They seem to like high humidity. I don’t know if this is necessary but I also provide them a „dry side“ with some stones. In my bottle terrarium they usually dig themselves into the substrate and eat dead plants. Are you planning to feed them in your terrarium or are you just keeping them as a cleanup crew? In my experience they really like leaf litter, especially the younger ones. And your container should not be too small. Many keep their springtails in very small containers, but the orange springtails are slightly larger than the tropical whites. Overall I don’t think they are too complicated. Do you have experience with the tropical whites? It’s pretty similar in my opinion, they just don’t reproduce as fast. :)

@@glassyGREEN_ I've got some whites in container which is half the coir etc that they came in, and half charcoal, with distilled water at the bottom for moisture. Separated so the coir doesn't get too wet. I want to make a mixes colony but want them to have a nice and varied space like yours, with the ability to move them to terrariums i make. I guess i'll make a tub with a variety of areas including some leaf litter (i assume leaves i find in the garden and dry out are okay?), with some charcoal so I can move them to other terrariums. Do you think you can culture them in a terrarium with plants or would the light needed for the plants make them breed less?

Sounds great so far. You can use leave litter from outside, but it may contain unwanted critters or pests. Theoretically you can sterilize it with hot water or in the microwave or oven. But I have no experience with that, there is probably some information on the internet on how to properly sterilize stuff from the outside :) I've had great results with them in a terrarium. They seemed to be multiplying even fast than in their culture. So I wouldn't worry too much about the light. That was probably due to the plants in the terrarium. I feed my springtails mushrooms, but you can use other kitchen waste too. Just don't add too much that it molds. In theory, if you mix different springtail species, one could outperform the other by reproducing faster, so be careful with that :)

@@glassyGREEN_ Yeah I might keep them separate for the time being then, they all seem happy enough. sterilised the leaves in the oven on low for a bit so hopefully that works..thanks for all your help and good luck with the channel

@@birdswirl That sounds great. Have fun with your new pets, they are awesome. Thanks, I hope I could be of some help :)

Thank you :) I'll definitely do that, it's a lot of fun.

That is very interesting. Maybe you hit their sweet spot :) My colonies never exploded as fast as the tropical white springtail cultures

@glassyGREEN_ I think I may have done it on accident. I researched what springtails and isopods liked to eat, and what their environment should be. So I added some soft wood that would decay overtime, a charcoal layer under the soil I used and then plants/moss for added decaying matter. I think it might be the decaying wood + charcoal they like to lay eggs in and then the humidity that might be working? I had no idea they were a burrowing specie of springtail, so I completely stumbled into the right formula 💀 But yours look so happy and healthy! Its always a delight to see them thrive :]

That sounds great. :) Rotting wood always works for detrivors

That is a really good question. I actually have no idea how long this takes. The bigger they are the more they color up. But unfortunately I don’t know how long this takes :(

That is hard to say for me. I personally would always go for a more complex substrate compared to the charcoal cultures. It just offers a wider range of parameters for the animals even though the charcoal cultures are much easier to handle. Clay cultures are also great for many springtails species but I haven’t tested them yet.

@@glassyGREEN_ thanks for the late reply and that makes sense for sure we do whites on charcoal only because easier to seed terrariums with, i would do clay for selling colony’s and then maybe i’ll just do spghanm moss or soil for all other types as they will be “pets” more then custodians haha thanks for the info

I don’t know that exactly, sorry :( But according to my experience they prefer warmer temperatures.

This is how it starts. In a few weeks you will have a bug addiction and want to have the weirdest creatures 😂

@@glassyGREEN_i actually just got some orange (neanura growae) springtails in the mail today😂im going to be putting them in with a couple ivory millipedes

That looks like a great combination, awesome 😊

Danke :) Die sind leider echt meistens irgendwo im Substrat unterwegs. Welche Asseln hältst du?

@@glassyGREEN_ Armadillidium gestroi & ein paar aus dem Garten weiß ich ehrlich gesagt nichtmal welche sorte :D die halt ich aber in einem 2. Terrarium

@korthosen949 die sehen echt cool aus. Vermehren sich deine orangenen Springschwänze gut? Bei meinen ist die Temperatur leider etwas zu niedrig.

Thank you :) I really don’t like the standard charcoal cultures. Mine is nowhere near to the natural habitat but I think it is a little bit better.

Oh really? I never noticed that even though I watched so many videos about Leon

@@glassyGREEN_ Maybe why it appealed to you too. :)

Hi, thank you so much :) Yes, you can use them in terrariums as the clean up crew as long as it has high humidity. In my experience they are quite hardy but not as much as the regular tropical white springtails. They reproduce much slower and probably need higher temperatures. They will also get eaten much easier by larger animals because they are not able to jump.

That’s true. There are so many species you can feed with fish food that are not fish, it’s crazy :D

I never tried that but I think this might be possible. Maybe you can find some information about this in the springtail subreddit. They just breed much slower compared to the regular springtails.

I actually have some problems with nematodes right now. I will probably start a new culture soon. For me they are very slow breeding but accept most types of vegetables or fish food.

Thank you so much, that means a lot to me 😊

Yes, it looks so cute to see them walking around 😊

I haven’t tried that yet but I think that should work. :)

Hi, that is awesome. :) I don’t know a lot about tarantulas unfortunately, how high will your humidity be? They definitely prefer humid conditions. If the humidity is to low they probably burry deeper in the substrate. You can feed them any type of vegetable or fruit. I feed mine dried mushroom but it softens very quickly due to the high humidity in my container. I once read that they have sucking mouthparts so they probably prefer softer food.

@@glassyGREEN_ tarantula terrariums can vary some up 60 - 80% humidity some stay dry. Thx for the detailed response.

You are welcome :)

Thank you so much :)

That is a very good question. I have absolutely no idea. They seem to be active day and night but I can’t tell if individuums sleep during day or nighttime :)

@@glassyGREEN_ Alright! Thank you. :)

Thank you for your nice comment :)

Thank you so so much. That means a lot to me

You got orange springtails in your backyard? That is awesome

They are insects not critters.

They breed very slowly compared to the tropical white springtails. I've experimented a bit with different foods and found that spirulina, yeast and mushrooms work pretty well. But i don't feed them often to keep their numbers constant because i mainly use the tropical whites in terrariums. I don't know what exact number I started with, but it was a lot less than it is now. So the culture works quite good so far :) I like to experiment with different substrates because I really don’t like the typical charcoal cultures because in the wild they would be offered different substrates as well.

@glassyGREEN I've actually read that the charcoal method doesn't hardly work with orange sprintails. I'd say your setup is much more preferred at least for the oranges

That’s good to hear. They are actually not as easy to keep as the whites

I will definitely do that in the future. I especially like the rubber duckie isopods, they are so cute

That’s a good tip, thank you 😊 So far I had really good results with mushrooms and yeast. I will try fish flakes next :)

I mean rice is good. Just let it mold.

I actually haven’t tried that so far. It works great for the tropical whites, I have to test it with the orange :)