Springtails on Clay Culture Medium

I’ve been culturing springtails for many years. They make a great live food and bioactive cleanup crew for a variety of small pets and enclosures. Culturing springtails on clay medium is gaining popularity, and Paul Foce of Frog Yeah sent me some of his clay medium. mix to try out with my springtails.

LINKS to springtail foods and supplies:

[melmicsim]

I use something similar from Houston Frogs called springtail chocolate. It's insane how quickly they multiply on clay.

[hal-c]

Nice, I've been meaning to give clay cultures a try. The main thing that's been preventing me from trying it is sourcing the ingredients for the clay mix. Just bought a bag of the FrogYeah premixed powder, will be setting up some cultures next weekend.

[creepygallery]

Very cool idea, going to have to try one of these my self.

[siyg]

“So, I got this mask!”

I don’t know why but I just burst out laughing there

[SupremeGecko]

Great video Rus. Great details!. I have one completely recorded, ready to so I will wait for a while with mine.

[sandysizemore]

Cool:)) I like the charcoal tho? I’ll be interested in updates on the clay culturing.

[connorwestgate]

that stem you got is a banana flower stem, its where bananas or plantains attach to the banana plant

[rattlerboi]

A homemade medium I find works better then charcoal (and is less maintenance) is wood chip and coco fiber! To set up you lair coco fiber on the bottom and top with a thick lair of wood chip or coco chip, mist daily and deeply till mold appears and then add your springtails!

[wcdeich]

Interesting. Someone said springtails need standing water at the bottom to reproduce, but the moist clay with no standing water seems to be working great for you :)

[Jeff-kxpo]

I might have to try this instead of charcoal...

[seizedcarcass]

Does it matter if it’s sodium or calcium clay? I was curious because if I added calcium to sodium clay I would imagine that would have the same properties but I have no idea

[timjung]

Other than greater ease of harvesting, what other advantages does clay provide? I would think that a pile of charcoal is better because it provides far more surface area.

[frankdughtank]

I Culture On Clay it’s Very Easy and Works Better in my opinion

[MAYHEMSCO]

Does the springtail clay also works for other springtail species? Like the thai reds or the florida yellows etc etc?

[Bleuxbyrd-hxgu]

How do you get the springtails out for tank distribution?

[missmaggie]

Do you have to mist the container to keep it hydrated? Is that how they get their hydration?

[susanagween]

You have mentioned pea powder. But the link is for pea powder protein. So it has to be the protein powder?

[henree_ii]

someone mind telling me what happens if bottled water is used instead of what is typically recommended?

[ScaryFear]

That seems really cool. Definitely easier. I'm new to spring tails and messed up with my first attempt. Does he have a website? I don't use facebook or instagram.

[bigfil]

I'm intrigued, does the clay stay maluble or dry out?