or polyester foam I tried them a couple years back 😉✌✌

[@gayefanner731]

Dear Michael, I definitely did reply to your comprehensive and fascinating response to my comments, but on going back over your information just now I find no evidence, censored yet again! I wish I could remember exactly what I said, sometimes it takes me several goes at getting my messages through!! ✌️

[@4me]

KZbin has automated system in place for censoring comments and everything else - very annoying to me too!✌✌